We continue to publish updates and different angles on the Danish cartoon story in Wednesday’s RNS report. Elizabeth Bryant in Paris reports that Europe’s Muslims are calmer about the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad than Muslims in other parts of the world: Nursing an almost empty cup of coffee in a cafe Wednesday (Feb. 8), Sebhi Mennad confessed he had not seen the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that have unleashed violence across Asia and the Middle East. The 55-year-old, gray-haired Algerian is not offended by the alleged blasphemy. But he does object to the way fellow Muslims in other parts of the world are not respecting European standards of taste and free speech. Mennad doesn’t speak for all of the estimated 15 million to 20 million Muslims living in Europe, but his attitude reflects what experts say is a unique culture and outlook among Muslims living here. Despite pockets of outrage, these experts say, the vast chunk of Europe’s Muslim community is either indifferent to the caricatures or at least reconciled to the right of free expression, however offensive.

Our correspondent in London, Al Webb, reports that British Muslims are seeking a legal change to ban disrespectful images of Muhammad from being printed: Hundreds of Islamic religious leaders in emergency talks Wednesday called for changes in the law to stop “insulting” caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, which already have been printed in continental Europe, from being published in Britain. The meeting, called by the Muslim Action Committee, demanded that the code of Britain’s powerful Press Complaints Commission be tightened to bar British newspapers and magazines from following Danish and French media in printing the images. MAC spokesman Faiz Saddiqi told journalists that some 20,000 to 50,000 Muslim protesters are expected to signal their continuing outrage in a march across the heart of London, from Trafalgar Square to Hyde Park, on Feb. 18. Some 300 Muslim scholars at the Birmingham talks also urged that Britain’s Race Relations Act be strengthened to give Muslims the same rights as Jews and Sikhs-an issue which has long been a bone of contention in the nation’s Islamic community.

Evangelicals have launched a campaign against global warming, writes Adelle M. Banks in Washington: Warning of millions of potential deaths worldwide from climate change, a new network of evangelical leaders launched a campaign Wednesday (Feb. 8) for government and grass-roots action to reduce global warming. “Climate change is the latest evidence of our failure to exercise proper stewardship and constitutes a critical opportunity for us to do better,” reads the document from the Evangelical Climate Initiative, led by the Rev. Rick Warren and others. The latest venture combining evangelicalism and the environment shows that a critical mass is seeking to take action on the issue even as other evangelicals differ with them on how-or whether-to address climate change.

Authorities are widening their investigation of recent church fires in Alabama, write Carol Robinson and Tom Gordon from Birmingham: Drawing 50 more federal agents to an investigative force already 150 strong, authorities have widened their investigation of a string of Alabama church fires after two more were destroyed and two others damaged Tuesday (Feb. 7). Teams of federal, state and county officers are trying to solve a disturbing puzzle: Who is targeting rural churches rich in history, some dating to Reconstruction? Five churches were set on fire in Bibb County last week. “It looks like they’re all linked,” Jim Cavanaugh, regional director of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said Tuesday. “We’ve got copycat on the radar, but we don’t think that’s what this is.”

Armless guitar player Tony Melendez has released a new CD, Mike Karnak writes: Becoming a professional guitar player is no easy task, especially for Tony Melendez. It takes practice and dedication, which Melendez developed. It also takes a certain amount of God-given talent, which Melendez was born with. What Melendez wasn’t born with were arms. Despite the impediment, the rhythm guitar player and lead vocalist has toured all over the world with his band, even playing for the late Pope John Paul II. Although many may think it’s strange for a man to take up playing the guitar with his feet, Melendez insists he was simply adapting to what he had been given. He has toured 33 countries and has his seventh album out, “I Want to Lift My Feet Up High.” The album is his first to be recorded in both Spanish and English.