Happy “Everybody Draw Mohammed” Day.

iSlam Muhammad apparently depicted images of the prophet Muhammad (forbidden by Islam) and outlined disturbing passages from the Qur’an. It’s surprisingly similar to BibleThumper, a Christian-bashing app that remains in the App Store…

What’s disappointing is that this points out Apple’s lack of consistency in approval of apps, as well as their inability to provide recourse to developers who have had apps rejected for seemingly weak reasons.

Yes, the BibleThumper app really does exist, although if there’s an uproar over the double standard here, Apple will likely cave and pull that from the app store too in order to be “evenhanded.” Which is precisely the wrong outcome insofar as it further rewards intimidation by expanding the zone of religious criticism that’s off-limits. That’s a potentially powerful weapon for Islamic zealots, as some believers of other faiths — not all or even most, but some — will take a free ride and applaud businesses for showing greater “respect” for religion by limiting attacks on it. Respect has nothing to do with it, of course; fear is the engine here. But some, in the interests of shielding their preferred belief system, will be happy to pretend.

There’s no way to prove that this audio is what it purports to be, but The Unofficial Apple Weblog appears to be a reputable site and if the clip is bogus, the guy who made it is presumably looking at a heck of a libel suit. Fantastically depressing.