Culture of shame vs. culture of guilt

I spend a lot of thought cycles trying to understand just why some people believe the things they do or behave certain ways. For example, I try to imagine just what is going through the heads of today's liberal anti-war American. I try to keep up with what they say and do and I am interested in their opinions and reactions - all in an effort to reach a better understanding and perhaps even empathy. For this example, I have a few theories but for the most part am quite mystified by such things as Bush Derangement Syndrome.

The big question these days is just what is happening in the Muslim world with regard to those cartoons of Muhammad. Via Glenn Reynolds, I found this post by Dr. Sanity on the psychologies on SHAME, GUILT, THE MUSLIM PSYCHE, AND THE DANISH CARTOONS, whose thesis is basically,

Islam has absorbed the dominant features of a "shame culture" from its Arab and tribal roots; while the West has become a "guilt culture".

An interesting read, complete with tables predicting particular shame/guilt behavoirs in each culture. (Disclaimer: I tend to believe that psychology is just barely a science - if at all. So I take this with a few grains of sodium nitrate. But it does help in understanding.)

Some key 'grafs:

SHAME MUST BE AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS. Everything else is secondary. Contradictions are irrelevant; logic and reason unimportant. HONOR MUST BE RESTORED, and this can only be done at the expense of those who originated the "insult".
[...]
For most shame societies, even the mildest insult must be avenged with death, because now everyone knows that you have been insulted, and without the death (or blood) to wipe it out, honor cannot be restored.

If true, this would explain a lot of what we're seeing and hearing among Muslims lately.
And regarding us:

Meanwhile, in our guilt culture, we obsess about how we might have hurt their feelings and some of us (not me) actually desire to make amends and apologize. This is laudable and very sensitive. It underscores the sense of tolerance that has evolved within Western culture. However well-meaning, IT WILL NOT WORK , particularly in the long-run. Making an apology for having "shamed" someone in such a culture is merely a sign of weakness from their perspective (since you are shaming yourself by admitting guilt), and hence only escalates the self-righteousness and demands that follow; and it does not ameliorate the next insult when it inevitably (and usually unintentionally) comes.

When you hear about "liberal guilt," this is the danger involved - and why Democrats cannot be trusted with foreign policy these days. This also makes for an excellent rational for the tough policies that Bush and Sharon have pushed the last few years.