Depiction of Prophet Mohammed

Why do Muslims prohibit the depiction of the prophet Mohammed?

Is it stated in the Qur'an to do so? No? . . . Hmm. . . okay. So just to clarify, there is absolutely nowhere in the Qur'an that prohibits the prophet's depiction at all.

What about hadiths? Do any hadiths prohibit's the prophet's depiction? There are hadiths that strongly and greatly discourage pictures of anything, but don't directly state a ban on pictures of the prophet specifically. 

The idea behind it is that depicting the prophet would encourage idolatry while there is only one god to worship. Muslims don't get upset when they see a picture of someone and scream "sacrilege," so why would there be such a ban on pictures of the prophet? Now, the killings and general insanity sprees that extremist Muslims go on when someone writes something derogatory, draws a cartoon of the prophet in an offensive way, or makes an offensive video are because of the negative light the prophet is portrayed in. NOT at ALL an excuse to go crazy, but that's the reason, nonetheless.  

Let's put the facts together.

1. Depictions of the prophet (and people in general, if we're following hadiths) are prohibited to avoid idol worshiping of the people.

2. Extremist Muslims MURDER innocent people because the prophet is depicted in a negative light. 

If killing someone because they portrayed the prophet in a way you don't like makes you kind of a WORSHIPER OF MOHAMMED. People are dying - real live people are losing their lives because of a DEPICTION of the prophet. That sounds like crossing the line of admiration for a prophet and into the realm of obssession and worship of that person. And in Islam, idol worship is the worst! 

So what is more sinful to these lunatics? The worship of the prophet (as they obviously do) or depicting the prophet in a bad way? Are you following me, here?