Lebanese protesters torch Danish Embassy

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

One can hope...

the means chosen by the dane were wrong - however i highly doubt his intention was to use the prophet's caricature to invoke the wrath of fanatical muslims. his intention was to portray what he saw to be reality. that reality is and was created by muslims. we've GIVEN him the ammunition - when he's firing it off, we surely can't be surprised.

i'm not defending the dane - but what he has done pales in comparison to what the muslims have done to themselves. besides, we've got bigger fish to fry - the muslim world is plagued with issues - corruption, nepotism, feudal wars, ignorance, illeteracy (both in religious and wordly affairs), lack of democratic institutions, unemployment, famine, floods, earthquakes, disease, tsunamis, oppressive kingdoms-regimes-pretend democracies, the palistinean issue, honor killings, terrorism, suicide bombers, ethnic rivalries, clashing islamic sects, iran's nuclear fiasco, .......god i could be here all night .......

had we as a community spent half the energies we've collectively spent engaging the cartoons - surely we could have made headway with one of the millions of issues we have.......

and now that the damage has been done - let's say the dane comes out and cries us a river begging for forgiveness, and all the western leaders of the world have a big old round table conference and sign a pact swearing to never defame, insult, depict, or refer to in a negative light (the prophet, pbuh) and promise to publicly tar and feather anyone that does (sarcasm) - right after they do that, guess what - we still have all the above issues to deal with. nothing changes. we're still the ugly monster that refused to believe what he saw in the mirror ........but now we've taken away the mirror.

Exactly. You don't like the way the message was sent. But you moved beyond that and actually analyzed the message instead of solely harboring ill feelings towards the messenger. As I said earlier:

I do understand the respect part of it. But I break your taboos every day. And I break other's taboos every day. (When I pass that Amish buggy with my car, I demonstrate to them that I break their taboo). And I do so openly. And I don't feel bad about it. Nor should I. Nor should you want me to. That's what an open society is. Live and let live - according to your preferences and mine yet within an agreed upon set of basic rules - the law. You break my taboos, too. Openly. And that's your right. I might be offended by that from time to time. But it's still your right and I don't want to take it from you.

The look in the mirror, as junglee said, I think is what hurts. Not your personal mirror. But the mirror of the community that you are a part of. There are very bad elements in your community. Not that you want them there or condone or encourage their behavior. But they're there nonetheless. That's what you need to deal with: The source of the problem. The cartoons are but a symptom that will disappear (or never would have appeared to begin with) once the cause is cured. That's something that you need to do from within.

I am offended by many in the world daily because there are parts of my community that are an embarrassment to me and all of us. But I ain't going to hold the messenger responsible for telling me that. Or for the way he chooses to communicate it to me. Maybe it takes an offensive approach for me to really look into that mirror and ask myself the questions I should have asked myself for a long time. And maybe it doesn't and the messenger just thought it did for one reason or another. Either way, I shall listen to the message and see why the messenger felt it appropriate to send it in the first place...

I think we're on the same page...

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

.......if you've made it this far, thank you for reading. and flame away.

No, thank you. That was good reading. You'll get no flames from me. At least not today

[almaty 19]

.......if you've made it this far, thank you for reading. and flame away.

No, thank you. That was good reading. You'll get no flames from me. At least not today

[chri'stina 190]

Islam forbids visual depictions of the prophet, and regards violations by Muslims as highly sinful and by non-Muslims as the ultimate sort of insult.

see it as an insult..the same as a christian would regarding a defamation of christ

Does the Bible specifically speak to conduct by non-Christians? Does the Quran really speak to conduct by non-Muslims or is that just a non-textual interpretation?

In the New Testament:

Jesus said love your enemies, if someone hits you, don't hit back, if someone curses you, bless them....also he said "The world hated me, it will also hate you..", but not to hate back. He many times said that if the world doesn't like you, don't be surprised, but always try to be a good example, and also the bible says that we don't war against flesh or people around us but agaisnt the spiritual side of the world.

Of course Christians don't always do those things, but that is what Christians are supposed to do.

(if someone said the same stuff already, sorry I didn't read the rest of the thread yet, I just wanted to reply to this, I will read the rest now)

While I would maybe be sad at the defamation of Christ, I wouldn't be too surprised since he was crucified pretty severly already and it's obvious a lot of people don't like him. I would try not to hate anyone who said something rude or nasty about Jesus, instead I would pray that they wouldn't feel that way anymore. Of course Christians don't always do that either, but that is the ideal in Christianity.

I also think you wrote some good stuff there, junglee

Edited February 10, 2006 by stina&suj