Your Taboo, Not Mine

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

The iconic image of last week was in the Gaza Strip. It was of a Palestinian gunman astride the local office of the European Union. All the diplomatic staff had fled, tipped off ahead of time. The source of the militant's ire? A series of satirical cartoons originally published in Denmark. Yes, cartoons.

A Danish paper, a while back, had commissioned a set of cartoons depicting the fear that many writers and artists in Europe feel when dealing with the subject of Islam. To Western eyes, the cartoons were not in any way remarkable. In fact, they were rather tame. One showed Muhammad with his turban depicted as a bomb--not exactly a fresh image to describe Islamic terrorism. Another used a simple graphic device: it showed Muhammad surrounded by two women in full Muslim garb, their eyes peering out from an oblong space in their black chadors. And on Muhammad's face there was an oblong too, blacking out his eyes. The point was that Islam has a blind spot when it comes to women's freedom. Crude but powerful: exactly what a political cartoon is supposed to be.

The result was an astonishing uproar in the Muslim world, one of those revealing moments when the gulf between our world and theirs seems unbridgeable. Boycotts of European goods are in force; demonstrators in London held up signs proclaiming EXTERMINATE THOSE WHO MOCK ISLAM and BE PREPARED FOR THE REAL HOLOCAUST; the editor of the French newspaper France-Soir was fired for reprinting the drawings; Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the publication; and protesters set fire to the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus. The Egyptian ambassador to Denmark expressed disbelief that the government would not prevent further reprinting. Freedom of the press, the Egyptian explained, "means the whole story will continue and that we are back to square one again. The government of Denmark has to do something to appease the Muslim world."

Excuse me? In fact, the opposite is the case. The Muslim world needs to do something to appease the West. Since Ayatullah Khomeini declared a death sentence against Salman Rushdie for how he depicted Muhammad in his book The Satanic Verses, Islamic radicals have been essentially threatening the free discussion of their religion and politics in the West. Rushdie escaped with his life. But Pim Fortuyn, a Dutch politician who stood up against Muslim immigrant hostility to equality for women and gays, was murdered on the street. Theo van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker who offended strict Muslims, was killed thereafter. Several other Dutch politicians who have dared to criticize the intolerance of many Muslims live with police protection.

Muslim leaders say the cartoons are not just offensive. They're blasphemy--the mother of all offenses. That's because Islam forbids any visual depiction of the Prophet, even benign ones. Should non-Muslims respect this taboo? I see no reason why. You can respect a religion without honoring its taboos. I eat pork, and I'm not an anti-Semite. As a Catholic, I don't expect atheists to genuflect before an altar. If violating a taboo is necessary to illustrate a political point, then the call is an easy one. Freedom means learning to deal with being offended.

Blasphemy, after all, is commonplace in the West. In America, Christians have become accustomed to artists' offending their religious symbols. They can protest, and cut off public funding--but the right of the individual to say or depict offensive messages or symbols is not really in dispute. Blasphemy, moreover, is common in the Muslim world, and sanctioned by Arab governments. The Arab media run cartoons depicting Jews and the symbols of the Jewish faith with imagery indistinguishable from that used in the Third Reich. But I have yet to see Jews or Israelis threaten the lives of Muslims because of it.

And there is, of course, the other blasphemy. It occurred on Sept. 11, 2001, when fanatics murdered thousands of innocents in the name of Islam. Surely, nothing could be more blasphemous. So where were the Muslim boycotts of Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan after that horrifying event? Since 9/11 mosques have been bombed in Iraq by Islamic terrorists. Where was the rioting condemning attacks on the holiest of shrines? These double standards reveal something quite clear: this call for "sensitivity" is primarily a cover for intolerance of others and intimidation of free people.

Yes, there's no reason to offend people of any faith arbitrarily. We owe all faiths respect. But the Danish cartoons were not arbitrarily offensive. They were designed to reveal Islamic intolerance--and they have now done so, in abundance. The West's principles are clear enough. Tolerance? Yes. Faith? Absolutely. Freedom of speech? Nonnegotiable.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...56609-2,00.html

[ChristinaM 0]

Interesting. Very, very interesting. Thank you for posting this one.

[rebeccajo 14]

Think that will get Sullivan put on the Author'####### List?

[Kez/JWolf 6]

Thank you for a very good post...... and yes I agree... many many horrible things are done in the name of Islam, including the slitting of innocent victims throats on video.... in my mind any religion that condones and encourages that sort of acts does not deserve respect....

Let freedom of speech rule.....

Kezzie

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Think that will get Sullivan put on the Author'####### List?

Maybe he aspires to be the Gay Rushdie of our times.

[junglee069 0]

too many words in that article - can i get it with pictures, or cliffnotes?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

too many words in that article - can i get it with pictures, or cliffnotes?

How about cartoons?

j/k.

[junglee069 0]

too many words in that article - can i get it with pictures, or cliffnotes?

How about cartoons?

j/k.

that works, just make sure they aren't religiously offensive or i'll have to come up to the east coast (jersey) and torch you....really. i swear. no kidding.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

too many words in that article - can i get it with pictures, or cliffnotes?

How about cartoons?

j/k.

that works, just make sure they aren't religiously offensive or i'll have to come up to the east coast (jersey) and torch you....really. i swear. no kidding.

Ok, you scared me into submission

[junglee069 0]

too many words in that article - can i get it with pictures, or cliffnotes?

How about cartoons?

j/k.

that works, just make sure they aren't religiously offensive or i'll have to come up to the east coast (jersey) and torch you....really. i swear. no kidding.

Ok, you scared me into submission

my work here is done. next.

Edited February 6, 2006 by junglee069

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Excellently put.

Let freedom of speech rule in our lands and let the intolerant haters expose themselves for what they really are!

[pedroh 21]

very good text...

time to put a stop to the savages

[mawilson 2,133]

So Dubya was right all along, when he was talking about the clash of civilizations?

[junglee069 0]

So Dubya was right all along, when he was talking about the clash of civilizations?

it's a self created clash of civiliazations, profiting the defense industries here, and diverting attention from the problems at hand the repressive regions of that area have created for their people. ofcourse these countries would rather have their people rioting about some random cartoonist half way across than planet then rioting about the how their own governments suck.

i'm sick and tired of this #######. someone needs to put an end to it. now.

[Jaylen Brit 0]

Tony Parsons Speaks

This is another articl published in the UK's 'daily Mirror' newspaper today

I'll copy n paste in case the link gets old fast:

ISLAM IS OFFENDED .. WELL, SO ARE WE

Tony Parsons

THE trouble with the West is that we have forgotten that some things are sacred.

We find it so difficult to comprehend the reaction of the Muslim world to that ham-fisted Danish cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a terrorist because our churches stand empty, our faith is weak and our God has left the building.

The idea that this is still a Christian country is laughable. We may haul in the local vicar for weddings and funerals, but that's about it. We worship our idols -celebrity and money, the sex lives of the rich and famous - but the Good Book is about as relevant to most of our lives as the ration book.

Christianity is widely mocked. The feeble humour of the Jerry Springer opera whipped up some half-hearted controversy, but nobody really cared beyond a few Bible-bashers considered to be humourless spoilsports.

Once this was a Christian country, back when we were all singing two hymns a day at school and fretting about burning in hell for our sins.

When I was a child, we could all chant the Lord's Prayer by heart. Do the Vicky Pollards of today know the Lord's Prayer? Can't see it, myself. So I feel an instinctive sympathy for Muslims who still hold to the belief that there is such a thing as blasphemy.

The Muslim community say that those puerile Danish cartoons should not have been printed, and they are right. It would not have been censorship or the curtailment of free speech to not print (and reprint) the offending cartoon. It would have been basic human decency. It would have been cultural restraint at a time when tension between the West and the Muslim world is higher than it has been for centuries.

I have read a number of commentators say that they would "defend to the death" the right of some crappy little Danish paper to print their nasty little cartoons.

But if I am going to die for a cause, then it is going to be a better one than the right of some Scandy cartoonist to print offensive rubbish.

If we are going to argue with Muslims, then let it be about something worthwhile.

The attitude of Islam to women. The attitude of Islam to gays. The attitude of Islam to Israel, which is routinely threatened with extermination by everyone from Hamas to the leader of Iran to mad mullahs with spit on their beards in Finsbury Park.

Printing that cartoon was supremely stupid. Muslims have a right to live their lives without seeing their religion vilified in a way that is designed to cause hurt, anger and offence.

What Muslims should never have the right to do is what they did on the streets of London on Friday. Around 500 demonstrators marched from the Regent's Park mosque to the Danish embassy, carrying the most sickening placards I have ever seen in my life.

On the streets of the city where Londoners were murdered and maimed on July 7, the pinhead protesters carried slogans boasting: "Europe, you'll come crawling when mujahideen come roaring" and "Behead those who insult Islam". On the same streets where four terrorists committed mass murder, a placard gloated: "Europe you will pay - fantastic 4 are on their way".

A toddler, 20-month-old Farisa Jihad, was dressed by some moronic adult in a hat that sneered: "I love Al-Qaida".

And they got away with it. Nobody was arrested for these sickening incitements to murder. Nobody was charged for spewing slogans of hate that gloated about the dead and broken bodies of July 7.

And that offends me. That offends me to the core of my being.

Responsible Muslim leaders have already condemned the appalling placards. But it happened. And I can't think of any thing more likely to create real loathing for Muslims. I can't think of anything more likely to make the BNP a real force in British politics.

I can't think of anything more likely to make the average British citizen - whatever his colour - ask: Whose country is it anyway?

MUSLIMS deserve the respect accorded to all our people. They take their religion infinitely more seriously than we do, and we should understand that. And if they want to burn down a few empty Scandinavian embassies in Syria because of crass depictions of the Prophet Mohammed, then personally I couldn't care less.

But when someone starts carrying placards in my city gloating about 9/11 and 7/7, when men with big mouths start promising death and destruction, when you tell us that we will be massacred if we offend you, then our tolerance is pushed to breaking-point. Muslims deserve to have their faith respected.

But if they want a Muslim country, then perhaps they should go and live in one.

(copyright Tony Parsons/Daily Mirror 2006)