westwoody said:
It is frustrating that nobody actually seems to discuss the cartoons themselves. Never mind trying to change the subject by asking what Christians think about whatever-as if every single Christian is going to have the same opinion. Instead of discussing the cartoons some Iranians want to create cartoons about the Holocaust. They are afraid of debating the issue.
Let's go through them 1 to 12 and discuss them. Unless you are afraid to.
And Makhno did post them above, and a number of you evaluated them for their offensiveness to Muslims. How very kind of you guys!
I'm in no support of physical violence in their protests, for the cartoons themselves were not a physically violent act. In fact, the violence ought to be shunned by all governments.
However, leading Muslims DID discuss why they found the cartoons offensive. I might add that people like you, who may have heard their reasons, rejected them altogether. In the Shariah, the law book derived from the Koran, it is stated that any attempt to create an image of Mohammed is blasphemy. To add further insult to this, these weren't just faithful reproductions, but mocking images.
Some people in this world take religion very seriously. I name the Catholics in Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and most of South America among them. The Buddhists in Tibet, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia are also among them. Religion is the very basis upon which cultures of these people is formed. In Canada and the United States, Christianity is and continues to be the basis upon which laws and notions about Justice are created. Christianity is the base reason for why women have equal rights, why all men regardless of race or creed are "created equal", why children are considered innocent and ought to be free from adulteration, and we have laws that reflect these principles. Religion is the very fabric of most cultures today.
When journalists knowingly blaspheme and mock the religion of others, it is a terrible abuse of an entire culture of people. It's as bad as a racism. If people get upset about this, they are certainly right and the journalists are absolutely wrong.
Now some of you go and make faulty statements about how Muslims "should" have been outraged about 911, how they treat their women, etc. In your eyes they are worse than these cartoons. But who are you to judge the rightful damage these cartoons cause?? Who are you to judge that 911 should have been condemned by Muslims - did you overlook the centuries of violence against Muslims by Britain and the US? Who are you to decide that another culture's role for women is wrong - did it ever occur to you that your sense of equality makes little sense in a different context? And do the so-called "wrongs" of Muslims somehow absolve the wrongs of journalists?
It is true that extremists are using this for their own ends. It is sad, but extremists of all religions use anything they can get their hands on to further their warped causes. What is really sickening is that Journalists, who think they are so intelligent by parading their "freedom of expression", played directly into the hands of the lunatic extremists. The Journalists have in fact created more instability in a tenuous situation. And furthermore, idiots (ie: most of the population) are caught up in what the Journalists have done and are now pointing out how bad Muslims are, what a stupid religion they have, and wanting to tell them all to fuck off. It's surprising to me that this board allows such comments. When I once sardonically stated that all Jews should be killed (I was mocking an anti-semite), I got banned. Talk about a double standard.
On this issue, let's stick with who fired the first shot. To the victims, it was a cannon ball, not a bb-pellet. The response was extreme, but so was the first shot. If you want to talk about who was wrong, you ought to focussing on the actions offender first, not the victim.
