Adam Felber has a
damned funny (and damned offensive) piece on the offensensitivity issues underlying the Mohammed cartoon flap. If you're the sort who was offended by
my T-shirt reference on Bill's blog or my
Nativity scene reference in my own comments, you might want to pour yourself a stiff drink first.
I put in my own two cents in Adam's comments:
Clearly we’re living in a world where “diplomacy” is a four-letter word.
We need somebody to sit these two groups of kids down and explain the facts of life to them. In the one corner, some folks need to learn a lesson in politeness and respectfulness to others, and if you decide to ignore those basic considerations, you should expect repercussions. On the other hand, another group needs to realize that they cannot expect the rest of the world to act according to the rules they have chosen to apply to themslves.
Nobody’s coming out of this looking good. The cartoons, in my opinion, were an intentional provocation; they were not something that was done innocently and were later noticed by some people who then took offense. But the violent reactions they have provoked are out of proportion to any response that can be expected in the civilized world. Still, maybe that was the desired outcome. Some people just crave conflict.
Adam makes a more serious point in a comment to his own post:
Is it coincidence that these conspicuously right-wing bloggers are suddenly the biggest and best champions of Free Speech? And that they’re suddenly authorities on Islam who are sure that the cartoon can’t be THAT offensive?
So… a bunch of crazy mullahs are going to whip their people into a frenzy, the American right wing is suddenly going to cynically put on their ACLU badges so they can provoke the mullahs further, and we’re going to have a war touched off by a cartoon.
I can’t help feeling that the extremists have made the rest of us into suckers on this one.
As always, Adam gets a bunch of insightful comments from every side of this issue. Go read the whole thing
here.
Posts
3 comments:
I think it is pretty obvious that the extremes on both sides think they will benefit from conflict. There's always someone that benefits from fomenting discord and scapegoating. Unfortunately history is full of examples where people create all sorts of death and destruction by demonizing other people. That doesn't make us suckers, but it might make us victims of the greed and fear of others.
Too bad the rattle of Free Speech from the Right wasn't following innumerable efforts to silence liberals at home. (Oh wait, let me turn up Ann Coulter a little bit on the radio, she might be advocating poisoning another judge. I'm getting interference from Rush and Pat R. May be Sharon's due for another stroke. Of course, via the SOTU, we're not allowed to question past decision in Iraq. That's providing comfort to the enemy.)
Anyway, I still think it's good the Right is speaking out against violence. May be it'll leak over into other areas of their rhetoric. I also think they have a right to publish some pretty low quality cartoons, even if they are stupid and intended to pick a fight, the blood is on their hands and not ours.
The pictures were ridiculous.
Freedom of speech doesn't mean insulting someone's religion.
The prophet peace be upon him is dear to us. And as Muslims, we aren't allowed to meant to draw pictures of other prophets e.g. Jesus, Moses, Abraham, and we are not allowed to disrespect other religions.
Freedom of speech doesn't mean condoning the insult of someone's religion. And here, we clearly censor a wide variety of things deemed unacceptable to the community standards. It may be that insulting someone's religion violates that status (or perhaps some think it should).
I would certainly hope that we don't use the law to acheive that end, but that the expression of public outrage through peaceful means might be used to blunt the value of the use of those images. If that is not happening, then laws and violence probably won't help make it so.
I still do not believe that violence and rioting is a proper response either. Such responses will backfire in the long run and do not contribute to tolerance, if one believes they deserve tolerance. (Hopefully just as knowlingly publishing offensive religious images ultimately probably backfires too).
All that said, I can understand fully that Muslim's are offended. I don't condone them and I hope ultimately that the people of the world with figure out how to live together.
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