Ciao!

P-p-p-poor P-p-p-piglet.

But seriously -- I agree with you, Miguel. I think that censoring things just because they might offend one group is really dangerous and is venturing into the territory of being on thin ice. If you start doing that, the slope is so slippery that pretty soon, the media wouldn't be able to report about *anything* because it might, maybe, possibly, potentially offend someone, and the whole establishment will go sliding headlong down that slippery slope.

There's a difference between being sensitive to other cultures/races/religions, not being bigoted or prejudiced, and, well, this.

And if the cartoons are so offensive, why are they being distributed (along w/ fake, more offensive ones) by a group of Danish Muslims in order to stir up outrage. For example, a Jordanian newspaper just published the same cartoons, in order to stir up anger against the Danish newspaper that published them.

WORD. Just...yeah. You nailed it there. I'm going to stop commenting now becuase this comment is already long enough.

I read this at Reuters:

"Early Friday, Palestinian militants threw a bomb at a French cultural center in Gaza City, and many Palestinians began boycotting European goods, especially those from Denmark.

"Whoever defames our prophet should be executed," said Ismail Hassan, 37, a tailor who marched through the pouring rain along with hundreds of others in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

"Bin Laden our beloved, Denmark must be blown up," protesters in Ramallah chanted.

In mosques throughout Palestinian cities, clerics condemned the cartoons. An imam at the Omari Mosque in Gaza City told 9,000 worshippers that those behind the drawings should have their heads cut off.

"If they want a war of religions, we are ready," Hassan Sharaf, an imam in Nablus, said in his sermon.

About 10,000 demonstrators, including gunmen from the Islamic militant group Hamas firing in the air, marched through Gaza City to the Palestinian legislature, where they climbed on the roof, waving green Hamas banners.

"We are ready to redeem you with our souls and our blood our beloved prophet," they chanted. "Down, Down Denmark."

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Conservative muslims are galvanizing under things like this, looking for a fight. They're a disenfranchised minority with a burning sense of indignation, with a cultural memory that treats the crusades like they happened just yesterday.

I think that to conservative muslims the war in Iraq and Afganistan, these cartoons, Israel, &tc. - all spell empowerment and an Islamic revolution, leading to some sort of religious war with the haram, infidelic west, and the ultimate victory of their faith.

An Israeli friend of mine recently commented that Islam is a religion of war, which obviously goes to far, but sometimes I wonder ...

t-t-t-t-thanks, Miguel!

Sometimes I think the same people who fought the silly fight against the "War on Christmas" have Muslim relatives abroad who go picking fights on other similarly silly issues.

Clearly, these protestors need to look up the definition of the word "cartoon" and its place in modern society. These protestors, especially the ones living in Western society need to realize they are citizens in a democracy and free speech is part of the package.

Having seen all of these cartoons, I don't think the artists treated Muhammed any worse than Jesus, Budda, Shiva, Jehovah, Moses, etc. If anything, Muhammed has gotten off easy while these other icons have been featured many times.

Tom,
As far as Islam being a religion of war, your Israeli friend obviously overlooked the hunger of believers from all religions (with the possible exception of Buddism) for a little violence in "service" of their respectives god(s). Ask your friend about the biblical stories of the Jews carrying the Ark of the Covenant into battle, some might say that would be the mark of a religion of war.

Patrick:

Yes, I think there's a great deal of hypocrisy concerning the "outrage" at the cartoons. Not only where the cartoons not all that offensive (when compared to similar treatments of other religions, including cartoon treatments of Christians/Jews in Muslim newspapers), they wouldn't have been so widely distributed had not radical Danish Muslims travelled the globe showing them (and three non-published & much more offensive cartoons).

As for the comment on Islam being a religion of war. I know this isn't popular, but I think there's a strong element of warmaking in Islam. Certainly it was present in other religions at various times, too. But recently, the "public" face of Islam has become much more violent. I keep wondering where all the silent moderate Muslims (who I suspect are the majority of Muslims) are. Or are they, too, cowed by fear of reprisals if they speak out against people who equate Islam w/ jihad & violent acts against "infidels"? If so, that speaks to a wider problem. Christians & Jews have had their share of violent fanatics, but these are no longer the dominant "public" face of the religions. Certainly in the West we don't see Christian priests or ministers calling for a cleansing crusade to spread the faith through the sword (if so, Christian leaders flock to distance themselves from the cooks). This might not be true of some elements of Judaism in Israel, of course. But we see a powerful peace movement there, too.

Where is the peace movement in Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia? Where are the people who march against women's oppression? Or for the rights of minorities? This speaks to the crucial problem. It seems evident that a collusion of radical religious leaders combined w/ authoritarian dictators are reguarly finding ways to fan the flames of anti-Western hatred in order to deflect themselves from criticism or responsibility for their societies' problems.

I definitely agree. As just one example, the Israelis and Jewish people in general have had to endure far more humiliating and insulting cartoons than the ones in these Danish papers. Muslims who support violent acts to protest these cartoons are silly, misguided fools who need serious help.

You mentioned the Danish Muslim leader who extended this issue, I heard him on NPR this morning. When asked why he included other cartoons in his pamphlet and descriptions of this issue, he obfuscated and said these “extra” cartoons came from “intimidating letters” sent to Muslims and were included to show the overall tone of the Danish to Muslim relationship. I thought it was highly irresponsible of this person and the Danes should think about prosecuting him for inciting riots.

On Islam being a religion of war. I still think this is just a matter of perception. In my view, throughout history and even up until the present Christianity has been a far more dangerous and warlike religion. Obviously, the Crusades are included, but also the rhetoric of the Cold War—where good Americans (who were nearly all Christians) were taught to hate the “godless Communists.”(by the way two overwhelmingly Christian nations, Russia and US, still have the ability to completely destroy the world with nuclear weapons)

And today, President Bush along with many of his supporters has used the rhetoric of a holy war, saying things like the war on terror is some kind of crusade. Bush himself fits into this idea of Christianity being highly warlike, in the 2000 campaign he listed his favorite philosopher as Jesus Christ. This same man then embarks on an invasion of another country—whether it was justified or not. Therefore, it seems to me that the idea of a self-professed born-again Christian whose favorite philosopher is Christ going to war AND espousing the rhetoric of “an endless war” ties Christianity fairly closely to a supposed warlike faith.

But I do agree, the way the world appears right now, Muslims appear to be the ones inciting violence and cutting people’s heads off to satisfy their god. Rather than looking at this as a case of a religion of war, how about viewing it as an oppressed people attempting to use a common bond to throw off oppressors, perceived or real? To many of the Muslims, moderate or radical, I am sure the world today does not appear a welcoming place. The US has obviously become a much less welcoming place, detaining Muslim-Americans who have done nothing, fingerprinting only those people from Muslim countries who enter the US, and holding Muslims in secret and not-so secret prisons. Europe has also become less welcoming, in part due to radical Muslims, but I am sure some of this is a racist reaction to a perceived threat from these “outsiders.”

Moderate Muslims. I think you may be right, many of these moderates, who would never support violence are staying low right now. The squeaky Muslims are getting the grease right now, and those moderates who should be leaders are either silenced, misinterpreted by the West, or unable to engage their fellow Muslims who are following the more public and violent-minded leaders. In order to stop this cycle of violence between the West and Islam, the West needs to encourage these moderates to come out and speak up. Unfortunately, the leaders in the West don’t seem capable of that—and public opinion in Europe and the US is starting to give less room for political movement on this issue.

My biggest fear is that when another terrorist attack happens in the US, all the ideas that were thought of for controlling the domestic Muslim population will become a reality because US public opinion will simply lump all Muslims into the pool of dangerous people with a warlike religion. If you remember, after 9-11 there were several hate-crimes throughout the country (one was even on a Sikh, some morons think all turbans are the same) and the FBI conducted “voluntary” mass interviews throughout the country. I remember talking to many people at work (in liberal Cambridge) and many of them thought we should just round up all the Muslims and send them home.

Imagine what could happen after another al-Qaeda attack, when the FBI decides to conduct massive involuntary interviews with young Muslim men. In another war, the US decided to round up the entire population of “others” and put them in internment camps simply because their features matched those of an enemy. How awful would it be if the US decided to repeat that despicable act again, except this time there is no possibility of VJ Day, according to Bush the war we are in now has no end.