My liberal wife and father take some issue with my position on the recent “unpleasantness” surrounding the publication of cartoons featuring unflattering images of Mohammed. The issue is not whether it was rude or disrespectful to render an image of Mohammed contrary to the alleged tenets of Islamic faith (although images have been created countless times over the centuries, including in the U.S. Supreme Court building). The issue is about the freedom to do so, and freedom of expression is one of the pillars of Western civilization. Perhaps my limited abilities as a writer prevented me from adequately articulating this point. Thankfully, Daniel Pipes precisely captures my thoughts in this regard:
The key issue at stake in the battle over the 12 Danish cartoons of the Muslim prophet Muhammad is this: Will the West stand up for its customs and mores, including freedom of speech, or will Muslims impose their way of life on the West? Ultimately, there is no compromise: Westerners will either retain their civilization, including the right to insult and blaspheme, or not.
More specifically, will Westerners accede to a double standard by which Muslims are free to insult Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism, while Muhammad, Islam, and Muslims enjoy immunity from insults? Muslims routinely publish cartoons far more offensive than the Danish ones. Are they entitled to dish it out while being insulated from similar indignities?
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The deeper issue here, however, is not Muslim hypocrisy but Islamic supremacism. The Danish editor who published the cartoons, Flemming Rose, explained that if Muslims insist “that I, as a non-Muslim, should submit to their taboos…they’re asking for my submission.”
Precisely.
Via PowerLine
Let’s say you walk into your office one day to discover that a coworker, who entertains the notion that he is a lady’s man, has scanned a picture of your daughter that he got off your desk and using the computer morphs her head onto a poster girl from Hustler wearing nothing but pearls legs spread wide. You are upset with this picture even though you know it is not a actual picture of your daughter because you feel it dishonors her and you. Your coworker removes the picture but tensions are high between you and talking to him about the situation just didn’t work. He thinks you are a prig and simply cannot see why you didn’t get the joke and at last resorts to making the freedom of speech argument. You don’t see that as a form of freedom of speech. A month goes by things don’t improve and then some of your other coworker’s side with coworker one because they think you are making too big a deal out of it. So they all morph your daughter’s head onto a variety of ponorgraphic pictures. They do this because you were so insistent that the first picture was an inaccurate protrayal of your daughter and what she is about that you refused to listen to their arguments that it was free speech at work and buddy you shouldn’t be so sensitive and you shouldn’t try to make them live by your values. Lie to yourself if you want to but I know you and I know you would cold cock someone if not two or three. You would yell in the scarey voice and turn all red and rip up the pictures and pop the first person who tried to stop you or got too mouthy. Of course you will not see any parallels because you don’t want to. You will foolishly come back and say that would be a type of sexual harassment and I’d sue the company if they didn’t take action. Yep it is not permitted in the workplace even though it might well be a community of perverts where it passed the standards of decency test. It is not permitted in the workplace because we undertand that sometimes there is a clash, a conflict of interest, between freedom of speech and decency, particularly if the depiction has the effect of causing harm such as a hostile work environment. You know we don’t usually need special rules and laws until some people become so pigheaded, so insensitive, so bigoted in their self-righteousness that they forget to use plain damn common sense.
What I would like to see are some examples of other religions being portrayed in a similar manner in the press of Muslim countries. I doubt for a minute that it exists, but I’d like to see it – and see it WIDELY publicized. So that those burning flags and embassies over this can get a small dose of reality.
and… remember a few years back the controversial “art†of a crucifix in a glass of urine? Part of the controversy was that it was paid for by federal funding, but also the treatment of religion.
The thing to remember; no violent riots, no buildings burned, etc. Not here, not in Europe, not in Latin America. Why not….?
Not done yet. Just had to take a break to be ill and no your post didn’t make me ill. I am just sick and consequently cranky, which probably explains why I find this whole thing so irritating. Just what in heck did these ignorant newspapers think was going to happen when they published these cartoons? Let’s see the cartoons protray Islam and Mohammad as vehicles of terrorism i.e., all Muslims are actually terrorists either full blown, in training, in the closet just waiting to reveal their true natures, what have you. So then muslims react in just the manner as portrayed. What did they think was going to happen???? What was the point? They could have published editorials to make their point. They published the cartoons to get a reaction and by golly they are getting it in spades. Reap what you sow! What have they accomplished? Absolutely nothing! Did they do it so they could point the finger and say “See! I told you so!” How childish is that? How stupid is that? The French spearheaded the whole thing that should tell you something.
John, John, John…You just don’t get it my son. Your mind is like a parachute…it just won’t work unless it’s open.
It seems to me that you right wingers are always guilty of what you accuse the liberals of. I don’t feel my freedom of speech is being threatend by the actions of the muslims. On the contrary,I felt more threatend by the right wing for being opposed to the war in Iraq. A traitor..a lover of the arabs..hater of America etc. BULL SHIT!
I thought I made it clear in my first comment…frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn…
To me it’s behaving like a virgin…A girl who makes a big issue over a little tissue.
…I forgot to mention this freedom of speech hypocracy…the n-word, nothing controversial about the jews and so on.
That’s the only thing that upsets me.
PLEASE DON’T BE HYPOCRITS
…forgive me for f’ing up the word hypocrisy.
Awsome… I guess the left is void of hypocrits, or is dear ol’ dad just being a HYPOCRIT?:twisted:
I would say what’s a few pics between friends,? but then we are not exactly “kissing cousins,” so I will not say it!
#8…I was speaking of the government…any government…and all politicians. I just don’t like hypocrisy…no matter where it comes from.
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