Sunday, February 05, 2006
Prophet Cartoons Incite Riots
The polarization of Western vs. Muslim culture came to task again recently when a few European newspapers republished cartoons from a Danish newspaper depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Perhaps ironically the cartoons were actually published last year. A quick search doesn't turn up to much and I'm not sure if that's because of the noise of the news of it or because of the fear of backlash at this point. One cartoon apparently shows the prophet telling his people to stop sending suicide bombers 'cause heaven in running out of virgins while another depicts him with a bomb for a turban.
There's been lots, well tons, of commentary on whether this was a good idea or not and whether this represents racism or a hate crime of some sort. I think this was inevitable and it will go a long way on supporting integration of the two cultures. Orrrrr, it's another example where oil and water just can't mix and violence is inevitable. So far it's a bit of both but the violence makes better press so that's 99% of what we read and see. A small group of muslims have supported the newspapers right to publish. I personally find the whole thing ludicrous but disturbing.
The polarization of Western vs. Muslim culture came to task again recently when a few European newspapers republished cartoons from a Danish newspaper depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Perhaps ironically the cartoons were actually published last year. A quick search doesn't turn up to much and I'm not sure if that's because of the noise of the news of it or because of the fear of backlash at this point. One cartoon apparently shows the prophet telling his people to stop sending suicide bombers 'cause heaven in running out of virgins while another depicts him with a bomb for a turban.
There's been lots, well tons, of commentary on whether this was a good idea or not and whether this represents racism or a hate crime of some sort. I think this was inevitable and it will go a long way on supporting integration of the two cultures. Orrrrr, it's another example where oil and water just can't mix and violence is inevitable. So far it's a bit of both but the violence makes better press so that's 99% of what we read and see. A small group of muslims have supported the newspapers right to publish. I personally find the whole thing ludicrous but disturbing.
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I also find the whole thing rather disturbing, however, it shows the profound unease there is in the muslim religion, where some believer are just normal people and some are the extremists that the cartoon depicts. I don't think you would have gotten the same reaction with a cartoon of Jesus witha bomb on his head! Maybe a few bible thumping candlelight vigils or something.
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