Muslim cartoons

The cartoons are offensive to Muslims, just as the depictions of the Blessed Virgin Mary covered in cow dung, and the crucified Christ suspended in a vat of urine, are equally offensive to Christians. A free press is, by its very nature, often offensive.

The article commented that Islam still has a ways to grow in terms of its maturation as a major world religion. Judging by the number of senseless deaths and massive destruction within the Islamic and European world caused supposedly by these cartoons, I have to agree with that sentiment.

Feudi, at 8:35 am EST on February 16, 2006

Higher Ed and the Banality of Political Correctness

The college newspaper editors deserve medals for their courage and implementation of journalistic freedom.

Instead, they suffer the wrath of the weasels and censors who rule the roost in academe.

The violent, destructive behavior led by many radical Islamists in reaction to those cartoons affirms the yawning gap between modernists and medievalists.

If some radical Islamists don’t like those cartoons then they shouldn’t view them and/or they should come up with their own ones.

The anti-Holocaust contest being launched by the Iranian press offers to provide even more hilarious examples of Islamic banality and intellectual derivativeness in the realm of sketches, humor and satire.

The threats, posturings, gunplay, physical intimidation, and endless marches by Muslims confirm that the stereotypes used in the silly cartoons have indeed a strong basis in fact.

It is that, as Aziz Akhmad put it last week, “by burning embassies and threatening to kill people, the demonstrators have done more damage to the name of the Prophet Muhammad than the Danish cartoons.”

Moreover, Jackie Mason reminds us that “the cartoonists were not even condemning Islam, they were merely creating a satire of a terrorist. They weren’t insulting their religion, they were satirizing a fanatic. But the Muslims have decided that there are no laws, limits, or boundaries that apply to their behavior. They not only have the right to take your life, they now have the right to rob you of your freedom of expression.”

No apologies are necessary for running or reprinting the cartoons. None.

If some Muslims choose to behave like petulant thugs and ballistic crybabies over the cartoons, to kill one another, and to destroy the infrastructure of their countries, then let them.

They are merely perpetuating the worst stereotypes often attributed to western Orientalists.

Chuck, at 10:20 am EST on February 16, 2006

To the point: “Mr. Khalid Yasin does not mention the usual cartoons vilifying Jews and the West in publications all over the Muslim world.” If he had mentioned them, he would surely have had to have condemned them as at least indecent, if not, in some Western codes of law, illegal. And anyone who recognizes that they are such would have to grant him either his point, that the Danish cartoons are indecent or, at the very least, that they were insensitive.

Richard Hennessey, at 11:15 am EST on February 16, 2006

Every religion has been subject to political cartoons. So has every race, as well as gender, sexual orientation, and disability. Do you see everyone who has been offended by a political cartoon that they feel was pointed at their particular group go out and kill people, burn buildings, or bomb embassies? Why should Muslims? If everyone performed these actions, our country would no longer be a safe place to live in, and people would never feel free to use their First Ammendment rights in fear of making someone angry that would end in the loss of life.True, depicting Muhammad is forbidden in Islam, but must the rest of the world be subject to the beliefs of Islam? Should a country that has a right to freedom of expression, which includes college newspapers, have to put limits on this freedom because it has offended a group of people? Christians have known for ages that their religion will be ridiculed by the rest of society and you don’t see them getting all riled up because of Jesus being made fun of, do you? Why does Muhammad get to be so high and mighty and special? Muslims need to get used to the fact that in this day and age, they are not going to be exempt from public mockery simply because they may find it offensive. They should stop using violence as a way to express their anger and find a peaceful, diplomatic approach.

Rebecca Coleman, Why Can’t People Just Grow Up?, at 8:30 pm EST on March 1, 2006