I don’t believe the Koran has the same Ten Commandments as we see in Exodus and Deuteronomy, but I am given to believe that there are equivalent strictures in it. With that in mind, I would like to point out that the radical Islamofascists, in their supposed zeal and rage over one commandment, are violating at least two others. Let us suppose for the moment that the pictures of Mohammed violate the commandment against making and worshipping graven images. How are they protesting this?
By bearing false witness against their neighbors.
These protesters and their imams represent themselves as speaking authoritatively for Islam. If I were a Muslim, I could not think of a clearer case of blasphemy, and I would be far more furious with these murderous thugs than with any newspaper.
Well, except some of your premises are quite false.
The Quran, Hadith & Sira are full of incitation to murder. Among those bloody “commandments”, we can note that the “prophet” Muhammad could never bear mokery, and had some assassinations carried out in order to silence some scoffers (you might want to read about Asma Bint Marwan and K’ab bin Al-Ashraf, among others).
So goes “Thou shall not kill”.
As for bearing false witness, well, as far as I remember, true, the Quran doesn’t like it. But Muhammad himself used slander on occasion, when suiting his goals (towards some of the medinan jewish tribes, for example).
The morality of the “prophet” and the Quran can be usually (roughly) summerised as “if it’s good for islam, it is allowed”
There you go again. using your western, bourgeois, melanin deprived, testosterone poisoned, logic again. You will never understand.
It is interesting to see your comment about the Islamofascists and the comments that follow.
Based on the 4th May 2005 Apology I don’t know how long Denmark would take to realize this incident was a mistake. Instead of hiding behind the bravado of free speech the whole world should take into account the hurt that it has caused.
When you see a person so agitated and ready to break the law risking his life and family don’t you think he has been wronged? Here, the case is of not one person but of an ideology (1.3 billion by conservative estmiates).
The whole purpose of this activity seemed to be inciting and aggravating sentiments of Muslims. All the religions of the world tell you to forgive when you are wronged, let me ask you:
“Do all Christians forgive?” – There would be no child molestation cases being brought into the court then.
“Do all Jews forgive?” – Nothing left for Mr. Spielberg to portray in his films.
“Should all Muslims forgive and bear no animosity in the heart and not even show their anger?”
If Islam was only extremism than I think none of the (pro-Islamic) Indonesian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, etc. governments (non-dependant on Denmark) should have wasted any tax money on deploying thousands of policemen to protect the life and liberty of Dutch people in their country. Because, of course an apology seems to fix everything.
Hurt? These cartoons were published in the Arab world, without notable reaction, long before the supposedly hurt groups made their feelings known in Europe. (See this post for more info.) What really happened was that the cartoons were a pretext for Islamist agitators to implement already-prepared plans. There is no evidence to support your belief that the carefully directed demonstrators feel as aggrieved as you seem to think they do, or represent all Muslims or indeed that more than a small minority of Muslims was even upset. Street demonstrations in unfree countries generally are neither spontaneous nor representative.
As to apologies: get real. Maybe after the Sudanese govt apologizes for murdering non-Muslims or Hamas apologizes for murdering Jews or Al Qaeda apologizes for murdering everyone. Muslims who are offended to the point of violence by cartoons should consider becoming more tolerant. Freedom doesn’t just mean that you get to say what you want; it means also that you have to allow other people to say things that you don’t like. By your standards Jews would be entitled to go on violent rampages from now until the end of time.
As for forgiveness, you seem to be confused. Even if some non-Muslims did insult Muslims or Islam, how could an insult be compared with murder or child molestation, and how could an entire country such as Denmark be blamed for the actions of a few individuals?
Isn’t a Jew more reasonably “hurt” by the murder of Dannie Pearl, preceded by the “hurtful” words that this death was because he was a Jew, than any Muslim by a cartoon?
The argument of DMB is not just specious, it is destructive. No, I am not responsible for your suicide; no, behavior that is either self-destructive or destructive is not the other’s fault. In our society this is the argument of a 2-year-old, quickly disciplined into a more self-conscious, more honest, and more resposible way of looking at the world.
In short, DMB, the world does not revolvw around you and expecting others to be the “adults.”
“When you see a person so agitated and ready to break the law risking his life and family don’t you think he has been wronged?”
No, I think he believes himself to have been wronged, and has evaluated it as a serious wrong, but I am not obliged to accept his evaluation if I feel he is not acting reasonably. No rational person would judge the gravity of an offense solely by the vehemence of the reaction to it. I think the point most commenters would make is that blasphemy is hurtful to a believer, but most believers do not require a blood sacrifice to expiate it. Many radical Muslims do. This does not establish that blasphemy against Islam is worse than blasphemy against Christianity or Judaism.
The doctrine of forgiveness does not coincide with the requirement for temporal justice. It is in fact required that a ruler protect the innocent and punish the guilty:
“For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.” Romans 13, 3-4. One great Christian writer said that a murderer who converts and realizes the enormity of his crime, regardless of the forgiveness of God or men, should turn himself in to the police, confess, and go to the gallows in peace.
These show-boating Islamo-radicals are trapped in an intellectual infancy. Why progressive media and politicians are taking their public, mass-tantrums seriously, I’ll never know.
Average muslims in Indonesia or Malaysia know these fire-brands have lost their marbles, and they pay lip-service to the radicals’ sermons out of fear. But, really, regular Muslims were no more offended by Jyllands-Posten’s cartoons, than I was by Trudeau’s regular anti-American cartoons.
By refusing to publish the cartoons due to the demands of vociferous, violent “muslim” radicals, CNN has de facto recognized these fire-brands as the legitimate voice of the globe’s 1.3 billion Muslims.
(I wonder if Jane Fonda’s racey work-out video is available in Syria and Iran. Or are her lycra tights too offensive?)
-Steve
Well, by censoring themselves throughout the nineties in their reporting from Iraq, I thought CNN had long ago lost any credibility. Frankly, I think a case could be made for not putting up the cartoons but I can’t imagine any case being made for reporting from a country suffering under the horrors of Saddam Hussein – and precisely because of those horrors not reporting what is going on to an outside audience. Some truth-telling to power. And somehow still, with a straight face, arguing that they are trusted because of their truth-telling – that takes chutzpah.
I empathize with the plight of peace-loving Muslims everywhere. You see, I am a peace-loving member of the Ku Klux Klan. I have never burned a cross or lynched a negro, yet my beloved organization and peaceful Klansmen like myself are constantly tarred with the same brush as the radical Klansmen who do those things.