Democracy, Islam, and Cartoons
Here's an opinion piece I quite enjoyed about the current flap over the Islam cartoons published last week in Denmark. Its chest-beatingly pro-Western values and provided a quite welcome counter to much of the debate in the press and on opinion pages. I can see various sides to this argument, and why these various arguments exist, but fundamentally I think that, one way or another, there has to be an end to the kind of violence that erupts among Muslims when things like these cartoons are published. I will not be surprised if this ultimately results in war, including major domestic unrest. Whatever the pretext decided on, it's going to happen if Islam as a whole doesn't liberalize.
That this particular writer talks extensively about Western ideals' direct opposition to radical Islam is not incidental. I don't want to live in a theocracy. I like living somewhere that a satirical cartoon can feature Jesus as a character. If Jesus, why not Mohammed? If we (the West, collectively) kowtow to totalitarian religionists under the banner of P.C., we deserve exactly what we get. Note that this holds true for how we deal with rabid U.S. fundamentalists as well -- be they heads of state or crazy fuckers making patently un-Christian statements.
That this particular writer talks extensively about Western ideals' direct opposition to radical Islam is not incidental. I don't want to live in a theocracy. I like living somewhere that a satirical cartoon can feature Jesus as a character. If Jesus, why not Mohammed? If we (the West, collectively) kowtow to totalitarian religionists under the banner of P.C., we deserve exactly what we get. Note that this holds true for how we deal with rabid U.S. fundamentalists as well -- be they heads of state or crazy fuckers making patently un-Christian statements.