The lack of intelligence is consuming my brain!
So let's be intelligent (God forbid!) for two seconds and think about this one. Yes, I said think, so consider that your warning.
About two weeks ago, if that, Danish cartoonists were given a challenge: try to draw pictures of the Prophet Muhammed for a man writing a children's book about the Islamic religious icon. The outcome was a sloppy grouping of probably ten cartoons, none of which were particularly good or even funny - and only maybe two of which that were actually offensive. The problem behind all of this? Islamic faith strictly forbids its believers from making or publishing, for whatever reason, any likeness of the Prophet for the sake of not practicing idoltry. A couple of the cartoons portrayed Muhammed as a terrorist in several forms, or as an armed killer.
The funny thing about this that doesn't make sense is the fact that in response to these cartoons, the Muslim world has gone into an uproar. I think it's fairly safe to say that they handled it badly, because now they're waging an all-out war against American and against Denmark, with rewards placed on the heads of the cartoonists responsible for the, at best, mildly annoying pictures of Muhammed. People have died, buildings have been raided, and numerous threats have been made. They have promised that they're willing to defend the Prophet with their lives, and take others down with them as they go - all the while demanding that they be respected and that people don't get the wrong impression that Muhammed didn't advocate violence against anyone.
Am I the only one that sees a problem with this?
Instead of acknowledging the pictures as probably inappropriate and writing them off as stupid things made by cartoonists that not only don't practice Islam, but probably don't understand it and then let it drop - at which point they probably would've gotten an apology and it never would've happened again - they decided it was better to take lives and force others to be censured according to their religious beliefs.
Now, granted, this is a problemt that we as Americans face daily. The religions practiced in this country differ greatly, and most everyone is under the impression that whatever they believe is the one and only way to whatever the end happens to be. There are fights daily over what we do and don't think is right or okay: be it abortion, civil rights, religious rights, or education. You name it, we argue over it. The point is that when a conservative Christian who is adamantly pro-life hears that Roe v Wade hasn't been overthrown yet by the Supreme Court, he doesn't go off and shoot a nurse working at an abortion clinic; just the same, a firm atheist doesn't slaughter the principal at her son's school when said principal decides that all the students must stand during the Pledge of Allegiance. Granted, sometimes people go overboard with these things - staging annoying protests, going overboard with reactions in an attempt to affect the entire country and not just their neck of the woods - but at least the majority of us (note that I didn't say all, I know better) are bright enough to know that going around and killing people isn't going to solve the problem.
I'm not saying that I'm perfect, or that anybody I know is.
But at least I don't go around killing my countrymen and foriegners because someone did something I don't approve of.
About two weeks ago, if that, Danish cartoonists were given a challenge: try to draw pictures of the Prophet Muhammed for a man writing a children's book about the Islamic religious icon. The outcome was a sloppy grouping of probably ten cartoons, none of which were particularly good or even funny - and only maybe two of which that were actually offensive. The problem behind all of this? Islamic faith strictly forbids its believers from making or publishing, for whatever reason, any likeness of the Prophet for the sake of not practicing idoltry. A couple of the cartoons portrayed Muhammed as a terrorist in several forms, or as an armed killer.
The funny thing about this that doesn't make sense is the fact that in response to these cartoons, the Muslim world has gone into an uproar. I think it's fairly safe to say that they handled it badly, because now they're waging an all-out war against American and against Denmark, with rewards placed on the heads of the cartoonists responsible for the, at best, mildly annoying pictures of Muhammed. People have died, buildings have been raided, and numerous threats have been made. They have promised that they're willing to defend the Prophet with their lives, and take others down with them as they go - all the while demanding that they be respected and that people don't get the wrong impression that Muhammed didn't advocate violence against anyone.
Am I the only one that sees a problem with this?
Instead of acknowledging the pictures as probably inappropriate and writing them off as stupid things made by cartoonists that not only don't practice Islam, but probably don't understand it and then let it drop - at which point they probably would've gotten an apology and it never would've happened again - they decided it was better to take lives and force others to be censured according to their religious beliefs.
Now, granted, this is a problemt that we as Americans face daily. The religions practiced in this country differ greatly, and most everyone is under the impression that whatever they believe is the one and only way to whatever the end happens to be. There are fights daily over what we do and don't think is right or okay: be it abortion, civil rights, religious rights, or education. You name it, we argue over it. The point is that when a conservative Christian who is adamantly pro-life hears that Roe v Wade hasn't been overthrown yet by the Supreme Court, he doesn't go off and shoot a nurse working at an abortion clinic; just the same, a firm atheist doesn't slaughter the principal at her son's school when said principal decides that all the students must stand during the Pledge of Allegiance. Granted, sometimes people go overboard with these things - staging annoying protests, going overboard with reactions in an attempt to affect the entire country and not just their neck of the woods - but at least the majority of us (note that I didn't say all, I know better) are bright enough to know that going around and killing people isn't going to solve the problem.
I'm not saying that I'm perfect, or that anybody I know is.
But at least I don't go around killing my countrymen and foriegners because someone did something I don't approve of.