Those bloody cartoons.

[gridlore]

Excellent piece on the whole Danish Muhammad cartoons mess from the SFGate.

As for me, I've tried to be a good, understanding person. I've actually read the Koran (in translation), and have studied the history of the religion and culture. But the current level of insanity in Islam is pushing me into the "nuke Mecca" camp. The problem is that the bulk of the world's Muslims, while not radicals, refuse to do anything to stop the excesses of the extremists. Hell, from what I've seen, there seems to be almost an acceptance of the actions of terrorists and rabid mullahs in some quarters.

The base intolerance of the extremists pisses me off. I am not Muslim. If I decide to draw the Prophet, I have no bar to doing so. I am not an observant Jew, so I can eat pepperoni pizza with glee. Nor am I Catholic, so I am free to use birth control, etc.. The religious fanatics of the world are going to have to learn that they cannot impose their religious laws on others.

Comments

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

I'm curious as to what destroying the center of the religion for the majority of Moslems who're not violent is going to acomplish.

It's not like I'm not frustrated or disgusted with some of the Islamic responses, but I'm not connecting with any justification for genocide, and the equivilant of nuking the Vatican.

[isomeme.livejournal.com]

Amen! Oddly, enough, as a Thelemite, I recognize explicitly that Man has the right to draw as he will. (http://oto-usa.org/l77.html) So there. :)

[odanu.livejournal.com]

I agree with what you've written. That said, though, a simple apology from the Danish government would have prevented a lot of this. Instead, there seems to be an element of glee in "poking the bear" to see what "those crazy Muslims will do". Grrrr. A pox on both their houses.

Curiously, nobody else seems to see that there are multiple issues here

[capplor.livejournal.com]

One is basic hate speach. It doesn't justify the violence, but some of the depicted cartoons ARE offensive. Protests in the form of boycotts & burning flags are perfectly acceptable in response to such. And a newpaper that prints hate-speach ought to be embarassed, at a minimum.

The issue you point out is true. If we tried to be ruled by the "you can'ts" of every other religion in the world, we'd be totally non-functional. There is moderation on the subject, though. For example, although I do not agree with the concept of veiling women, if I were going into a predominantly Muslim area, or into a religious service, I would probably don a cover as respect to others' sensibilities.

"Nuke 'em because they haven't tossed the scoundrels out"? I hope I'm not going to be held accountable for the continued existance in power of W. and Pat Robertson. I did the best I could about the former, though I'll admit I keep hopping the latter will just go away.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

The problem is that the bulk of the world's Christians, while not radicals, refuse to do anything to stop the excesses of the extremists.

[robertprior.livejournal.com]

This is definitely a political issue. For one thing, the cartoons were published to not much comment until some right-wing Christian papers began reprinting them -- "poking the bear" as someone phrased it. The Egyptian Foreign Minister has also been stirring the pot. It suits those doing the stirring to have this as an issue.

[lizw.livejournal.com]

I can't speak for US Muslims, but Muslim leaders here in the UK are doing plenty. And nuking anything at all? Way to pass on our mess to future generations to clean up.