But is it a piece of cloth to those who burn it?
I personally don't exactly disagree with burning the American flag. I am not the most patriotic American in the world. But I do think that the intention of someone who is desecrating something "sacred" is very important.
For example, the teacher in the Sudan who named a teddy bear Mohammed. Do you really think she meant to insult the Prophet (PBUH)? I don't. I think that is totally ridiculous.
However, the people who drew (some of the) Jyllands-Posten cartoons meant to insult Islam in some way, although as I understand it, they were intended more as an exercise in free speech than as an insult in and of itself.
Mark
On 21/02/2008, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
David Gerard wrote:
On 20/02/2008, teun spaans teun.spaans@gmail.com wrote:
"increase its educational value, null." May i disagree on this point? They at least show, i suppose, as some of the illustrations on the Muhammed articles are some centuries old, that the opinion on this subject has varied over the centuries.
Indeed. I was unaware, until the present discussion, just how widely this viewpoint - that images of Muhammad are verboten in all circumstances - is in fact highly disputed.
While it may not be educationally necessary in a literate society, in a pre-literate society representational images can be very powerful. In illustrating some activity of Muhammed some representation of that activity can be a powerful educational tool for those who cannot read. Unfortunately, the power of abstraction comes from reading. The Qur'an certainly speaks of Muhammed, and thus creates pictures of him in words. Logical consistency would suggest the absurdity that these word pictures should also be forbidden. Abstract reasoning allows readers to understand that any representations of Muhammed or Jesus are not based on original photographs.
We cannot underestimate the power of images, symbols and myths as entities in their own right. These powers make no scientific sense at all, but that does not diminish their influence. Many Americans can be very upset when they see their flag being abused, yet to the strictly logical mind it is just a piece of cloth.
Ec
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