<begin excessive simplification>These silly "depictions of muhammed" things pop up ever so often. For example, CAIR raised a stink over the depiction of Muhammed as a judge in the US Supreme Court Building. The result? Too bad, so sad. Jyllands Postens controversy. Result? Lots of burning and riots, a few people hurt/killed, but it only served to spread the images. Teddy Bear named Muhammed....result? Teacher went back home, and Sudan's public image is again back down to where it was before the Darfur debate quieted down.</end excessive simplification>
My best guess is in about 3 years, we'll have something like Wikiart which will depict muhammed in a painting, some people will get riled up and raise a stink, and we'll be right back where we started. The important question then, is are we displaying images that people find offensive in spite of the fact that the get offended, or are we displaying them because of the fact they get offended? If it is the latter, we have a moral obligation to take them down, and question our own ethics. If it is the former, we have a duty to remain uncensored.
I fear that these cartoons in question (the ones of sharon) fit squarely into the latter.
-dan
On Dec 6, 2007, at 1:17 PM, Ray Saintonge wrote:
Waerth wrote:
One of the things I learned was that: It is considered a gross insult to depict the prophet Muhammed!
True enough, and to many non-Muslims the recent teddy-bear naming incident in Sudan was way over the top, and it has taken centuries for Christian countries to get over the point where blasphemy was considered a serious sin. I really don't support political correctness, Muslim or otherwise.
So by depicting him you are already insulting the Islam. which is just as heavy an insult to a Muslim as showing Blair's testicles is to some Brits. So these matters are exactly the same.
I'm sure that there are some people who would say that the only reason why you couldn't show Blair's testicles is that he didn't have any. :-)
Ec
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