[WikiEN-l] "I want to at least kill the responsible person."

[Prasad J]

To a Muslim it is offensive to say Jesus is God. It is offensive to
view images of inappropriately clothed people. Muslims in Indonesia
found the images in Playboy sufficiently offensive to riot over.
Muslims in Malaysia frown on the usage of Muslim terminology in a
non-Muslim context; the government has actually banned Malay-language
Christian publications for using Malay words meaning "Allah", "angel",
etc. There are a lot of things people find offensive; there are a lot
of things Muslims find offensive.

I think you need to remember that not all Muslims are from the
Taliban, just as not all Christians are cross-burning Ku Klux
Klansmen. I studied in a Catholic school where several of our teachers
were Muslim and knew more about the Gospel (and modern physics) than
the average church-goer. I've known several Muslim girls who frequent
night clubs (not dressed in burqas incidentally) and don't mind
listening to remixes of Sufi hymns. Just because some Muslims "run
riot" over alleged insults to their faith doesn't mean you can
generalise against the entire Muslim community.

Moreover Saudi Arabia is an individual country whose laws do not
necessarily reflect on the global Islamic diaspora. Just because
Holland permits prostitution doesn't mean I can say that the entire
"Christian West" condones the flesh trade. Indeed implying that Muslim
= Saudi Arabian =  Malaysian Muslim = Pakistani Muslim = Indian Muslim
would be offensive to Muslims who value their national identity over
their religious one - and I assure you there are several of them.

I feel that the Muslim community is being referred to very
condescendingly in this thread and we must remember that a majority of
Muslims are educated, moderate, cosmopolitan and far removed from the
Fox News stereotype of unshaven fanatics with Kalashnikovs who will
turn up at Wikipedia's head office with RDX and a copy of the Qu'ran.
Indeed they have no more love for violence than the average American
college student who decides to gun down his classmates.