sympatheticThe NPR reporters kept calling the cartoons "anti-Muslim" but I think that is incorrect. These cartoons point out that SOME people have perverted the faith of Islam and are using it to promote their own ends, which are neither holy nor good. The use of murder and suicide, the promise of virgins in the afterlife to get new murderous suicides for their "faith", is a terrible contortion of the basic values of Islam. The fundamental values of all the great religions are remarkably similar, when you start digging. And murder, such as our battle for "good" versus "evil" in the Middle East, happens only when a religion is used as a form of thought control to get people to act against what they believe. Religion is used all around to motivate violence.
Did you know that Jesus is considered one of the prophets of Islam? There are many. The stories about him are very different coming from this tradition. They portray Jesus as a firebrand, a stickler, a real fighter. Which he must have been. Consider this: Jesus was hung on the cross because he was fighting against the political powers that be. He was a rabble rouser, a trouble maker, and "inappropriate" in their eyes.
Just like Cindy Sheehan wearing that T-shirt to the State of the Nation Speech. It told how many have died in Iraq, her son of course being one. And she was not just kicked out, she was ARRESTED for it.
I read today about a 7th grade boy who wrote an essay about his best possible day. In his essay he said he would do damage to Bush, Walmart, and a few others. The teacher turned him in. In one page a kid managed to bring the full scrutiny of the FBI upon him. Is he a threat? Are you? Be careful what you say out loud, they might have tapped YOUR line.
Did you know that our government is building concentration camps in this country right now? Find out about it. That might be where they take me. Or you. Or your neighbor. Many of us disagree completely with the way our country is being run. And they have no intention of giving up control. The voting system is rigged. And they will do their damndest to put away anyone who gets in their way. A "potential terrorist" has no rights under the law. Trial? Give up. Remember all that media hype about how evil Saddam Hussein was for killing his own? Just wait. Remember the Nazis? It can happen again. It already is. The Germans recognize it. Ask one who is 70 or older.
Did you hear about the cartoon in which Rumsfeld was the doc working on a soldier who came back from Iraq missing a few limbs? Rumsfeld put him down as "battle hardened" or something like that.....and it created a row here in the states. Freedom of speech is on its way out.
What surprises me is that the Muslims are not boycotting US products. Why pick on the Danes? We have done much more damage than a couple of cartoons. Those cartoons remind me that religious fervor is not the same as being in the right. I say to the cartoonists: Keep making your shocking images!! Because your "speech" is indirect and cased in humor, it may be the last "free speech" out there. And bravo to papers who print challenging work. Bravo.