Cartoons are Serious Business
(insert cartoon of the prophet Muhammad with a turban shaped like a bomb)I can't offer you the actual cartoon because all the MSM outlets I go to are too chicken to run it. So tonight on NBC Nightly Snooze they had a big segment about how the Muslim world is going crazy about the Danish paper (then the subsequent European ones) publishing cartoons that dared to depict the prophet.
I'm sure there are things the MSM does daily that offend Wiccans and Catholics and Jews, oh my. Why does this one religion get a pass because some of its followers are using it as an excuse for violence?
The MSM showed both sides of the debate and discussed the cartoon's offense of Sharia law. Might the cartoon not have been making the point that the offenders are taking offense at? Case proved. Let them be offended.
The thing that bothers me more than the spineless MSM coverage of this is that neither NBC nor PBS (the only two I caught tonight) had the guts to run the next logical segment: that here in America, the Joint Chiefs of Staff sent a letter to the Washington Post objecting to the cartoon I'll post below. Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Tom Toles was trying to make a point about Donald Rumsfeld's cavalier attitude about our troops and how thinly stretched they were (to which Rummy had alluded in a speech saying "they're battle-hardened").
Why does the MSM not report this story? How can they miss the obvious parallels? Could they do anything more to prove these cartoonists, these opinion-makers, right?
posted by dcnative @ 8:32 PM
6 Comments:
A few of the cartoons can be found at:
http://www.uriasposten.net/index.php?p=2624
I'm a little sick of fanatics myself.
Oh, yeah... and they also reported that the editor of the French newspaper that reprinted the cartoons under the defiant headline: "Yes, We Have A Right to Caricature God"... was fired.
That's what I love about living in a free country. You can do or say whatever you like. Then lose your job over it!
They shouldn't have published pictures like that.
In Islam we're not even allowed to draw pictures of the Prophet peace be upon him.
We dont draw pictures of Jesus or Moses, we respect all the prophets.
We love our prophet peace be upon him.
Thanks, anon, but I want our commenter Muslim to keep coming back, so I won't post them.
Muslim: Might I just make one suggestion of ways to think about this? Like so many religious texts, I'm sure the Koran uses allegory and rhetoric to teach its lessons. Could it be that the prophet didn't mean for you to take "you shall not make images of me" literally - but could have meant "You shall not see/worship only the exterior of me and what I'm saying." Could it be about not being blinded by imagery?
Could it be that the literally reading of the passage is a misinterpretation - and further - could the rioting caused by such publishing of a mere cartoon be an over-reaction that the prophet would also not have wanted?
I'll admit I haven't read the Koran. I personally believe that religions are structures that keep us separated from each other and often give us reasons to kill each other. I believe that all great religious leaders want their followers to seek the path of love and compassion for each other, using their teachings as guides, not rulers to be broken over our heads.
Peace to you and thanks for sharing your thoughts here.
I have an English translation of the Koran if you ever want to borrow it. But supposedly, the Koran isn't the Koran if it isn't in its original tongue, so I guess we infidels are left to ponder the true intensions of the good book.
I understand the Islamic dictate against publishing images of the Prophets -- or people in general --but I don't see the Muslim world going balistic just because the Christian world has idolitrized Jesus in a billion different ways.
According to tradition, Muhammad expressly forbad the use of images of animate beings but this seems to have had little effect amongst the Iranians and Mughuls who excelled in miniatures of every kind. No Islamic uprising there.
When I visited the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul in 2001, there was no lacking of portraits of the Sultans adorning the walls (go to: http://www.ee.bilkent.edu.tr/~history/topkapi.html). No uprising over that.
A quick Google or Yahoo search will uncover any number of images of Muhammad on the Internet. No uprising there. But perhaps the Islamic world would like to join China in banning such use of Internet search engines.
Westerners are also known for their parodies and carictures of Jesus Christ (example: http://www.sortakinda.com/look/withyoualways.shtml). No uprising over that, either.
It really makes one wonder what all the fuss is about.
P.S. It is interesting to note that the link provided by anonymous was working yesterday (I actually laid eyes on the blasphemous cartoons!), but today the link seems to be blocked!
I've blogged more about this subject at my political blog: www.liberalbydefinition.com if anybody is interested.
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