Cartoons

**krazykarl** · February 11, 2006, 02:46 PM

I have been reading a lot lately about this whole Danish cartoon thing. I cant understand why there is such an uproar about this. ITS A CARTOON. Nobody forces anyone to look at it, if you dont like it ignore it. Every religion gets made fun of at one point or another (just look at southpark, they make fun of EVERYONE). Could someone please explain why Islam thinks its special, and we shouldnt make fun of it, the way other faiths are?

Please note: Im not trying to inflame anyone, I just want to know how and why someone can take a cartoon seriously, but not have a problem with Iran publically calling for the destruction of Israel.

**Habelo** · February 11, 2006, 02:53 PM

Well i dont really think that they rebell for the cartons sake, i think that someone just wants a reson to make more chaos at islam(making more exterminists)...
And yeah its a pitty that so much muslims are so blind, though most of them are alphabetical..

**Zuwxiv** · February 11, 2006, 02:56 PM

It is their socio-economic factors that have made them so inclined to be upset. People in the middle east are born poor, die poor, and have no hope of ever having anything but a miserable existance until they die. Religion is the only thing they have going for them, not to mention the fact that extremists/facists have seized control and manipulated the people through religion (Opium of the masses).

They grow up in a society where, if you say something that the rulers dont' agree with, you get killed. So it is in some ways incomprehensable to them that someone in Denmark could print something that the entire country and ruling class doesn't agree with. Not to mention that they never have the opportunity or money to hear about or understand "western society"... They don't have news like ours. A good deal of what they "know" for a fact is something that they never have the opportunity to rectify.

**krazykarl** · February 11, 2006, 03:01 PM

You guys make some good points, but what I really dont understand is the demonstrations in london, and other western european countries, where the Muslims have been 'westernized' for lack of a better term, nobody forced them to read the cartoon, they dont live in poverty (at the very least not as bad as the mid east) yet still take part in these protests.

**Sher Khan** · February 11, 2006, 03:02 PM

An example of this intellectual gap between the poor of the Middle East is when a reporter would meet with extremists, explain to them that the cartoons were perfectly legal and used Voltaire's writing as justification, and the saps still couldn't understand. My summary: most fanatics are both poor and ignorant. The rest are mentally unstable or conniving power mongers.

Take the average Muslim in the U.S. today (one that is well off, like say Indian muslim doctors or shop owners)...
They would not start rioting or going violent like their Mid East counterparts as much as your average Christian in the U.S. would go violent like the Crusading-era Christians.

In England and the rest of Europe where the majority of Muslims are relatively poor, you see a lot more violent-tendancies. European-Muslims are both separated from society at large (as the case with the riots in France) and just plain poor (compared to their American counterparts).

You could easily graph a poverty vs. level of violence curve and make a clear correlation.

**krazykarl** · February 11, 2006, 03:15 PM

This is happening in North America aswell

http://money.canoe.ca/News/Sectors/M...434432-cp.html

This is a story about a Halifax Prof, who posted some of the cartoons on his door, to make a point about free speech, only to find out that apparetnly he doesnt have any, and people showed up to protest.

**Habelo** · February 11, 2006, 04:00 PM

Well i cant belive that new nazis STILL havent bashed their heads, i mean seriosly in sweden, they would last like 2 days!(yes ive said it before, dont remind me)
But well if they start burning things, i seriosly hope that the police starts shooting at them, DEATH TO EXTERMINISTS!

**Zuwxiv** · February 11, 2006, 04:07 PM

I'm going to look for something I found earlier, it was a list of cartoons from the Middle East that were anti-Jewish, or anti-Israeli, etc. They see those, and have seen them from birth, as truth; yet when they see something that goes against what they believe, they riot. Hypcritical and ignorant, yes; but it is also expected from the position that they are in. To the rest of the world, it is backwards; to them, they dont' even experience or know about life in the west. They have never heard a bad word about what they are doing; who is to say it is wrong, then?

**orizvi** · February 11, 2006, 05:45 PM

.

**Fenris** · February 11, 2006, 07:55 PM

Originally Posted by orizvi

Lets first start with the cartoon. It depicts the Prophet Mohammad (Peace be upon him) as a terrorist with a time bomb shaped turban. The point is clear and definite the cartoonist obviously believes that Islam is a time bomb ready to go off or something along the lines of that.

Your point would be valid if the cartoon had not been proved right.

Now onto why this cartoon is so much more then a simple insult against Islam. The Prophet Mohammad (Peace be upon him) never had a single painting or any depiction of him made during his lifetime. Nor have any of the other prophets so we (Muslims) do not believe in giving them a face of our choosing. It is almost the equivalent of drawing god. What gives us the right to draw god as one with 2 legs, 2 arms. Never in the Holy Quran does it state that people are in the shape of god and as such we will not attempt to lessen god to the level of humans by depicting him as being human. Out of respect unless there is confirmed portraits of the person; it is generally wiser to not draw them to your liking. It is not only dishonoring their memory but them also since they could have looked radically different from what you drew them as.

Your rules does not apply to those who are not in your religion. Do you follow buddhist rules?

And now for probably the biggest factor to why this cartoon is receiving this kind of response. Insulting Prophet Mohammad (Peace be upon him) is a big no-no. It is the equivalent for someone to insult Prophet Isa (Alaih Assalaam) who most of you would know as Jesus. Christians all over the world would most likely be furious if that cartoon had Jesus instead of Prophet Mohammad (Peace be upon him).

Such thing has been done thousands of times, actually you can't even count the number of time it has been made, and no one ever had such violent reaction.

Also Muslims are expected to live their lives in the manner that Prophet Mohammad (Peace be upon him) lived his life.

Did Mohammad ever placed bombs/burned building? If no, then the people who are doing these things are contradicting their book. If yes, then how was the depiction of the prophet with a bomb as a turban so offensive, beside the fact that he was portrayed, since it would be true?

So when you insult Prophet Mohammad (Peace be upon him) you aren’t just insulting the very beliefs they have lived their lives upon you are also insulting them, and every other Muslim person they care about. There are one billion Muslims worldwide and you shouldn't insult them all to this effect without expecting the after effects.

And, of course, muslims have never been offensive to whole groups of people (the jewish people for example)?

Who ever the cartoonist is that drew that cartoon must have been completely ignorant of what he was doing or knew what he was doing but only sought to abuse freedom of speech. In my opinion freedom of speech should only extend to the point where you can state your own opinion without insulting anyone else. The cartoonist, if he does hate Muslims could have very easily said "I don't like Muslims", that would have been more acceptable, and not an abuse of freedom of speech.

Whatever you draw or write, there people who are gonna be offended. If you don't want such thing to happen, the best way is proving them wrong.

*** I have tried to keep my response as impartial as possible and not insulting to anyone, but being of the victimized party in this issue it's pretty hard and if my opinions have offended anyone I apologize.

You have probably offended people here, you are abusing freedom of speech. Ok you apologised, but will we have to put apologies after every picture, drawing or opinion?

Also - Those "Muslim Terrorists" that are always making it to your favorite news channels are simply the extremists and not what most Muslims are like. Every oraganization, religion, or any other group has its extremists. It just looks like a lot of them in Islam because there are one billion Muslims so if even 0.01 percent of them are extremists that is still a lot of people. Another point: Those rioters going on about the cartoons and burning down embassies etc. are also a minority among Muslims. The majority of Muslims are probably sitting down and insulting Denmark, and the other countries publishing the cartoons but they are definately not running around like idiots rioting and what not.

Of course this is true, but the people who is simply insulting Denmark is still supporting the rioters and often the terrorists too. They need to condemn the acts.

**AngryTitusPullo** · February 12, 2006, 03:15 AM