Recently there has been a somewhat simplified argument occurring about the Allah cartoons that have created quite a stir in the Middle East. This culminated last week when gunmen took over an EU building in Palestine.
First, I have to say that those cartoons aren’t even that funny or clever. In fact, the last one points to the fact that this is a PR stunt:
Second, I find it very convinient that people on the Right would defend this as freedom of speech. What if you were to replace these cartoons with one’s of Jesus and the Pope taking turns touching little boys? Would this still be freedom of speech? Would a boycott seem reasonable against the offending parties? What would be an appropriate response — slander, boycotting, violence? Because we have witnessed a call for the first two frequently by the Neo-Con shills at Fox News.
However, violence is not a reasonable response. Arabs sure are good at reenforcing our preconceived notions of them, because burning flags, jumping, shouting then boiling over to a violent retribution is the first thing most Americans will imagine when they read articles like this.
Are there well-reasoned Muslims on the other side of the world banging their heads on their desks too? I guess I only get American news, so I don’t get a tempered or balanced view on Muslims, but fuck. Can’t we put on a better face guys? I think the reality is whatever we think of Muslims, they think similarly about us.
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I guess we may now think that the religion that preaches tolerance, is anything but. These people need to keep a sense of perspective and get a sense of humour – its what keeps us all (vaguely) sane!
Yah, I think there a lot of factors going into this, and I wrote about it but unfortunately lost all of my work about it. Bah humbug.