Where are the cartoons that are causing some much trouble?

A double standard exists beween the western judeo-christian nations and the moslem nations. The moslems can make fun and castigate other religions,but when it comes to theirs it is wrong. Has anybody heard of an arab humorist? Humiliation is so imbeded in the arab mindset that the crusades still are remembered. This a religious war and a cultural war beteween two ways of life and it will go on for centuries.

How long will we allow religious sensibility to have a seat at the table - it's like going to a doctor who practices 12th century medicine or building a jet, based on a 15th century understanding of engineering principles. There's a lot of people in America who believe that blacks are inferior or gays are sick, and we have no problem calling those fools for who they are, yet countless millions the world round guide their lives based on archaic texts, ancient myths and overtly sexist practices, and yet, for some reason unexplained, we give them credence and respect and tax shelters to boot - and the worst part - the absolute glaring incredibility is that we know these people are the cause of so much misery and damage, and yet we roll over and let them dictate the conversation!

When will we learn?

The cartoons are linked to in the article you (hopefully) just read-- look for the word "caricatures."

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom; it is the arguments of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."

That quotation from William Pitt the Younger was invoked during a debate in the English Parliament on 31 January 2006 where New Labor's Racial and Religious Hatred bill was narrowly defeated by 283 votes to 282. The bill was "intended to prohibit free speech or artistic expression deemed insulting by religious communities," according to an article posted on the web site, www.brusselsjournal.com. It was a narrow but resounding victory for free speech in England that has important implications for the European Union, where last September an obscure Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, published twelve cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in an sarcastic and unflaterring manner. Other newspapers throughout Europe recently published the 12 cartoons to demonstrate their solidarity with the Danish newspaper. The publisher of France-Soir recently fired an editor on his newspaper for allowing the 12 cartoons to be published. As A.J. Leibling once observed, "freedom of the press belongs to the person who owns the press."

Unfortunately, the furor over the cartoons has become a lightning rod of opposing camps, pitting European writers and artists against Muslim religious extremists throughout the world. I wonder what Professor Samuel P. Huntington, whose article, "The Clash of Civilizations, in the summer of 1993 issue of Foreign Affairs, would think about this growing divide between Muslims and secularists in Europe over the cartoons? From his article, which stated that the two fundamental characteristics of a nation-state are a shared religion and language, he would probably endorse the fight for the Western tradition of freedom of speech as admirable and necessary against the Muslim jihadists's outrage and threats. The Danish cartoonists have been in hiding since the cartoons were orginally published in the Jyllands-Posten because of death threats against them. And a Muslim extremist killed the Danish filmmaker, Theo Van Gogh, for his depiction of how religious extremists suppressed the freedoms of Muslim women. So the cartootists have good reasons to remain in hiding.

The road to hell is paved with appeasement. Freedom of speech and expression need to be defended and protected; it is the cornerstone of the market place of ideas and opinions in an unfretted exchange in any democracy; and accustations that the cartoons are an expression of "islamophobia" is merely window-dressing intended to camouflage the autocratic need to control and eventually suppress these basic tenets of Western democracies.

You know what, I couldn't think of any either. Nor famous art museums in Islamic countries. Islam has some pretty spectacular medieval architecture, but basically has little to no tradition in the visual arts. Think of the importance of religious content in Renaissance art, and compare it with the proscription against showing the human form in Islam. Initially the preserver of ancient Western culture, Islam has never had a Renaissance or Enlightenment, let alone Impressionism or Expressionism. Look what the Taliban did to the few art treasures of Afghanistan. We should have invaded them THEN. Art is something that Muslims, particularly outside of the west, probably don't understand very well. Take this lack of understanding and mix it with folks who will chant in the streets and burn stuff at the drop of a hat, and this controversy will not go away any time soon.

-To the two posters who bandied the word "genocide" around: I think that late 20th century events in the Balkans could have been considered genocide by non-Muslims against Muslims. But the Crusades were NOT genocide. A land grab, yes. But considering that the first victims of the Crusaders were their co-religionists and fellow Europeans in Constantinople, it was no more genocide than the spread of early Islam by the sword from Arabia.

All pissed-off about a cartoon? What else would you expect from people who: throw shoes at each other as insults; covet not one but 72 virgins in allah's heaven for commiting murder; throw rocks at a gunfight; mutilate women's vaginas (how can they do that to something so incredibly beatiful and pleasurable?); wear long, heavy, black dresses in 130 degree heat (now how stooopid is that?); have no senese of humor whatsoever; and, don't eat pork because some long-dead infidel freak/priest said - "ooooooh, pig bad, no eat or go to hell and suffer an eternity of having shoes thrown at you." Pathetic! Normally, I like to think of myself as an opened minded, free thinking person, but this shit infuriates me! Not to single any one religion out - the people pushing inteligent design infuriate me too - Pat Robertson and his ilk. My only wish is that all religious zealots find themselves in one great big communal "heaven" with only one, buck-toothed virgin eunich for the whole lot to fight over. Now that would be funny - although a virgin camel would be pretty funny too.

Harty :~)