What, You Mean These Cartoons?
An ax-wielding Somali man with suspected al-Qaida links was charged Saturday with two counts of attempted murder after breaking into the home of a Danish artist whose Prophet Muhammad cartoon outraged the Muslim world three years ago. The suspect, who was shot twice by a police officer responding to the scene, was rolled into a Danish court on a stretcher, his face covered. [AP]
Wow. Could it possibly have been these innocuous cartoons that he’s all upset about? People are willing to kill and die over these … cartoons?
Did you not know that (western) Europe is full of religious muslim fanatics and scores of spineless politicians and judiciary? These two make a lethal mix, I believe it’s called…appeasement.
It is not one world. BTW, a late Happy New Year to everyone at OFK.
What’s really ridiculous about all this, in my view, is that portraits of Jesus should be considered equally offensive to Muslims. In my country there’d be scarcely a room in any old lady’s house without one and I imagine it’s not too different in the rest of Europe. For some reason attacking them doesn’t quite appeal so much to these nutcases.
You know, I’d wondered what you thought of Ireland’s new blasphemy law and whether you think it will be applied with equal force to the Irish tradition ridiculing the Catholic Church.
First of all I feel complimented that you’d be interested! And more than a little impressed by your awareness of the issue.
In my humble opinion, — and admittedly perhaps not a very well informed one, since it was things like this which drove me into a Joyce-style exile from the country in the first place — it’s just another facepalm moment from a government which has come to be defined thereby. Its introduction is, in my view, without just cause; religious radicalism of any kind in Ireland — well, the Republic — is next to non-existent.
To answer your question I am, believe it or not, worried that this will serve to insulate the Catholic Church from the various forms of ridicule, satire and fun-poking to which it has become subjected; I have been surprised and greatly disappointed in recent times by the extent to which elements of the Irish political classes have rushed to the defence of the Church which is suffering a huge crisis of legitimacy among the general public, especially in urban areas.
On the other hand, if it is not equally applied, and the government is simply jumping on the we’re-afraid-of-extremists bandwagon, this is equally deplorable and — in my view — more than a little insulting to Ireland’s muslims who, from my limited experience of them, are a modest and respectful bunch who do not take themselves too seriously.
One possible saving grace which briefly sprang to my mind was that it could be a reaction to the small yet growing (in spite of its inherent and blinding contradictions) far right in Ireland, members of whom do indulge in sporadic acts of violence and intimidation against Muslims and Jews alike — but this in fact plays straight into their hands and gives them another stupid governmental move to refer to as appeasement and so forth. Furthermore it does nothing to further insulate against their similar hatred of the LGBT community.
Unfortunately I’ve no more time to elaborate upon this at the moment, but you’ve given me food for blogging now that I’ve started thinking about it. Of course I’d be interested to hear any thoughts you may have about it.
Oh and happy new year!
“People are willing to kill and die over these . . . cartoons?”
With dedicated men like Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab, there’ll always be more attacks . . . except that he seems more inspired by cartoons of Wile E. Coyote than cartoons of Muhammad.
Jeffery Hodges
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The reason is
to preventidolatry.