Comments on: Why “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” is Doucheful

By: Prince

Prince — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 02:09:17 +0000

At one level, I agree in thinking, oh, grow up alderay when it comes to the cartoons. But this is obviously a complex issue to me, one who can paint overly borad strokes at times and overly simplifies at times. Your point of reference, Dave, is you and how you process things. That ain’t how things, in general, are processed by those inflamed by the cartoons.I won’t even comment on the radicals using this for political gain to stir anger for their benefit. We have those here in this country as well, known as Republicans & Democrats, even though their stirring is less violent.You have over there a large mass of poor, uneducated, and highly pissed-off people. Their religion, as silly as it may be to educated people, is what they identify and define themselves with, more than anything else I am aware of. Tends to happen with poor people, even in this country. To insult their religion is more than just a poking of fun to them, it goes much deeper.You would think that atrocities such as the moronic crusades would be out of their system by now, but the crusader term is still used by them. The violence between the Palestinians and Jews is a vicious circle, only further entrenching the belief that there’s an attack on Islam. Bitterness takes long to die. They think very differently about reality than you or I might.The violence is past my understanding. Yet I see few people, at least in the media, try to understand the perspectives of the really angry over there. I am not empathizing as much as thinking that if we expect the violence to stop anytime soon, we must strive to have a much better understanding of how the thinking of others not like us is appreciably differnt; a very differemt reality perspective. Then again, if it doesn’t affect them, most people in this country could care less.

By: jorm

jorm — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 00:04:04 +0000

In reply to Sean Scott.

I’m not entirely sure of what you’re saying here. Are you saying that you think it’s okay to engage in “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” is okay because certain sects of Islamic fundamentalists believe in using violence to quell free speech?

I ask because it seems unclear to me who you are saying was generally getting their ass beaten by anyone.

By: Sean Scott

Sean Scott — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 09:25:54 +0000

One would think that having generally had your ass beaten by anyone who felt you needed it for most of your life, and having them get away with it, that you would have formed at least an inkling of a suspicion that being understanding and accepting doesn’t work too well when dealing with someone who wants to hurt you.

By: James Reffell

James Reffell — Sun, 23 May 2010 04:41:07 +0000

I think you’re misjudging Andres Serrano, and Piss Christ, here. His work is too complex, and probably more importantly, too *gorgeous* in it’s own right, to be lumped in with “I just wanna start a fight” people.

(I love that photograph.)

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 20 May 2010 22:15:47 +0000

This is how Mohammed is depicted on a tapestry in Tehran, Iran.

http://www.frontaalnaakt.nl/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/tehran_carpetmuseum_muhamad.JPG

Now, if I were a homophobic religious extremist I’d be rather offended.

I think your comments are rather harsh.
Humor is a way to deal with fear.

I feel there are sensible reasons to fear Muslim extremism.
Dealing with this without carpet bombing is pretty OK in my book.

By: Tweets that mention Why “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” is Doucheful – gaijin.com -- Topsy.com

Thu, 20 May 2010 21:53:38 +0000

[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Lee Davis-Thalbourne, jorm. jorm said: Freedom of Speech is not a "get out of jail free" card for being a douchebag: http://bit.ly/9ODVp8 […]

By: Wyn

Wyn — Thu, 20 May 2010 21:21:20 +0000

That’s the problem, though – there’s no real way to attack fringe fundamentalists of any religion without risking offending the more moderate people. If the more moderate people were truly “moderate”, however, there would be some level of understanding – “They’re not trying to offend me, they’re doing this in response to the outrage over bullshit that was going on earlier.”

Tolerance is definitely a two-way street – we should be tolerant of their beliefs, but conversely, there seems to be little to no acknowledgement by the average that we don’t have to hold those same beliefs and are not obliged at all to follow them, and that we live in secular countries and that religion never trumps someone’s rights.

The LOLMOHAMMED situation is really just a synecdochic metaphor for the larger secular/Muslim conflict in society: we do things differently in North America and Europe, and anything that you choose to put into a public forum for any reason can be mocked for no better reason than that the scoffer has had a bad day. The (very) common perception of Muslims in the West is that many think that their right to not be offended trumps everyone’s right to be heard, and the responses to the initial depiction of Mohammad in the Swedish newspaper (despite the fact that it was inflammatory and arguably “racist”) only reinforce that perception.

Muslims are free to believe that Mohammad can’t be represented in media, but they have no right to enforce that belief on anyone who is not Muslim; the currently existing threat of violence towards those who do is terrorism (v. textbook definition thereof). The only proper response towards terrorism is defiance, and punishment of those who choose to follow through with their threats.

If you’re correct in the statement that not respecting the Islamic proscription against depicting Mohammad is akin to vandalizing Islam, then a) not respecting the fact that freedom *from* religion and freedom of speech both exist in the Western countries where said depictions are occurring and b) threatening to use violence to correct what they see as an issue is, therefore, vandalism of every Western nation, the concept of freedom of speech, and my freedom to not be regulated by their faith.