I wasn’t going to weigh in on the anti-muslim cartoon brou-ha-ha, since most people can probably already guess where i stand, but I’ll spell it out anyway.

I believe very strongly in *absolute* freedom of speech. I think the media have a right to say or print whatever they like, and that it *MUST* remain that way if we are ever to preserve a kernel of truth. Once they give in to special interest groups, everything they produce is suspect.

However, that being said, I think that there is plenty of media that *does* pander to the outspoken sector of the Christian public and would never dream of satirising Christ. How is it okay to deliberately poke fun at one religion, when you would *not* poke fun at another? For example, I can quite easily conceive of FOX media satirising Muhammed, but I know without a shadow of a doubt that they would NEVER lampoon Jesus. And while that’s perfectly within their right to do, it doesn’t speak very highly of their ethical stance.

And those papers who won’t reprint the cartoons in question are considered wishy-washy, or too p.c. to show solidarity.

The thing that kills me, is that if it were a cartoon that at was offensive to Christians and they apologised, no one would accuse them of caving to some fundamentalist agenda. Yet it has pout Muslims in an impossible position: if they take offense and speak up to defend their religion, they’re lumped with (potentially terrorist) fundamentalists. And if they don’t say anything, the public continues to think it’s okay to desecrate their beliefs.

(here’s where i go off on a tangent…) The more I think about it, the greater respect I have for the Muslim community I live with. Because in spite of all the terror Christianity has sponsored over the course of history, in spite of all the white-faced crazies like timothy mcveigh and the unabomber and hitler and eta and the ira – in spite of everything horrific anyone white or nominally christian has done, no one has *ever* assumed that because *I* am white and nominally christian, that i might do something terrible. no one has *ever* made me feel like I had to renounce what other white christians have done. yet a small handful of crazy people who happen to be arabic and muslim have caused *all* middle-easterners to be on the defense, all day, every day. they have to continue on with their daily lives constantly playing apologist for muslim terrorists, or face being accused as a sympathiser.

(and this is where i bring it back to the topic at hand…) and on top of all of this, the most sacred symbol of their faith is caricatured, and reprinted in papers around the world, and they’re expected to swallow it and smile. and as the row grows deeper and reactions more extreme (such as the palestinians threatening to kidnap europeans), they risk being tarred with the same brush if they so much as peep in dissent.

it’s no longer about freedom of speech anymore, when a cartoon has become a worldwide symbol of resistance to an extremist islamic regime.

and how ironic then, that that same freedom of speech no longer applies to the people who are the subject of the cartoon itself.

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cartoons, muhammed, islam, freedom of speech