Bring It On!

By Abdallah on Feb 27, 2007 | Reply

Hi Greg,

Why printing them would be as you but it “kow-towing to militant Islamists leads to a generalized ignorance”

As matter of fact it’s not so at all, what we need empathy and sympathy for one anther, in my view it would be 100% an apathy and lack of human basic feelings and decency to cause so much anger and aggravation to millions and millions of people from all continents and all walks of life because of what you believe as liberal values and freedom of speech, it’s not worth it if it does not feel right..!

I and over billions of Muslims would not want vulnerably offended your beliefs and attack what is most dear to you, so why would you that……..?

Treat the others the same way you would like to be treated and don’t bring harm to others that will bring harm to you…!

I thought that was what human relationship is all about…!!!

By Craig R. Harmon on Feb 27, 2007 | Reply

Abdallah,

Hi! Name’s Craig by the way, but I get Greg a lot. I’m all for empathy and sympathy for one another but I’m also for providing the full background (and in some cases, foreground) for news stories. One cannot fully understand the extent of overreactions to the publishing of those cartoons without seeing the cartoons themselves that led to so much property destruction and threats of executions. My friend, there is no excuse for beheading a cartoonist for publishing a cartoon whose content one does not like and, while no one was actually beheaded, yet, for publishing cartoons, we all saw the calls for that. That cannot be allowed to cow us Westerners. Freedom of expression is too valuable a freedom.

I also question the point you made about those cartoons causing anger and aggravation. The cartoons did not cause the anger. The tenents of Islam and the instigation of radical imams caused the anger. The only thing the cartoons caused was us Westerners to open our eyes to the extent of radicalism within Islam and to see how little free expression there would be under Sharia. The death of Theo van Gough and the death threat that authors like Salman Rushdie live under are further testament to the absense of religious tolerance within radical Islam and the absence of condemnations of such death threats by moderate Muslims is further testament to how cowed moderates within Islam are, themselves either cowed by the radicals or agree with the radicals. Either way, skimping on the background for such stories does only one thing: whitewashes reality, something that serves no legitimate Western value. I would point out that when “artists” produced such things as “Piss Jesus”, a mason jar with a plastic crucifix submerged in the “artist’s” urine, the New York Times and many other media published pictures, not just descriptions, of that. The lack of calls for beheadings from Christians was deafening. Likewise when an artist produced a painting of Madonna and Child (infant Jesus in his mother, Mary’s, arms) covered with excrement, that, too, was pictured in Newspapers throughout the country. Again, journalistic double standards are not legitimate Western standards.

Also, if you have seen the sort of cartoons that are routinely published in Muslim countries depicting Jews as vampires, as rodents, as all manner of vermin, you would know that your statement: “I and over billions of Muslims would not want vulnerably offended your beliefs and attack what is most dear to you, so why would you that……..?” is simply untrue. Muslims publish expressions of hatred and demeaning of others, particularly the US and Israel that are much more insulting than any of the cartoons published in Denmark.

We are at war with radical Islam. Surrendering to radical Islam is no way to win that war and that’s exactly wht the Western press did by refusing to publish those cartoons: they surrendered to radical Islamists.

I thought tolerance was what human relationships were all about…!!!

As you can see, we disagree on just about everything.