No, their actions aren't justified, but their outrage is. That's what I've been saying. I'm in no way condoning violence, but it's about more than just the cartoon, it's the principle of the disrespect of their beliefs. The whole Kanye as Jesus liason had nothing to do with this in any way.
There's a difference between disrespect and satire. Unless the cartoonist truly did this because he has something against Islam and it's beliefs, then IMO, this cartoon was just satire and should be viewed as a joke, not a sign of disrespect. It's no different than Kanye as Jesus, or South Park poking fun at Jews, both of which haven't resuled in violence.
Sure it's different. Pictures of Jesus are allowed to be shown. Images of Prophet Mohammed are not. They're completely banned from view because they don't want him to be idolized. That's one of the highest insults one can possibly use in the face of the Islamic religion. Even if it had been a positive image, people would have been angry. I can't even think of anything that could possibly be as offensive to Christians or Jews. Not to mention it was a picture of their God with a turban shaped like a bomb. What kind of racist crap is that? Suddenly Mohammed is a terrorist? Of course he isn't. It's the fanatics and extremists who become suicide bombers. This is stereotypical garbage that should never have been published in the first place. That's not funny, or satirical at all, it's just downright disrespectful. What kind of response did they think they were going to get with that? It's sickening.
You know what this reminds me of? Farenheit 451. The minorities found this offensive, and want it removed. Ray Bradbury must be able to predict the future somehow... Well, I don't know what to say. People make fun of Christianity all of the time, and people make fun of Judiasm all of the time. I haven't seen any major reactions to that. As Todd said, it's satire. And these people are taking it too seriously.
well the cartoons didnt make any comotion where i live and thats coldwater michigan(the second most muslam and arabic city in michigan) my schools bout 60 % of them and they didnt even seem to think about it or mention it so that was good for me at least
I think you guys are seeing it from the wrong perspective. You guys are seeing it as "christians wouldn't act out like this over something like that" (and the same goes for jews). But we have to stop drawing the parallels between how people of different religions would react to something similar because we're talking about two entirely different religions. We're talking about incredibly spiritually connected people over in the Middle East (and a few overzealous people in Europe) who have different customs and ways of going about showing protest. They've been incredibly offended because there was no respect for their utmost law that there's to be no depiction of Prophet Mohammed anywhere. This is how they show their anger. Do I agree with it? No. But I understand their anger.
And now it's down to the US and Zionism? (see news today...) I'm not extremely pro-US but they're not to blame for what's going on, nor is Israel. This just shows again how brainwashed and stubborn these people are.
The main question is : "Would you think Freedom is more important than Respect to eachother?" Middeleast people are Plato oriented Believe in god soul. Western people are Socrates oriented believe in facts. It's all about communication.. when you see someones ugly dressed up you have to choices: 1) be honest and tell the fact that it's ugly.(hurts the person if it's not your best friend) 2) respect the others taste and say that it's ok.without saying beautifull. Disrespecting other people in the name of freedom is abusing freedom. Fighting in the name of god is abusing religion. Thats my opinion.. Can't you see that european countries are now just another western "hurting" country beside all what USA and Israel did to them? do you think they will forget their pain and suffer and take this case diffrently? Looking at this case only from western vieuw wouldn't make you understand the situation.
J-Flex, what I mean is that the protesters are chanting, according to CNN, "Death to America, Death to Israel" while 3 days ago no word was ever said about these 2 countries? That's clearly opportunism, they don't really care about the cartoons, they just wish death upon Western civilization. Even worst, Iran launched a contest for the most... violent, politicaly incorrect Holocaust cartoon. What the fuck! When you start killing some of your countrymen, burning foreign countries' embassies and mocking a mega-mass murder that happened 60 years ago and that is in no way related to the cartoons, there's something wrong! Maybe they were politically incorrect, yes, but you can't decide what a newspaper in a country that is not yours can or cannot publish. Many Middle Easterners despise the control their gov'ts has on them and their media but look at their reaction over this situation, it's like saying "We want more!".
It's not necessarily the cartoons themselves, but the principle of respect that the messages behind these cartoons violated. Again, not condoning all the over-reaction and violence, but there's a deeper meaning to this than just "cartoons".
If all the protests were peaceful and would carry a message of peace true to Muslim principles, I wouldn't complain. However, by acting like this, they show they are opportunists because they don't even respect values associated to their religion - everything seems to be an excuse to blame "zionism, Western culture, America, Israel" and to burn stuff...
oh my god.. i literally had to go throw up i was laughing so much.. and thats only happened a few times in my life that was so funny
well....now an iran newspaper is running a contest for holocaust cartoons.....now that is really uncalled for edit:just noticed someone already mentioned this....didn't read that post....but either way same opinion
OK guys, as a muslim myself, I'm going to give you my two cents on this whole issue. These cartoons have been extremely disrespectful to our prophet MUHAMMAD (peace be upon him), and that's why there is anger, not because of the anti-islamic message (that happens all the time nowadays, so there wouldn't be riots because of that). Mark, you have understood completely why there is so much negative reaction, and thank you very much for your constant attempt to emphasize on the fact that they were OFFENSIVE and RUDE, but the only thing you've said wrong is that Muhammad is god. He is not. He is in our religion the messenger of God who spread islam. As you all mayknow, any pictures of him are completely forbidden and looked down upon, let alone ones used to poke fun at him. The illustrator of these comments has apologized and should, in a perfect world, be forgiven for his wrong actions. The thing you people have to realize is that in the middle east, and in asia, there is this thing called MOB PSYCHOLOGY, which causes unnecessary overreaction to the littlest thing. The main rason behind these riots is the fact that the PEOPLE can't use their own judgement, and blindly follow into these riots, and obviously are too fired up to realize their actions. It is a huge problem in islamic society that people do these things and call it "jihad". I assure you, if Muhammad was alive today and saw what was happening, he would be much, much angrier at the muslim people than at the cartoonist.
Understood. But what religion hasn't had something offensive and rude published about them? As I said before, its called a joke, and the Muslims seem to be the only ones who don't get it. Even the religious christains are able to take jokes about them.
I don't know, I guess us muslims are overly sensitive to religious mockery. Remember, these cartoons didn't target a terrrorist, like bin Laden, but the Prophet himself. That is a huge insult to us. And of course, because of the extremists (who, by the way, set horrible examples for islam, because they emphasize the punishment over the forgiveness and end up counterring what islam actually teaches), people in the middle east are doing crazy things without thinking. Let me tell you right now, any comics about the holocaust or christianity is extremely unislamic. As I've said before, it's the values of that society and how the people are brought up there that causes such crazy reactions to things like these. But that is not islamically right. And incidentally, Denmark is the leading contributor in funds and support for Palestine. I wonder how many illiterate Paliestinians knew or thought about that when burning down Danish embassy buildings.
If I had a dime for everytime Jesus was mocked, I'd be rich. If I had a dime for each time Muhammed was mocked, I'd have 10 cents.
lol....neway....i think i heard today that again in outrage of the cartoons protestors burned an american flag and destroyed a KFC...........that musta really hurt the danish
Christianity and Islam are different in that way. We respect him so much, that even as a joke, no muslim thinks to mock him.