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The Mohammed Cartoon Controversy
Monday, 2006 February 6 - 7:48 pm
A little moderation on both sides, please.

Boy, this whole thing about the Mohammed cartoons sure has gotten out of hand. Riots, fires, deaths? Over a cartoon?

While there's clearly a lot of overreaction to this, I'm a little bit concerned over the insensitivity to Muslim feelings. I mean, I would expect a large controversy to erupt if, say, a French newspaper published a cartoon showing Jesus dressed in an Army uniform, taking delight in eating Iraqi babies. And then think if the French government defended that newspaper. Would Christians in the U.S. protest in front of the French embassy? Call for a boycott of French products? Set some fires? It's not too far-fetched.

The thing about these drawings is that they are offensive, in the way they promote negative stereotypes. It's the same as if they showed Jewish people hoarding money, black people being criminals, Mexicans being lazy... you get the idea. While a lot of people seem to think Muslims are fair game because of what happened in 9/11, the fact is that most Muslims are peaceful and tolerant, just like we claim to be. So to display a bunch images of Mohammed with bombs and swords just isn't right.

Now, I will always defend the right for people and newspapers to print stuff like this... I just question their judgment in doing so. Are people allowed to say offensive things? Yeah, but it doesn't mean that they should.
Permalink  2 Comment   Bookmark and Share
Posted by Ken in: commentary

Comments

Comment #1 from MonoCerdo (Guest)
2006 Feb 7 - 11:12 am : #
Similarly, Northwestern University's president just sent out a university-wide email to respond to complaints that a tenured faculty member, Arthur Butz, is commending Ahmadinejad's assertion that the Holocaust never happened. The email essentially stated what you just did--that the university finds his statement to be odious and "a contemptible insult to all decent and feeling people," but because the remarks were not made in class or included in his curriculum, they cannot take action against him without undermining free speech and intellectual freedom.

Again, you can defend the right, but not the judgment.
Comment #2 from Ken (realkato)
2006 Feb 7 - 4:09 pm : #
His name is really Arthur Butz? Any relation to Seymour?

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