Op/ed on radical Islam
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Op/ed on radical Islam
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/edi...all_danes_now/
We are all Danes now
By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist | February 5, 2006
HINDUS CONSIDER it sacrilegious to eat meat from cows, so when a Danish supermarket ran a sale on beef and veal last fall, Hindus everywhere reacted with outrage. India recalled its ambassador to Copenhagen, and Danish flags were burned in Calcutta, Bombay, and Delhi. A Hindu mob in Sri Lanka severely beat two employees of a Danish-owned firm, and demonstrators in Nepal chanted: ''War on Denmark! Death to Denmark!"In many places, shops selling Dansk china or Lego toys were attacked by rioters, and two Danish embassies were firebombed.
It didn't happen, of course. Hindus may consider it odious to use cows as food, but they do not resort to boycotts, threats, and violence when non-Hindus eat hamburger or steak. They do not demand that everyone abide by the strictures of Hinduism and avoid words and deeds that Hindus might find upsetting. The same is true of Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Mormons: They don't lash out in violence when their religious sensibilities are offended. They certainly don't expect their beliefs to be immune from criticism, mockery, or dissent.
But radical Muslims do.
The current uproar over cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammed published in a Danish newspaper illustrates yet again the fascist intolerance that is at the heart of radical Islam. Jyllands-Posten, Denmark's largest daily, commissioned the cartoons to make a point about freedom of speech. It was protesting the climate of intimidation that had made it impossible for a Danish author to find an illustrator for his children's book about Mohammed. No artist would agree to illustrate the book for fear of being harmed by Muslim extremists. Appalled by this self-censorship, Jyllands-Posten invited Danish artists to submit drawings of Mohammed, and published the 12 it received.
(The op/ed is a bit longer than this, click the link to read the entire piece.)
I find myself agreeing with Jacoby, for the most part. If I had been his editor, I would probably have asked him to more clearly point out that the vast marjority of Muslims do not react violently to criticism, but his point is nevertheless clear and accurate.
We are all Danes now
By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist | February 5, 2006
HINDUS CONSIDER it sacrilegious to eat meat from cows, so when a Danish supermarket ran a sale on beef and veal last fall, Hindus everywhere reacted with outrage. India recalled its ambassador to Copenhagen, and Danish flags were burned in Calcutta, Bombay, and Delhi. A Hindu mob in Sri Lanka severely beat two employees of a Danish-owned firm, and demonstrators in Nepal chanted: ''War on Denmark! Death to Denmark!"In many places, shops selling Dansk china or Lego toys were attacked by rioters, and two Danish embassies were firebombed.
It didn't happen, of course. Hindus may consider it odious to use cows as food, but they do not resort to boycotts, threats, and violence when non-Hindus eat hamburger or steak. They do not demand that everyone abide by the strictures of Hinduism and avoid words and deeds that Hindus might find upsetting. The same is true of Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Mormons: They don't lash out in violence when their religious sensibilities are offended. They certainly don't expect their beliefs to be immune from criticism, mockery, or dissent.
But radical Muslims do.
The current uproar over cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammed published in a Danish newspaper illustrates yet again the fascist intolerance that is at the heart of radical Islam. Jyllands-Posten, Denmark's largest daily, commissioned the cartoons to make a point about freedom of speech. It was protesting the climate of intimidation that had made it impossible for a Danish author to find an illustrator for his children's book about Mohammed. No artist would agree to illustrate the book for fear of being harmed by Muslim extremists. Appalled by this self-censorship, Jyllands-Posten invited Danish artists to submit drawings of Mohammed, and published the 12 it received.
I find myself agreeing with Jacoby, for the most part. If I had been his editor, I would probably have asked him to more clearly point out that the vast marjority of Muslims do not react violently to criticism, but his point is nevertheless clear and accurate.
530i
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I love how every day in the Arab world, there are caricatures of Jews drinking the blood of Arab children and using it to make the Passover matzah yet you see no outrage.
Ok, it sucks people had to draw cartoons, but calm the fuck down.
Ok, it sucks people had to draw cartoons, but calm the fuck down.
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From: NH
Denmark is a free country with a free press. If Muslims do not like this then they are free togo back to their own countries where they will not see images of the Prophet Muhammed.
I also find it appalling that Muslims are expressing more outrage over a cartoon than at the beheadings and kidnappings taking place throughout the world.
I also find it appalling that Muslims are expressing more outrage over a cartoon than at the beheadings and kidnappings taking place throughout the world.
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From: Palo Alto, CA
Let me just preface this by saying that the reaction from the Muslim community is fully overblown. But I'm going to say that the article (at least the snippet in the first post) is comparing apples to oranges. The situation described in the article is incidental; the beef is just there and is not solicited for any purpose relating to Hinduism. But these cartoons were solicited to examine just what Danes thought of Islam, and it's clear that many Danes don't think too highly of it. The cartoon sketchers were thinking about Islam when they drew the cartoons, the butcher at the supermarket was probably just thinking about beef and not Hinduism.
As far as them being upset, why shoudn't they be? Religion means different things to different people. Islam is a very involving religion. It's the only one I can think of that requires 5 prayers a day, a month of fasting, and a pilgramage to the city of its founding. It is also the one thing that held the Arab culture together during the last several centuries of occupation. It's akin to someone burning the American flag. People in other countries probably don't care, but Americans probably will get upset. All of you are going to jump on this and say "But they're killing people and burning flags and buildings." This is certainly true and certainly not acceptable. However, I don't think protesting, or withdrawing ambassadors, or writing letters demanding an apology, or boycotting Danish goods is unacceptable. We may not their reasoning, but its certainly their right to be upset.
As far as them being upset, why shoudn't they be? Religion means different things to different people. Islam is a very involving religion. It's the only one I can think of that requires 5 prayers a day, a month of fasting, and a pilgramage to the city of its founding. It is also the one thing that held the Arab culture together during the last several centuries of occupation. It's akin to someone burning the American flag. People in other countries probably don't care, but Americans probably will get upset. All of you are going to jump on this and say "But they're killing people and burning flags and buildings." This is certainly true and certainly not acceptable. However, I don't think protesting, or withdrawing ambassadors, or writing letters demanding an apology, or boycotting Danish goods is unacceptable. We may not their reasoning, but its certainly their right to be upset.
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From: NH
Originally Posted by Kestrel
We may not their reasoning, but its certainly their right to be upset.
Telling Denmark "Did you not learn from 9/11?", torching their embassies, etc. is not acceptable behavior. We are fast becoming tolerent of the intolerent.
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From: Palo Alto, CA
Originally Posted by DVPGSR
Telling Denmark "Did you not learn from 9/11?", torching their embassies, etc. is not acceptable behavior. We are fast becoming tolerent of the intolerent.
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One thing that a lot of people dont understand about the Islamic world is that the mass of the population is uneducated. Most of these portestors have not seen the cartoons. The religion should not be balmed, it's the leaders of the religion that are calling the shots, the Imams, the governements who are usually Islamic radicals that have no interest in chaging because they would lose power over the people. They dont want the Islamic people to change to get educated to go forward because they know that if they do they will end up like the Church who lost it's power over the followers concluding in less and less people beleiving in religions...I am not saying it's a bad thing but the the leaders of the Islamic world do not want that to happen.
Most of the Arab world does not know what is going on the world, they dont have access to internet, they dont have acces to information like us. I mean, a report foundthat the total number of books translated into Arabic yearly is no more than 330, or one-fifth of those translated in a small country like Greece. How are they sopposed to be able to be diplomatic about issues like these?
We all know that the wolrd is not at peace right now, and it is just common sence that the news paper editors should've never let this happen! the islamics people are WRONG no doubt about that, however why would we give them something more to fight about?
Most of the Arab world does not know what is going on the world, they dont have access to internet, they dont have acces to information like us. I mean, a report foundthat the total number of books translated into Arabic yearly is no more than 330, or one-fifth of those translated in a small country like Greece. How are they sopposed to be able to be diplomatic about issues like these?
We all know that the wolrd is not at peace right now, and it is just common sence that the news paper editors should've never let this happen! the islamics people are WRONG no doubt about that, however why would we give them something more to fight about?
