Basic Common Sense
Monday January 30, 2006
A thread recently erupted from a forum I’m active in, a discussion of the actions in the latest events that unfolded in Europe / Middle East about a series of cartoon illustrations depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist in a Danish newspaper.
Personally I think the reaction is overboard with the burning of flags, boycotting of Danish goods and threatening Danes living in the Middle East. I can understand their feelings but not their actions, which is just silly. A person’s action is clearly not a true reflection of a nation’s. The actions were clearly uncalled for, but in my humble opinion as well, the drawing shouldn’t have been thought of in the first place what more publicised. I personally think comic / humour poking on religions be it Islam, Christianity, Judaism etc is just bad taste. There are many other topics to poke fun at and why would you joke about one’s God / religion when you do not of your own?
True the world is not all Muslims but the world / Denmark is not all non-Muslims either. The world is getting smaller and we are living in a multi-racial and multi-ethnic society thus simple basic tolerance and sensitivity of religion is all that is needed. The cartoonist, an adult should have known better than to draw material from such a serious issue, which is a small step too far. Yes, it wasn’t meant as an insult but an image is a powerful thing. Portraying the Prophet Muhammad as a Terrorist is an issue. Granted it is a comic illustration but what message does that spread and advocate about Islam to the younger non-Muslim audiences who are reading it? The matter at hand might be trivial but the implications aren’t. One have to understand from that point of view and one expects that from an adult.
Islam the religion and Muslims in general have already suffered because of the actions of psychos proclaiming to be Muslims by crashing planes into buildings. Again, actions of some organisation are not the true reflection of a religion and its followers entirely. We all know violence and hatred only begets them back, so why pour more fuel to an already burning flame when you should be pouring water to kill it off? There is a need to have balance in the freedom of speech and also basic common sense – practice of tolerance of one’s race, gender, religion etc. If human beings can’t respect simple acts like these, then we are no better than the animals living in the wild.
// Filed under: Religion
# Simon
Thu Feb 2, 12:33 AM
Well said.
I too had a read about it and was thinking on similar lines
# Johannes
Wed Feb 22, 10:24 AM
I wouldn’t say we’re better than the animals living in the wild in any case – they actually serve a greater purpose, whereas we don’t at all. Cheers.
# Khairudin Lee
Thu Feb 23, 04:17 AM
@Johannes
Hah, you could and you are right to say that as well. Cheers for dropping by mate.
# Johannes
Thu Feb 23, 01:09 PM
The pleasure is mine. .