Monday 6 February 2006

Pic of the day: "Bring misfortune and hopelessness to this world!" In reality, very few people intend to do that, but it still happens.

Religious caricatures

Several months ago, a fairly large Danish newspaper for some reason printed several caricature drawings of Muhammad (your spelling may vary), the latest and greatest prophet of Islam. This is not a nice thing to do, not just because that kind of drawing is impolite by nature. But also Islam has a generic prohibition against pictures. While moderate Muslims accept photos and schematic drawings, Islam does not use pictures in their holy places like most churches do. Depicting sacred persons or concepts is specifically forbidden because it could lead to worship of the pictures or sculptures.

(The irony is that the prohibition of pictures is in the Bible too; but Christianity has generally not cared what the Bible says when it didn't fit with our own culture. So we allow things that the Bible forbids, such as pictures of God, and we forbid things that the Bible allows, such as polygamy. Islam is actually more loyal to the Bible than Christianity in these things, creepy as this may sound.)

Time passed, and a small nice paper in Norway reprinted the pictures in facsimile, to illustrate some point, supposedly about freedom of press. Or perhaps that came later. Anyway, word of the events spread, and time passed again. Muslim groups in Denmark started to make an issue out of the blasphemous drawings. Not all Muslims, but some. A few of them took a trip abroad, bringing with them not only those drawings but also some that they had found elsewhere and which were far more blasphemous, depicting Muhammad as a pig or a pedophile. (Or so it is said, I have not seen those.) From what I have heard, these were sent privately to one or more Muslims, they certainly did not appear in the papers. Anyway the expedition asked for support abroad. The thing caught on in various Muslim countries, and led to ever greater demonstrations and eventually hate crimes, until now Danish and Norwegian embassies are being attacked with stones and homemade fire bombs. Norwegians are being cautioned to avoid such countries as Indonesia, and Norwegian aid workers are being withdrawn from Muslim countries.

I'd say that the Muslims who threaten random Norwegians because of something printed in a fringe paper despised by most Norwegians ... well, they've failed a pretty basic IQ test. Luckily the rabid Muslims are spanking themselves here, since Norway and Denmark have very little to lose. After all, the supposedly offended part is misgoverned third world countries. Their trade with the world's most advanced countries is pretty limited anyway. So their governments obviously don't want Scandinavian investment since they fail to protect our embassies. Well, that's fine. We have other places to go, believe it or not. And for the last generation or so, being killed by a Muslim fanatic has mostly been caused not by any religious offense, but by being in a crowded place with lots of civilians – often women and children. "In the name of Allah, the merciful, the compassionate..." ?

Who is a caricature of Muhammad?

In all fairness, there are a number of calm and wise Muslims in the world. It would not surprise me if they outnumber the fanatics. And of course, just like with any other religion, the vast majority don't much care, as long as they can go on with their lives. But the hotheads are the ones who make the news. And the truth is, it really is a lot easier to kill than to resurrect. At least for now. I believe there will be a change in this some way into the future. But these rioters are not helping, and neither are some on "our" side.