It’s Time to Grow Up
So, a Danish newspaper published caricatures of Mohammed the Prophet. And a Norwegian newspaper published the cartoons as well. Now some Moslems are jumping around in rage. Libya claims it will close its Danish embassy. A United Arab Emirates statement claims it was cultural terrorism.
A Danish business, Arla Foods, is being wrongly targeted by some Moslems as the source. The business wants the caricatures censored. It considers its own interests as more sacred than freedom of speech.
Traditionally Islam has banned pictures of the Prophet to fend off idolatry. It has something in common with some Protestants. If any Moslem wishes not to not possess any graphic depiction, that’s OK. It’s their decision. But, the real meaning of freedom of expression is for people to be able to make pictures without censorship.
A few years ago, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a death warrant for Salman Rushdie with the claim of blasphemous writing. This fatwa by Iran’s religious leadership was a criminal act. Any attempt to censor another can be called terrorism, not the other way around.
I’ll readily admit that the United States is backward in this area. Certain words of anglo-saxon origin are banned, but the norman-french equivalents are allowed. Extremist Christians also want to curb what they consider blasphemy by murdering abortion workers and blowing up buildings. Words this bunch tries to suppress do not even exist in the Bible.
So for those persons who claim a godly right to suppress the speech of others, I say grow up. Let God or Allah or whatever take care of their business. When mere mortals claim divine right, they are corrupted.
This business of playing a tyrant or an outraged child is hardly the act of a thoughtful human being. Learning to live with one another is. That will be a far better representative of your god than childish tantrums.
by Brian McCorkle
in category Rants
