Monday, February 06, 2006

Deadly Cartoon

I was reading the world news today and caught the growing story about a cartoon published in a Danish publication. It was a caricature of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed. It seems that the Muslim community is in an uproar about this depiction. They have been protesting and rioting.

It is just a cartoon.

One of the pictures carried by one of the news agencies (AFP) showed a young Iranian woman holding a sign proclaiming, "No-one is allowed to insult Islam". Following pictures are of different groups of protestors burning and tearing apart the national flag of Denmark. Isn't that an insult ?

It is ok to insult a country by burning their flag in protest but they cant depict your religious leader in an insulting fashion. I haven't seen the cartoon. I don't know how insulting it might be, but, just yesterday security forces opened fire on protestors, killing at least 4. Four people killed over a cartoon ? There is too much going on in life to die for a cartoon. I believe in God, but He is big enough to defend himself if there comes a time he is insulted by a cartoon depiction of himself (and there have been many).

Can't we all just get along ?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ron,
Did you feel the same way when movies that question a christian God came out, like the Last Temptation or Dogma? I support your point in that religions need to have some sense of humor and learn that questionong is a healthy part of believing....
Russ Mullins

Ron Simpson said...

As the matter of fact … I did feel the same way ... I never saw the “last temptation” as it was, in my eyes, simply a movie that I would not enjoy ... I didn’t fear the questioning factor ... I know what (and more importantly, WHY) I believe ... others questioning my faith or belief system doesn’t offend me ... or scare me .. I think more people are scared by questions, movies, cartoons, editorials, and/or other forms of what they perceive as attacks (and they may well be attacks). Even if they are attacks, religions have been attacking each other for ages. We like to think we have gained some manner of civilization in our world. Events like this point to the fact that we have far to go … or are perhaps, going in the wrong direction …

Ron