Muhammad Comics
I don't know how many of you know much about the huge controversy about some cartoons published in a Danish newspaper depicting various comic artists' renditions of the prophet Muhammad, who isn't supposed to be represented physically according to Muslim tradition, but I thought some people might be interested in reading this.
The Washington Post ran an article which printed the Danish Newspaper's editor's response to the overwhelmingly antagonistic backlash against the comics. Here's a few excerpts from the article:
Has Jyllands-Posten insulted and disrespected Islam? It certainly didn't intend to. But what does respect mean? When I visit a mosque, I show my respect by taking off my shoes. I follow the customs, just as I do in a church, synagogue or other holy place. But if a believer demands that I, as a nonbeliever, observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for my respect, but for my submission. And that is incompatible with a secular democracy.
A little later in the article, he wrote contrasting Denmark's religious tolerance to the Middle East's intolerance:
Nowhere do so many religions coexist peacefully as in a democracy where freedom of expression is a fundamental right. In Saudi Arabia, you can get arrested for wearing a cross or having a Bible in your suitcase, while Muslims in secular Denmark can have their own mosques, cemeteries, schools, TV and radio stations.
When you read the whole article, you can see that the riots were not necessarily typical Muslim reaction to the comics. A very small percentage went out and tried to bomb embassies. It specifically discusses how many moderate Danish Muslims were willing to speak out against the violence that occurred in response to the comics.
If you haven't seen the cartoons, they can be found here. They are definitely potentially offensive, but so are a lot of things that get published, and generally those things don't provoke so much violence as this did.
I'm curious about what you guys think about the whole situation. Should the newspaper have not printed the comics because they were potentially offensive? What about the radical Muslim reaction, was it justified? Any other opinions?