Do You Support Religious Intolerance As Long As It's Against Muslims?

Danny Carlton weighs in on the Mohammed cartoon uproar with "The Battle of Extremist Idiots."

Although I do not believe that anyone involved in this controversy is an "idiot," Danny lays out in broad brush strokes the reasons why he believes publishers who have gone out their way to intentionally offend Muslims are wrong.  Of course, he also argues that the Muslims who have used the cartoons as an excuse for violence are wrong, but that is a given.

Here's an excerpt:

"In one corner we have the moronic [ouch] secularists that insist that freedom of speech cannot exist unless they are allowed to freely, repeatedly and frequently say, write or draw the most vile, obscene, vulgar and insulting things their perverted minds can come up with. The logic of reasoned restraint is lost on them. In their twisted minds the right to provoke must be absolute or freedom means nothing. It's sort of like the kids whose given an expensive gift, and promptly breaks it. They can't grasp the idea that freedom abused is not really all that valuable and in the end, not really worth saving.

"In the other corner we have the mindless, religious extremists who use their religion (Islam is the current fad) as a rational for violence, hatred, murder and any other kind of evil their sick minds can think of. The zeal is not truly for the religion, but for the violence they believe their religion gives them license to commit.  Any offense becomes a justification of extreme reaction.

"Ironically it's the secularist who treat their concept of "freedom" as much like a religion as any other zealot, while the extremist Moslems ignore much of the religion they claim to follow while dragging its name through the mud. No one defames Islam more than extremist Moslems and no one is a greater threat to freedom of speech than profane secularists. Each have become the greatest enemy of the very things they claim they hold higher than anything else.

"Meanwhile the rest of us are caught in the middle."

You can find the rest of the post here.

In my opinion, the original publication of the Mohammed cartoons in the Danish newspaper was not so far out of bounds as to justify the appellation of "the most vile, obscene, vulgar and insulting things their perverted minds can come up with."  I can understand the original effort to test or to expand the limits of free speech.  However, clearly things are being posted in the blogosphere right now that that quite easily meet Danny's description. Think Mohammed bathroom humor.  Think profanity.  Think the most insulting picture of Mohammed you could concoct.

Forget about the three phony pictures that were circulated to Muslims along with copies of the originally published cartoons.  (Those three phony pictures included a picture of a man with a pig snout, later discovered to be an old picture from a pig-calling contest).  Far worse pictures are being created and posted on the internet right now.  In addition, there is a small but growing groundswell of "nuke Mecca" voices on the internet.  These people are going out of their way to offend Muslims. 

The people engaged in that effort will respond to Danny's post with contempt and continue right on with what they are doing, not caring what the consequences of their efforts will be.

It is the rest of us who need to weigh in and, if we don't condemn such efforts, at least avoid supporting them. 

(Addendum 2/10/06)

Religious tolerance is one of the finest traditions of Western civilization.  So is freedom of speech.  There is no compelling reason why either of these precious values must be sacrificed on the altar of the other, in this case or any other. 

While I wonder whether there is an inherent militarism in Islam that cannot be separated from the religion, there are enough Muslims on this earth living out peaceful lives that I think it is overly simplistic, unnecessary, and premature to "write off" one-sixth of the world's population.  As a Christian, I sincerely hope all Muslims see the light and find a better religious tradition to follow -- preferably one encompassing the Golden Rule of loving our neighbors as ourselves and other positive values embodied in the New Testament.  As a realist, I know that most will not change their deeply held religious beliefs in my lifetime or theirs, and I do not believe that ridiculing their prophet will win them over, either to Christianity or to religious tolerance.  How can I say anything credible about religious tolerance if I am not willing to demonstrate it myself?

As outraged as I am by terrorism -- the deliberate, targeted maiming and slaughter of innocent, noncombatant civilian men, women, and children -- I know that my enemy is still terrorism, not Islam.  The war against terrorism is one that we can and will win.  I hope we win it in our lifetime. 

I know this:  It will take everything we have.  Let us be honest:  Already it has cost us dearly.  In America alone, it has cost hundreds of billions of dollars and many fine soldiers' lives and health -- for the good, honorable, and noble goal of defeating terrorism so that we never again awaken to the kind of mayhem that we saw on September 11th, or worse. 

So little stands between us and another September 11th -- do you realize that?  Despite all of our diligent efforts, we are ultimately imperfect humans, and motivated terrorists can slip through the cracks and surprise us with new schemes.  We have our hands full with the war on terrorism itself, whether it seems like it or not for nations like America that have recently enjoyed a few blessed years of relative peace. 

Allowing Islamicists to goad us into a 21st century religious crusade against all of Islam is not the way to win this war in our lifetime, nor in our children's lifetimes. 

Some will say that we are already in a religious war.  I know there are plenty of Muslims who that think that, but I thought we knew better.  Has Western civilization reached a consensus that our mission in world history is not to destroy terror, but Islam itself?  If it has, I must have missed the memo.

Tags: muhammed; jyllands-posten mohammed; jyllands-posten muhammed; muhammad cartoon; jyllands-posten

Comments

[mynewsbot]

Friday brings new prophet drawing protests

[DeliLama]

My religion forbids portraying the image of Bugs Bunny. Every Wednesday evening I riot in my cell, after having seen the violation the previous Saturday morning. Just to make myself good and mad, I draw a few graven images myself.

[kdeanhooper]

If you've never encountered a person who abuses, systematically and consciously, your COURTESY, then it is difficult to make sense of this Islamic hoorah, for that is what they're doing, imposing THEIR standards on US, then whining and seething when we don't agree to SUBMIT to THEM!

"As a Christian, I sincerely hope all Muslims see the light and find a better religous tradition to follow --" BUT Islam already subsumes Christianity! They already believe themselves more enlightened, more beloved of God and more spiritually developed than Christians.

There is NOTHING to move Muslims backward to Christianity, and no way to move them forward... except by turning them toward the Promised One prophesied by Jesus (Matt 24:14, Luke 21:24, Matt 24:15) and Who came at the exact time all three of Jesus' holy, truth-telling promises were fulfilled: May 23, 1844!

[Robin]

Gina,
Just so you know, I am NOT one of those who would respond to Danny's post in this manner (I found you at wizbang) I am an American Catholic who WAS married to a Saudi moderate Moslem for nine years. Danny's post and yours are simply a breath of fresh air to me. Notice though who is logging on, your point made. How can a voice of moderation be made when it is falling on deaf ears.
No, I didn't get that memo either, but a whole lot of people did and quite frankly, I am ashamed for them.
It is only ignorant bigots who believe what they are saying. Is their's the voice of reason? I think not, because there are certainly more moslems being hurt by this insanity then there are us.
As a person with a foot and vested interest in both worlds, I applaud your efforts and hope you get some responses which are positive!

[Pat T]

Do you condone religious intolerance as long as it comes in the form of another religion?

Apparently so.

Have you read what the Qur'an and Hadiths say about Jews? They read like the Mein Kampf.