Saturday, February 11, 2006
... and a danish for my friend with the scimitar
Here is one of the 12 cartoons in question:
I think this is actually the most offensive one. On a scale of zero to ten, this is probably in the 6-8 range.
I have read some things saying that the cartoons are tame by Western standards, but I don't quite agree with that. Taken as a whole, they're pretty offensive towards Muslim. Just imagine how the evangelicals would react to a similar cartoon of Christ.
HOWEVER, whether or not they are offensive is not really the issue, is it? The issue is how does a culture react to things it finds offensive -- with condemnation or with violence? Can the West ever embrace a culture that values religious propriety above free speech?
Another interesting subplot -- or you could call it the real plot -- is Europe's fear of being overrun by Islam. With frightening low birth rates, ethnic homogeneity, and without a history of mass immigration, many European countries don't know how to handle the prospect of large Muslim minorities. Not to mention the possible entry of Turkey into the EU.
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I think this is actually the most offensive one. On a scale of zero to ten, this is probably in the 6-8 range.
I have read some things saying that the cartoons are tame by Western standards, but I don't quite agree with that. Taken as a whole, they're pretty offensive towards Muslim. Just imagine how the evangelicals would react to a similar cartoon of Christ.
HOWEVER, whether or not they are offensive is not really the issue, is it? The issue is how does a culture react to things it finds offensive -- with condemnation or with violence? Can the West ever embrace a culture that values religious propriety above free speech?
Another interesting subplot -- or you could call it the real plot -- is Europe's fear of being overrun by Islam. With frightening low birth rates, ethnic homogeneity, and without a history of mass immigration, many European countries don't know how to handle the prospect of large Muslim minorities. Not to mention the possible entry of Turkey into the EU.
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