***Warning*** this is a political post.
Ignore it, or read it, I don't really care, but I have to get this off my chest
and I deleted my cranky blog a month or so ago.
Ignore it, or read it, I don't really care, but I have to get this off my chest
and I deleted my cranky blog a month or so ago.
"Freedoms should be accompanied by responsibilty" ~ Hamid Reza Asefi
"Your right to swing ends where my nose begins."~ Will Rodgers
"Don't poke the bear." ~me
Today the Danish Embassy in Beirut is on fire. Yesterday the Norwegian and Danish Embassies in Damascus were burned. Protests rage in Afghanistan, the Palestinian territories, Pakistan, and Jordan. The president of Iran is threatening retaliation.
Newspapers, exercising what they call their right to publish what they like, are DIRECTLY responsible for this. Knowing that physical depictions of Mohammed are considered blasphemy by devout Muslims, and knowing the tensions that already exist between *them* and *us* why, in the name of all that is SENSIBLE did the editors of these papers feel that this action, at this time was a good way to flex their democratic muscles?
Someone is going to die. Perhaps many. And not one of those deaths will have been just, if there is such a thing as a just death.
The majority of Muslims are not burning buildings, throwing rocks, threatening revenge. But the ones who are? They are the same ones who believe blowing themselves up in the middle of a wedding is going to get them 72 virgins and the eternal adoration of their fellow nutcases. Do we really need to piss these people off, on purpose?
5 comments:
I don't understand the mind set of those who blow themselves up taking others with them. It's sad.
But you don't need to understand them to know the way they think. Whythen would ANYONE intentionally poke them, knowing without doubt thatthere would be retaliation?
Pardon me, but they are terrorists...since when is it ok to let a terrorist minority dictate to the rest of us what we can and cannot do?? They are causing disruption just to be causing disruption. There have been many cartoons published over the years that could be taken badly by many a religion, even theirs...why are these particular cartoons being picked on? Because they think they can win by causing a fuss. It is part of their plan to sow discord wherever they can.
Benjamin Franklin said it best: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Since when is it okay to intentionally piss people off, just because we have the right to do so? Why does our "right" to knowingly publish offensive images trump someone else's right to practice their faith?
If an Italian paper ran a cartoon of the Pope with a little boy under his robes, would the Catholic population of the world not be vocally angry? I'll bet there'd be some rocks thrown, some fires started. Are those protesters terrorists?
Of course there have been offensive things printed - shoot, those cartoons were printed in September and the outcry was nothing like this. Some people are trying to stir the pot, and I don't believe even Mr. Franklin would see the virtue. He also said "Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment."
The original publication of the cartoons was not done to 'intentionally piss them off'... its polical satire, an accepted practice in the free world. In this particular case, its gotten way out of hand... throwing rocks and setting fires and beating up people is not a civilized response to anything. I certainly would NOT behave that way, nor would you...Sure, you can be vocally angry and peaceful demonstration is a way to get your opinion heard...but getting physical is the refuge of the ignorant and uncivilized...AND in this case, it IS being fomented by the terrorists for their purposes...even the Muslim clerics who are denouncing the violence, can't get these people to listen...The violent reaction does great harm the Muslim community - way more than the silly cartoons themselves have done... the terrorists are definately NOT following their Prophet's example..he forgave those that wronged him, even those that heaped garbage on him...I believe Mohammed would be agahst at how they are acting...
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