You’re right, Muslims would have a bigger problem if someone insulted Jesus (peace be upon him), who is to them a Messenger of God, than the Christians themselves! Maybe it is a reflection and a wake-up call to the world that has lost the morals of respect and honour. And it is a pure emotion that may be something to be learnt from the Muslims.

The reaction of the violence is not sanctioned by Islam. And so are ‘honour killings’, assassinations, and so forth. But don’t expect a reaction to ANYTHING on this Earth to compare to the reaction to an insult to the Messenger (peace and blessings of God be upon him).

The Muslims today are ignorant, of their religion. Don’t you see them being led like sheep by Hollywood and the American Culture and Lifestyle? They need to GO back to their religion to know that these things are wrong. And people ARE trying. But how can you not understand that NO REACTION, NO ATTEMPT will be more intense than one evoked by the hurt, and in defense of the Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam).

These cartoons, this mocking, is not something new. It happened in wholesale to the Messenger (sallallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam) himself. He was called a madman, a sorcerer, a poet, people harmed him physically, threw filth on him, strangled him, and made attempts on his life. He is for us, the example to emulate. If you want to know Islam, see what his reactions were to these insults, and this is example we as Muslims need to follow as well.

American perception of Islam as a religion of hate and Muslims as terrorists is often based on the peeps that are acting as the voicebox for the religion. They seem to speak louder and more often than those within their religion that don’t share their extremist views.The non-violent muslims need to speak out on a regular basis against their violent bretheren or they’ll just continue to be lumped in with them.

Whiiiiich western media may want to address by always addressing these types of “spokespersons” as “muslim extremists” for those that aren’t so willing to look deeper into who is and isn’t an extremist in Islam.

Stories like this also tend to paint all muslims as mindless followers…which while I’m sure isn’t the reality, it’s how situation like are being presented.

Christians and Jews are satired on a regular basis without death threats against the cartoonists and newspaper editors(although I’m sure there are a few exceptions. There is the Westboro bptist Church, aka, “God Hates Fags” church), even by muslims as I have read. But when it comes to satirizing Islam?

I can’t see how you can seperate religion from this issue. It is the issue…

http://www.spiritwolfshowl.blogspot.com

Again, I’m not “defending” Islam. I’m attacking stereotyped, cheap, hurtful jokes. But, if we’re not going to do deep research on the topic, let’s at least read the material that starts the discussion.

From an article linked in the original post:

CAIRO — Prominent Muslim scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi called on Sunday, February 17, for a calm, rational reaction to the reprinting of a Danish cartoon ridiculing Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).

“This is an insult to Muslims and an attempt to provoke them,” Qaradawi, the president of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, told Al-Jazeera news channel.

Seventeen Danish newspapers reprinted on Wednesday, February 13, a drawing of a man described as Prophet Muhammad with a ticking bomb in his turban.

The move came following the arrest of two Tunisians and a Dane of Moroccan origin for allegedly plotting to kill the cartoonist who drew the caricature.

“Those people are provoking us to go in protests everywhere and Muslims have a right to be angry,” said Qaradawi.

“But we are appealing for the umma [Muslim nation] for a rational, wise and calm response.”

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I don’t see any reason to prolong the discussion, really, because there have been any number of moderate Muslims who have called for a rational response to a deliberate insult. Whether they made the US network news isn’t a measure of whether or not they spoke up. For years, Protestant and Catholic clergy met and worked for peace in Northern Ireland and it was never as newsworthy as a shot of someone in a balaclava throwing a petrol bomb.

To that extent, it’s clumsy and poor commentary to blast all of Islam for the actions of that single group, or for failing (in your mind) to properly chastise people who live a half a world away, speak another language, live in a different culture and happen to practice a branch of the same major religion.

I’m also not particularly enamored of shock tactics per se and don’t consider them a sign of wit, and that’s not just because I’m an old man. I was a young man when National Lampoon abandoned wit (after, what, about the first five issues?) and started doing poop jokes and “boy, this would be offensive if we really meant it nudge-nudge-wink-wink” jokes.

When people are injured as a direct result of your work, it seems kind of irresponsible to me to reprint the offensive materials in order to show that you don’t care how many more people get hurt.

This has nothing to do with religion, except inasmuchas someone may stereotype people by their religion as easily as by their language or race. At the risk of going out on a limb here, I think it’s a bad thing when people do that.

Why is it that one can make a multitude of disrespectful and inflammatory remarks on this board on a variety of subjects, calling other cartoonists hacks, editors as racist idiots etc. but mention religion and individuals get a collective case of the vapors?

Maybe you’re right. Perhaps I overestimate my readers capacity to keep the discussion in the context of cartooning and ought to avoid such topics.