Egyptian blogger Big Pharaoh is asking a question that has been haunting me for the past couple of days. He wonders:
"A question to my fellow Muslims and Arabs: isn’t this picture more of an insult to Islam than the silly J-Posten cartoons? And don’t you think it can easily be an inspiration for similar future cartoons? Just 2 innocent questions here."
With all due respect, I have to agree with Big Pharaoh here. While I still regard the cartoons as offensive — exhibiting a terrible stereotype of millions of Muslims out there — some of the reactions to the cartoons, including, let’s see — the storming and torching of embassies, throwing grenades onto the grounds of a French embassy and harassing European nationals, and more — have caused more harm to the image of Muslims and Arabs than the actual publication of the caricatures did. Anyway, like fellow Jordanian blogger Naseem, I’m ‘sick of the word cartoon.’ Let’s hope this is the last post I write about this particular topic.
there has been a misunderstanding the mesage I talked about written by another person not by kagehi, sorry for it..
kagehi,all muslims are not terrorists.America invaded Iraq now things going bad with Iran,long ago France and Britain invaded many countries and turned them into colonies,Germany and Russia invaded most of the Europa But these did not mean their all citizens were terorists,though these wars were made only for money and power not for self defence or something holy…I am a muslim,I dont wear turban I wear jeans,mini skirts just like you I went to college This is same for all my friends and we think muslims react too much… but I also think those drawings were offensive,not to draw Mohammed’s face is a rule in Islam,it is holy for many people so they must have been more careful abaut it.For me it is all abaut provocation..And I cant stand those people ;norrow minded,strictly conservative,know nothing but speak a lot and unfortunately there are many people here like this and all around the world
These cartoons were offensive but as Martin Luther King said after Malcolm X was assassinated, we need to learn to disagree without becoming violently disagreeable. Sure, I wouldn’t shed a tear if a Ku Klux Klan meeting house got blown up, but nor do I advocate this as a way of ending the horrible racism perpetuated by the KKK and their kind. Retaliating with violence is not the answer to something like an offensive cartoon. Retaliating with TRUTH is the only way!
Peace.