Friday Intern Topic of the Day V: The Danish Cartoons
The following is an excerpt from an article published in this Friday's Newspaper by Uri Elitzur:
The violence over the Danish cartoons did not begin due to the cartoons just as the recent Intifadah was not caused by Ariel Sharons' visit to the dome. In 1939, many believed Hitler when he blamed the outbreak of war to "an incident" between German and Polish soldiers.
Normal people do not start wars over cartoons and Muslims are neither idiots nor retarded children. Most are not very religious either. The cartoons are not a reason but merely an excuse and when it will be exhausted they will move on to other excuses.
Do you really believe that Muslims are stupid? That they burn down embassies over cartoons? That they have been dying in the streets for five years because Ariel Sharon spent five minutes on the dome once? Do you think for one minute they don't realize that the cartoons are not really against Mohamed as much as they are a criticism of the violent nature of a so-called "peaceful" religion? "A spontaneous eruption of rage of an oppressed nation" the enlightened European says. Well, it's not.
It's not the cartoons, not the settlements and probably not the occupation either. There is a war brewing beneath the surface, burning like hot lava. It is looking for cracks in the ground where it can erupt.
posted by Internal Medicine Doctor at 3:32 AM
7 Comments:
We have actually done a 3 segment piece on thsi topic if you would like to chack it out.
http://donkephant.blogspot.com
I think you are correct. Those who assured us that this was NOT a war of cultures were, I think, motivated more by hope than by reason.
Medic,
First off, they're not my religious leaders. It's not even my religion. So I honestly can't really speak to any of that. All I can assume is that most muslims don't consider these crazy idiots to be muslims. Do christian leaders constantly decry (supposedly christian) neo-nazi groups? Not to my knowledge. And that doesn't bother me at all, because it's obvious that those groups are fringe groups unassociated with the mainstream.
I still wonder if the Internal Medicine Doc agrees with the above statements he reprinted.
Actually, Christians are pretty good about policing their fringe and even those who are not so fringe, and despite the certain laxity that christians have, from the pulpit is an almost constant buzzing of love, peace, acceptance and tollerance, however poorly acted upon, and that is the difference. You can mark the dividing line between where the christian extremists deparrt from their religion. You can hardly do the same for Islam. Neo-nazis have met with counter protests, Terrorists have not. Pat Robertson speaks and is immediatly met with a tirade against him. Any Imam that issues a Fatwah calling for death is met with, at worst, silence. The only instance where this has been different was when the person that anounced that a million dollar price tag was being put on the head of the cartoonist(s) was put under house arrest by Gen Musharraff's government.
I have seen no evidence that Islam is a religion of peace. Not through their words, and certainly not through their actions. To continue in a belief even though every bit of evidence against it says that that belief is false, that takes more faith than any religion would ask.
I'm sorry you feel that way, but nothing I can say here will change your opinion. Go out and make some muslim friends, and try to get the human (rather than news) angle.
It should also be considered that many muslims live in countries where demonstrations are often violently suppressed unless they are government-sponsored. So in a country with an extremist regime, speaking against the party in control (who likely support these fringe groups) can quite literally be deadly.
I think that it is not the actual act ali that bothers most of us.
I have to say that I am an Israeli as well as an American so I'm very very used to Moslim violence. And you are right, these are just a minority of groups. BUT...I will say that
1- The LACK of RESISTANCE of other, more moderate, islamic leaders to this violence or denouncing such violence is non-existent and signals acceptance of this reality. It reflects EXTREMELY poorly.
2- I was brought up in a country where you could go out to a cafe and not return because of some religious nut and, not only was there no reprieval, there were celebrations on the other side of that same fact.
3- The palestenians choice of Hamas as their leaders speaks volumes. And not good ones either.
Ali. This is the way it looks and until Islamist leaders attempt to correct the situation that's the way it'll always look.
and, having once been on the liberal side of things and quickly to correct others, I am getting tired of apologizing and, frankly, am out of counterpoints as reality is working against me.
The cartoons are not a reason but merely
an excuse and when it will be exhausted
they will move on to other excuses.
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