Kerfuffles

Is that the Unforgiveable Sin?

The creator of this cartoon which is titled, Sticky Issues: The Problem With Prophets, is MercerMachine who lives in Singapore. He writes “If YOU have a problem with censorship like I do, feel free to post this/print it out/have it tattooed on your body.”

And what do you suppose that Founding Father, Thomas Jefferson, would say about this brouhaha? Well, according to “Don Surber” he, in fact, did say something: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” — Thomas Jefferson.

We hear too from Don that, unbelievably, the Beeb in Britain has joined the fight: “BBC Joins Cartoon Controversy”. The Beeb is the first British media outlet to publish the images, which first appeared months ago on the continent. “The Guardian Unlimited” is reporting the reaction of a spokesman for The Muslim Council of Britain to the BBC’s decision to broadcast. The spokesman said: “It depends on whether they’re broadcast to illustrate the story about the row developing, or, in the same way as the European newspapers have published, to gloat about freedom.”

The cartoon image is posted here from Neddy’s favorites. Linked at basil blog’s “Picnic Lunch.” and “Stop the ACLU” where there is a picture of the Danish Embassy ablaze and a poster showing what “they” think about “freedom”.

Almost the entire continent of western Europe is awash in caricatures of the prophet Mohammad, which are highly offensive to Muslims. Conservative American bloggers have joined in by posting the offending drawings to their blogs.

The rage of followers of Islam seems to have begun when France’s “Le Monde” published a drawing which portrayed the head of the Prophet Mohammad made up of French words which read “I must not draw Mohammad.” A minor Danish newspaper then entered the fray with its own caricature of Mohammad. Muslim protests at the Danish incident prompted newspapers in France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and Hungary to republish the offending Mohammad images, arguing that press freedom is more important than the resulting cries of blasphemy. Today, “El Pais”, the leading newspaper in Spain became part of the troubling international row by publishing a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad on its front page, aware that to followers of Mohammad, any images of their prophet are prohibited.

I am uncomfortable in deliberately offending anyone’s religious beliefs … however, … these same people have released thousands of photographs of real events which I have found terribly offensive. The real images coming from the Muslim world defame the character of Mohammad much more than any cartoon ever could, however Muslims have been virtually silent and it is that silence that has been thundering around the civilized world. Here are a few of the photographs that have provoked no screams of outrage from the Islamic world: The Fruits of Islamism. Michelle Malkin has some more offensive images at her post “THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ANGER.”

Linked at Dr. Sanity’s “Highway to Hell” and Wizbang’s Carnival of Trackbacks.

• “The sword of Muhammad and the Quran are the most fatal enemies of civilization, liberty, and truth which the world has yet known.” ~~Sir William Muir (1819-1905), Orientalist.
• “I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad. So far as I can see, it is the principal cause of the decadence so visible today in the Muslim world and, though less absurd than the polytheism of old, its social and political tendencies are in my opinion to be feared, and I therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a form of progress in relation to paganism itself.” ~~Alexis de Tocqueville, nineteenth-century philosopher.
• “Muhammad brought down from heaven and put into the Koran not religious doctrines only, but political maxims, criminal and civil laws, and scientific theories. The Gospels, on the other hand, deal only with the general relations between man and God and between man and man. Beyond that, they teach nothing and do not oblige people to believe anything. That alone, among a thousand reasons, is enough to show that Islam will not be able to hold its power long in ages of enlightenment and democracy, while Christianity is destined to reign in such ages, as in all others.” ~~Alexis de Tocqueville, nineteenth-century philosopher.
• “To liberate the Muslim from his religion is the best service that one can render him.” ~~Ernest Renan (1823-1892), historian and philologist.

Linked at “Sigmund, Carl and Alfred.”