It's good to get away from the Internet every so often. I need to make it a personal policy.
Have fun at the farm and thanks for dropping by my place.
Does anyone actually read this illinformed peice of shit site?
here's a decent take on the response of American Muslims to the cartoon hoopdeedoo.
Look. This is a collision between a religion in which ANY image of its prophet is deemed sacrilege and a culture in which freedom of expression is the most sacred iteration.
Of course, the best balance of the Muslim and (ahem) Western media points of view is going to come from American Muslims and the American press.
What is going on elsewhere is incitement, on both sides:
1. incitement of violence by fundamentalist Islamists, exploiting fear and loathing of encroaching Western values that Muslims in non-Western countries understandably share. Not all the Muslims upset by this were nuts.
2. incitement of further incitement by Islamophobes in the West (see some of the cartoons linked to on this very site, which portray Mohammed with horns -- something I've seen done to my own people by the worst elements of human history), as well as by an adolescent European free press that seems more concerned with exercising its right to shout fire in a crowded theater than to exercise its better judgement. Pornography for pornography's sake.
Somewhere in between two immovably self-righteous sides stands the American Press (which has largely refrained from publishing cartoons deemed mortally offensive by Muslims, as it would have refrained, I believe, from publishing cartoons deemed mortally offensive by Jews or Christians) and American Muslims.
You see, American Muslims came to the freest society on earth to escape all that back there, whether back there was the peurility of European self-righteousness, or the narrow and easily-enflamed intolerance of Muslim fundamentalists.
Their reaction: Yes, this is offensive, and I deplore that these cartoons were printed, because it is an affront to my faith. However, I deplore the violence that is being done in my name and in the name of my faith.
Surely there is a better way -- and it is to be found here, in the only real guaranteed multicultural society on earth.
Fanning the flames of hatred of Muslims is the same as fanning the flames of Muslims' hatred of Westerners.
Doing either in the name of freedom or of faith is an affront to both.
Hope you're having a great trip, Dinah. Say hello to the snow for me.
Rich
Oops. Here's the MSNBC article I meant to link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11239054/
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