If no images of Mohammed allowed, how do they know what he looks like

[The Straight Story]

How do they know a drawing someone makes looks like him? If someone makes generic images based on his race/ethnic makeup/et al and puts his name on it (a name many others also have....) is that an image of him or does it have to really really look like him...

I dunno, the whole thing seems odd :)

[kenny blankenship]

1. The drawings were labeled Muhammed?

clear enough?

[unschooler]

2. Same way we know what Jesus looks like....

Actually, I think the newspaper specifically stated that the cartoons were supposed to be about Muhammed.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. I believe they are looking at it this way

even if the picture doesn't look like a Middle Eastern man, if it is labeled Mohammed, it is meant as an insult and was drawn to incite hatred. A couple of the cartoons I saw implied that Mohammed stood for all Muslims, and frankly made me feel quite angry and sad. Angry because I think their intent was to stir up the Muslim world, and sad because so many Muslims have become violent in their reaction to the cartoons, thus playing right into the hands of the people who are using the cartoons to manipulate public opinion.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

4. It seems odd

because the whole thing is a fraud, a con, a "wrasslin" match.

The Saudi Government botched the Pilgrimage again this year. So, to take the heat (and scrutiny) of the Muslim world off their perpetual screw-ups, they found a convenient Imam or Mullah or whatever to get all bent out of shape about cartoons that were published four-freakin'-months ago.

Is the news that slow getting to the Muslim world? Did Al Jazeera drop the ball on this?

I suspect not.

Gotta keep the Muslims riled so as to make sure we in the "West" continue to see them as unthinking cretins bent on death and destruction.

Of course, fundies are fundies, and I seem to recall a little brou-ha-ha amongst the knuckle-walkers here in America about an execution device submerged in a mason jar allegedly filled with pee-pee. There were, in that instance, unless I'm off in my recollection, death threats levied against the creator of the piece.

Oh, well.

Dumbass fundies are trying to get all us normal people killed . . . as usual.

:nuke: :grr:

[napi21]

5. This is the kind of crap that began the Crusades!

Religions have been fighting this same kid of thing for centuries! I seriously doubt anyone is going to convince the Islam believers that "freedom of Speech" is just fine, and they have to be more tollerant!

These Is;am believers just want to be left alone, independant from Western culture, and ann they feel is evil about it. Let their religion alone, and let their culture alone!

I say, let's give them what they want.

I may feel differently if the Islamic women came to the Western World complaining how much they hated living under supreme male rule and behind a veil, but they didn't!

There's no difference between what we are trying to force on the Arabs and what the RW fundies are trying to force on the rest of US! They claim they don't like the Dem culture and way of life, and are perfectly happy living the life they had in the 50's. I say leave them alnoe to do that too, as long as they leave us alone at the same time.

[asjr]

6. This makes me think about those who "see" the

Virgin Mary on food and concrete walls. I always want to ask, "Does she look as good as the first time you saw her?"

[jobycom]

7. Does it really matter?

We in the West have our sacred cows, they have theirs. Who cares if we don't understand, we should respect them, anyway. People around here got all upset when the president of Iran called the Holocaust a myth. We get angry when Prince Harry dresses as a Nazi. Some get angry when Bush is called a Nazi, or Hitler. These western sentiments have no more logical basis than the prohibition against images of the Prophet (and it isn't just about the physical portrayal, it's about the use of the name and image of the prophet for a personal, political message. It would be like using MLK's "I have a dream" speech to sell a matress).

I read that Iran plans a Holocaust cartoon competition, to poke fun at the Holocaust and western ideas of it. The president of Iran stated that they wanted to see exactly how far the West took it's ideas of freedom of speech. He nailed it right on the head. The issue isn't whether we should be allowed to mock religions. The issue is whether we should flaunt our disrespect for a completely different set of values, or whether "equal rights" means that we should have equal respect for people we don't fully understand.

The West does NOT have the high road in this. Both sides are talking past each other. In a perfect world, they may have let this all go by. But in an era when we invade nations seemingly based on religious differences (however thinly disguised) and we lecture other nations on what THEIR values and THEIR reactions to our affronts should be, and when it is clear that we think of Muslims as less worthy of life or freedom than the animals we protect in our own nation, these types of deliberate insults touch bare nerves.