What we've got here

I’m going back now to the riots and burning buildings over political cartoon depictions of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad. Thousands of Muslims were ‘outraged’ over the cartoons printed in a Danish newspaper and rioted in various countries burning buildings, injuring (and in some cases causing the death of) people, and generally causing problems in several countries waving signs with such catchy slogans as ‘Freedom go to Hell’ and ‘Decapitate the Infidels’.

I am glad that Islam is such a tolerant and peace loving religion or things might have really gotten ugly….

Seriously though … I do understand that we are dealing with an extremist element within the Muslim religion … it just happens to be a very large group … and I also understand that there are extremist elements in other religions as well that do crazy and inhumane things in the name of their beliefs (Christians bombing abortion clinics for example) these people are just as much terrorists as the Muslims that flew planes into the twin towers in NYC on September the 11th.

But this goes beyond religious outrage … this is manipulation for political purposes and it is NOT helping the Muslim cause.

First off, Muslims claim that they are upset at being portrayed as crazy terrorists … so what do they do to express their outrage … riot, burn flags and buildings, and hurt and kill people … calling for decapitations and damaging property and lives. Yeah … good way to dispel the stereotype….

Thankfully some of the more mainstream and moderate Muslim clerics are starting to catch on to the problem … you see … it’s true of all stereotypes … they come from SOMEWHERE … people don’t just make them up … the ARE stereotypes because in MANY cases they are true. The goal is to show that you aren’t PART of that stereotype and that requires the work of a lot of people working in ways outside of that stereotype … but that isn’t what certain groups in the Muslim community wanted.

Why? Because the leaders of those groups ARE ‘crazy terrorists’ trying to impose Islamic law on the rest of the world.

Also, these cartoons are OLD news. This ‘outrage’ isn’t over cartoons printed in late January or early February …. They were RE-printed in an Egyptian newspaper in October of 2005 (Arab paper published cartoons 4 months ago). October is the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and yet that isn’t when the Muslims became ‘outraged’ and took to the streets with their signs calling for the decapitation of the artists and editors.

"The Egyptian paper criticized the bad taste of the cartoons but it did not incite hatred protests,"

In other words they did pretty much what most people with any sense would do … there may have been some that were upset at the caricatures or offended by the cartoons, but they didn’t run out into the streets and burn the embassy or wave signs calling for the murder of the artists.

But that didn’t suit the purposes of certain factions … Did they sit on it waiting for the right opportunity, or did they just miss it initially? Who knows. But ultimately it doesn’t matter … they wanted riots and by golly they got riots …. And it may be working ….

“European vice-commissioner Franco Frattini has said media should sign up to a voluntary code of conduct on reporting on Islam and other religions…” (Danish cartoon row renews EU push for media code)

Whoa now … I’ll grant that people need to be careful about their freedom of expression to a degree … but not to avoid offending people. The media should not incite riots it should not encourage violence … rather it should remain neutral (something it’s generally NOT good at) … certain people in authority should be mindful of what they say and its implications and effects in a global media as well …

However … these were printed as EDITORIAL cartoons … the editorial page of a newspaper or other such publication is an opinion piece … so is the EU suggesting that newspapers and other media should not express views or opinions that might upset people (particularly Muslims as they were the group specifically named in the quote, everyone else being relegated to ‘other religions’)?

Is Europe … which many consider to be the gold standard of tolerance … getting to the point where they are going to let the intolerant dictate what views and opinions can be publicly expressed for FEAR of OFFENDING someone?

And if Europe caves on this issue … what message does that send to the Muslims (and other groups)? Simple really … riot and burn buildings and you’ll get the more restrictive laws that you want. (Okay … the proposal is for a voluntary code, but that just opens up the newspaper that either doesn’t volunteer or who decides to publish something outside the guidelines to greater criticism and possibly other issues as well depending on the wording or restrictions within the ‘code’ … ‘I’m sorry, we can’t allow you to renew your press papers because you didn’t sign the code … you might offend someone.’ Or ‘no, I’m not talking to you, you write for the Non Code Times my quote could be next to something that Muslims find offensive!’)

Let’s face it … that’s ultimately the goal of this ‘outrage’ I might say that it was an actual reaction to the cartoons if the reaction had started in Egypt during the month of Ramadan … I can understand Muslims being upset at the cartoons, and I would expect a MORE extreme reaction in the middle of a holy month (I still would not agree that the cartoons warranted this reaction, but I could understand some protests and political uproar demanding apologies) so had it happened then I might believe that it was genuine outrage. Several months after the fact, on the other hand, seems more calculated than outraged ….