Wednesday, February 08, 2006

A Cartoon

We interrupt this usually light-hearted Mommy blog for a rather serious political discussion.....

I am flabbergasted by the uproar caused by a Danish political cartoon depicting Mohammad with a grenade in his turban. A CARTOON! At least a dozen people have lost their lives. Embassies are being blown-up. The Danish Dairy association may go bankrupt from boycotts....

I do not get it. Americans are depicted in horrible ways, our flags are burned, our political and religious leaders are cursed and mangled in political cartoons all over the world and people don't die over it. Christians are persecuted in almost every country in some way... Some "Christians" may even deserve a little of what they get, I don't know. But if I were to kill someone for depicting Jesus negatively in a political cartoon I am absolutly certian my actions would be denounced by every Christian leader in the world. After all, it was Jesus who said to turn the other cheek.

I'm not very familiar with Islam but I don't think Mohammad himself would have wanted people to die over a cartoon, would he? Am I alone in this thinking? Am I missing something here? Islamic extremist can attack innocent people and we are supposed to understand, accept, forgive and find a way to work with them. A cartoon insults Mohammad and they have a right to kill people? Seriously what is going on? The more I try to understand, the less I understand. The more I try to see things from their point of view, the more scared of them I become. If anyone has any deep insight or thoughts on this matter I would like to hear them. I don't want to think badly about any one group. I just don't understand what they are so upset about?

8 comments:

Beaner said...

I felt the exact same way about all of that - I was totally disgusted....until God whispered in my ear "Yes....but would you defend ME with such a passion?" Not that the WAY they are defending their god is right, but you've gotta give them credit for their passion!

SG said...

I guess I have never thought that I neeeded to defend God. I know I need to represent him and be his person but no I haven't thought about God needing me to defend him for he is GOD after all. I guess it is just such a complete different view and value system.

Anonymous said...
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Beaner said...

I don't think God NEEDS us to defend Him, but I guess my point is that we're sometimes quicker to deny Him than to defend Him.

I don't know much about Muslim practices either, but I think Mohammed was more about peace than violence. Of course, there are extremists in every religion, I guess.

elizabeth said...

One comment I heard on Sean Hannity that I liked:

If these people are so outraged about a cartoon depicting Muhammed, why are they not equally or more outraged when terrorists commit murder and other atrocities in the name of Muhammed?

Just a thought...

SG said...

Beaner~ I totally get your point about their passion and I hope I didn't come across as argumentative. I honestly just hadn't thought about defending Christ before. And the reason this post went away yesterday is that I accidentally pushed "save as draft" after correcting a mispelled word.

I truly wish I understood these people better. I know they may be a militant few, but it doesn't appear that way when I watch the news. This issue isn't going to go away anytime soon.

Susan - said...

I agree with you Steph. The protests just continue. I may be way out of line here, but I do not think the Islamic religion is as peaceful as they want us to believe. Mark is reading a book about it right now (I can't think of the name), but it is scary.

Mae said...

Hmm, shows how "with it" I am... I didn't even know what you were referring to. I've not seen the news in weeks. Had to google it... so sad that people will go to such extremes when it's obviously not what the whole issue is about.