On Religion and Politics

Let me start by saying that those cartoons were stupid. The cartoons themselves were stupid and the reason behind printing them was stupid. Having said that, there’s a lot more to this issue that needs exploring.

The Ten Commandments say that there shall be no ‘graven images’. I’ve never figured out how the Christian religions got around that, but the Moslems take it seriously – kind of. The Ten Commandments don’t exist as such in the Koran, but there are some similarities. The problem is that I haven’t found the one referring to Allah and Mohammed. Assuming it’s in there, my question is that since Mohammed is not the prophet but the last prophet, what about images of Jesus or Abraham or any of the other prophets. Are they included in this? Or is it strictly “There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his Prophet”? As an aside to this, there is a cartoon in today's Winston Salem Urinal showing Jesus playing a practical joke on someone who thinks they are getting into Heaven. I don't expect the angry mobs to burn down their office.

Be that as it may, why has it taken almost five months for the Moslem world to erupt over this? Missions of Denmark, Norway and the EU have been attacked, burned and fire bombed in Damascus, Beirut and Teheran. There have been calls for the heads and hands of the ‘infidels’ who made the cartoons – funny thing is, though, that some of the cartoons shown in the Moslem world were made by Moslems themselves in order to incite the mobs further. I haven’t heard any call for their heads or hands have you?

While making a pretense of condemning the violence, the U.S. and most of the European community are now spending a lot of time condemning the printing of the cartoons – not because they are in bad taste, but on religious grounds. Does anyone else out there find it ironic that our government is advocating censorship on religious grounds? This censorship has gotten to the point in Great Britain that they can’t show pictures of a cartoon pig for fear of offending. There are places where they’ve even banned the flying of the Union Jack, their national colors, because part of it contains the Cross of St George (a red cross on a white field) because Moslems might equate that with the Crusades. Ridiculous. This is a really good start towards taking their country into Sharia.

I keep going back to that almost five month gap. Surely it doesn’t take that long to locate Danish flags, does it? Now the Iranis are (naturally) blaming this all on Israel and they are going to do one of the most childish things I think I’ve ever heard of from a government – they’re going to hold a contest to see what cartoons can be drawn that will be the most demeaning to the Jews. How pathetic is that?

And as a totally unconnected side note to this – Iran’s president, Imahandjob, has been doing his damndest to take his country back to the 8th Century – but with one glaring exception. Has it registered with you that his ban on all things western somehow missed out on his love affair with Brooks Brothers sport coats, open neck shirts and sweaters?