“Behead those who insult Islam,” is a representative placard a protester was carrying in London this weekend, as seen on the CNN.com. The New York Times reported a mosque preacher in Gaza declaring, “We will not accept less than severing the heads of those responsible.”
Behead those who insult Islam for what? Severe the heads of those responsible for what? Cartoons. Cartoons that portray Islam in a negative light, e.g., as responsible for violence in the world.
While debating the rightness or wrongness of publishing these cartoons in the first place, nobody seems to want to speak about the obvious: That when all is said and done, it turns out that there are people who are acting in world–cutting people’s heads off, putting jetliners into buildings–and saying they’re doing so in the name of Allah and Islam. (I said as much on CNN on Friday.)
What most critics have missed is that apart from the failure to understand that freedom to worship and freedom to criticize are two sides of the same coin, the cartoons depict an all too real face of Islam. Jews have been shown as ugly and horrid whether their actions were horrid or not. Christians have been shown to be bigoted and intolerant whether the record bears that out or not–and this has been going on for centuries. But Mohammed is presented as if he is associated with a religion that blows people up, and that becomes the source for riots and mayhem–from within that religion. Here’s the difference though: There is a justification in fact about the offending cartoons this time–as witnessed by the reaction to their publication.
Does a “religion of peace”–as we are constantly implored to append to every mention of Islam–call for mayhem when it is associated in caricature form with violence? That is the question I would like to see explored and debated over the next several weeks as a result of this unfolding story.