IS NOTHING SACRED? CARTOONS SURE AREN’T

The burgeoning hysteria in the Islamic World over some disrespectful cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed portend that the so-called clash of civilizations is becoming downright weird.

The Washington Post has a long list of the issues that are involved, including censorship of Holocaust scholarship and the balance between freedom of the press and respect for deeply-held beliefs of a world religion and other instances of hypocrisy and blasphemy. Cartoons can be in ridiculous bad taste, and one by Tom Toles earned a written rebuke by the Joint Chiefs of Staff for ridiculing wounded servicemen. Toles is a double-digit IQ low-life, but what about the uproar over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed?

Christianity has become such a listless punching bag that many clerics and High Church poobahs say that Christian Churches “deserve it” when the secular press launches attacks on Pat Robertson, pedophile priests, and Jim Bakker. Former Sen. Danforth, an ordained minister, is widely quoted as sorrowful that the Christians are defending the Schiavo girl’s right to life and contesting other issues like abortion. But in truth, despite self-hating “Christians” like Danforth, the Christian Church[es] do not deserve the nastiness and whole-hearted lampooning of their beliefs and practices that recent MSM TV shows like “The Book of Daniel” broadcast on national syndication.

Judaism has relentlessly punched back every time the MSM does more than tweak them on political issues. Although there are many cases of rabbis being caught in pedophile situations, the instances do not get the national media exposure that priests receive in the same situation. As a beleaguered minority, the Jews have learned over the centuries to proactively defend their interests, while the Christian establishment was in the ascendancy until recently and has not yet learned to parry and thrust in the marketplace of ideas and the gotcha games played by secular leftists hostile to the very idea of religion. But, as in the case of the cancellation of the odious “Book of Daniel,” Christians are learning to coordinate

Muslims have every right to be angry over the lampooning of their most revered religious figure. And I salute the fact that they are angry over this silly and provocative act in a Danish newspaper.

However, I lived for half a decade in the Arab world and have seen countless cartoons and other symbols which ridicule Jews, Israel, the United States, President Bush, and other authority symbols in the West. Yes, these symbols are secular and not religious, as is the state of Israel. However, disrespect for other peoples’ symbols can trigger a nasty response, and the Muslim world is finding that what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander..

But one distinction should be made. Turnabout in this case may not be fair play, as religious figures are normally given [and in my opinion, should be given] a modicum of respect by the electronic and press media, and they usually are as far as Jewish and Christian moral icons. I don’t recall many scurrilous cartoons coming out in Europe concerning Pope John Paul II and Chief Rabbis.

So assaulting the image of the Prophet Muhammed is a deliberate provocation and not simply a demonstration of freedom of the press or First Amendment rights.

And political leaders are correct in pointing out that such provocations throw fuel on the fire of already enflamed sensibilities.

On a personal note that may or may not be appropriate, I attended King Abdul-Aziz University in the mid-seventies in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, to take classes in Arabic. {Osama bin Ladin was a student there about the same time-frame, but I don’t recall any six foot six Saudi students in the hallways!) The students taking Arabic were mostly from Pakistan, India, and other Muslim countries where Arabic is not the national language.

All I can say is that the hostility directed toward me as an obvious European westerner was palpable. Anyone who was not a Muslim was seen as an intruder, especially in the Islamic Holy Land.

That said, I do not believe that some sort of Gotterdaemmerung or war to the finish is inevitable between the Western and Islamic worlds.

However, I do believe that some sort of respect should be shown to people of different beliefs, and one should not do or say things that are considered blasphemous or needlessly offensive to an entire world religion.

Yes, there is the argument that one bad deed deserves another, and the Law of Talon should still apply. But an eye for an eye is a ticket for a downward spiral into the kind of conflicts that became all too familiar in the late, unlamented 20th century.

If COMMON COURTESY is a lost art, let’s remember that COMMON SENSE may also be in danger of disappearing.