The Cartoon Controversy

I have been hesitant to write anything about the Mohammed cartoons for fear of a backlash from my Muslim readers, but I just wanted to show a couple of the more clever new cartoons (here I refer to the third ones down, the skull and pipe). In short, I agree that the cartoons are offensive to Muslims. But there are thousands of cartoons out there equally offensive to Jews, Christians, gays, George Bush, and any other major person, religion, or large group of people. In my opinion, people should just be able to deal with these facts. But they can't.

It is incredibly hypocritical, not to mention utterly disgusting, that Iran is now holding a contest for the best Holocaust-related cartoon. Even the Germans are offended. And much worse is the fact that the recent publicity around these cartoons, which were originally published in September by the way, has led to some extreme violence around a number of Danish embassies. This is clearly not the manner in which Muslims should be responding to these cartoons. It only serves to breed more hate on both sides and reinforce Western views of Muslims as extremely violent. An open dialogue and rational debate would be a much more effective way of dealing with this dangerous and volatile situation. And I think that the people with the best chance of making this happen are moderate Muslims. Don't let your more extreme religious compatriots ruin your reputations. The fact that extremists are blaming the Jews (oh, I forgot, Jews own all media around the world, so it must be their fault...), boycotting Danish goods, and burning down embassies does not seem to be solving anything.

Maybe those Danish cartoonists should have seen that Albert Brooks movie? To read a lot more about this from people smarter than I am, go here. Here is another look at the situation.