The Blog Herald, under the bastion of free speech, has published all of the anti-Islamic cartoons that are causing the Islam world to be in an uproar.
In my mind, this is sheer idiocy.
Certainly, the publishers have a right to freedom of the press, and freedom of speech (well, I don’t know about the countries they’re in, but in America, they would). Certainly, publishing these cartoons demonstrates freedom of speech and of the press. Certainly, publishing these cartoons is not only a smack in the face to radical Islam, but to noble Islam, as well.
Boston.com (I’m sorry, I don’t have the link) sums up the reasons behind the cartoons, thusly:
HINDUS CONSIDER it sacrilegious to eat meat from cows, so when a Danish supermarket ran a sale on beef and veal last fall, Hindus everywhere reacted with outrage. India recalled its ambassador to Copenhagen, and Danish flags were burned in Calcutta, Bombay, and Delhi. A Hindu mob in Sri Lanka severely beat two employees of a Danish-owned firm, and demonstrators in Nepal chanted: ‘’War on Denmark! Death to Denmark!”In many places, shops selling Dansk china or Lego toys were attacked by rioters, and two Danish embassies were firebombed.
It didn’t happen, of course. Hindus may consider it odious to use cows as food, but they do not resort to boycotts, threats, and violence when non-Hindus eat hamburger or steak. They do not demand that everyone abide by the strictures of Hinduism and avoid words and deeds that Hindus might find upsetting. The same is true of Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Mormons: They don’t lash out in violence when their religious sensibilities are offended. They certainly don’t expect their beliefs to be immune from criticism, mockery, or dissent.
But radical Muslims do.
Read the entire entry …