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Something Rotten In The State Of Denmark
We though it would be President Bush (in the middle east with a cruise missile for fans of Cluedo) but in the end it was a Danish artist with a pencil and sketchpad. It seems a trgically trivial way to highlight the irreconcilable differences between east and west but a set of cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed (PBOH) have led to the Politically Correct Thought Police supporting demands by Muslim preachers that all criticism of Islam be made a "hate crime." There is bound to b e a backlash.


Something Rotten In The State Of Denmark
Ian R. Thorpe
2006-02-07

We all thought it would be Bush deciding to attack Iran, China deciding it was time to wreck the American economy, Russia deciding to turn off the gas or African countries deciding they were not going to be kicked in the teeth anymore that dragged the world towards Armageddon. Who would have thought the end of days would be kicked off by a small, not very funny cartoon published in a small newspaper in inoffensive little Denmark. The badly drawn cartoon that has caused all the fuss depicts the prophet Mohammed with a fizzing bomb disguised as a turban on his head.

For those with a literal mindset this simply suggests the Islamic world is ready to explode. It is not saying, as some people insist it is, that Mohammed is a terrorist (we know he was not) whose writings incite followers to make war on the infidel (we know the prophet's writings suggest no such thing) Nor is it suggesting Mohammed had no dress sense or wore very silly hats even by the standards of prophets. On top of the demonstrations, the torching of embassies and the colourful rhetoric the only threat Islamic nations have made is to ban Danish exports. This means they will not be eating much bacon in the Muslim world for a while. Hadly terror is it? Placatory voices have been calling for tolerance and understanding on both sides. Such pleas will fall on deaf ears of course with extremists on each side entrenched in the position of insisting their little faction are the only ones who talk to God and nobody else has a right to an opinion.

My own opinion is that so long as there is one Muslin or Jew prepared to die or one Christian prepared to send someone else to die in defence of their God then the inhabitants of Planet Reality have no alternative but to ban all organised religion. When those most vociferous in demanding that their freedom of speech and thought is protected only want to use that freedom to deny the same to others its difficult to see any way out.

What can we in Europe do?

I say we continue exercising our democratic right to make fun of everyone and everything. We may not prevent Armageddon but at least we'll die laughing.

Inevitably someone will tell me what nice people their Christian or Muslim friends are. I don't doubt it but we must take care not to miss the point. I am currently being pilloried at an American website for ridiculing the extreme ideas of Fundamentalist Christians. I am told I should respect people's beliefs. AND YET I keep encountering fundie writings that tell the world its the absolute truth that the world was created in seven days, that Christmas was a Christian festival from day one and pagans hijacked it and that the Bible is not a mish-mash of Persian, Assyrian, Phoenician and Egyptian myths rewritten around 500 BC but is the will of God expressed through the written word and therefore we must never question it.

QED I think.

As American Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg said "religion is an insult to human dignity. Without religion good people wood do good things and evil people would do evil things. But you need religion to make good people do evil things.

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