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Still, the majority of this response was peaceful. Boycotts, demonstrations, a lot of letter writing, editorializing, prayer and moping. But 1.29999999 billion people praying and moping does not make a lot of noise. A few hundred angry people rioting and burning, either in desperation to have their voices heard under stifling conditions or egged on by malicious forces eager to hijack the religion for their own political gains, makes a lot of noise indeed, and our media feast on it (Plus the heat doesn't help either! After an afternoon in the Cairo sun, I'm ready to snap at the poor guy who gets my falafel order wrong!)
To think that this sort of thing is typical of Muslims or is sanctioned by Islam is simply false. The violence, especially that exemplified in indiscriminate killing, so recently associated with Islam, is a modern innovation. It is a phenomenon borrowed from modern militant nihilistic resistance movements and kamikaze tactics. Why else would someone who professes to believe so strongly in a faith that so values the sanctity of every life including his own be so driven as to violate so grave a sanctity with heinous crimes?
This is nihilism--the ultimate expression of despair--in disguise. In such crimes, we see utter despair combined with a lack of education and the political will to distort a religion with a deep history of tolerance and indeed gifts to humanity with material gain and lust in the hereafter-- which are ridiculous and unacceptable and Muslims must and do condemn this ideology. No, this is neither from the religion, nor is it sanctioned by it in any reading, modern or pre-modern. The Muslim prophet himself warned his followers about extremism. It is certainly a blemish on this religion upon which history will not look kindly.
To me, a debate on whether or not Islam is "compatible" with democracy is puzzling. “Government” in Islam is based on the consent of the governed. Most Muslims and non-Muslims in the Middle East are not governed by consent so naturally they are bitter. An important tenet of the religion, in chapter 2 of the Quran, reads, "There is no compulsion in religion."
God deals with transgressors. Everywhere in the Quran, the instruction to the Prophet is that he was but a messenger, and his duty stopped there. The question in my mind is, is Western democracy ready to deal with Islam?
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Krystal Payne | Aug 22nd, 2006
i think that the cartoons were in extremely bad taste, and should not be taken lightly. i think that an issue such as this, which could be seen as small, shows the fact that there are gaps in understanding between the "western world" and the "muslim world" and we must work to bridge these.
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