Cartoon Controversy

To me, the real question is, why is it wrong to depict Mohammed or any other prophet according to Islam? I understand it is, from an Islamic perspective to prevent idolatry. Muslims would be in danger of worshipping mere men if a prophet was depicted.

There is a huge contrast here with Christianity. Christians have argued against the depiction of Jesus on the basis of the second commandment. but this has been a minority view to say he cannot be depicted because he is God. The argument from the other side is that because Jesus is truly man, representations of his humanity must be allowable.

So Christians who believe Jesus to be God will depict him, but Muslims who believe him to be a mere man would not depict him or Mohammed because they are prophets.

Perhaps the Muslim position is really an acknowledgment that they are in danger of worshipping someone other than God, namely Mohammed?

But to end on a lighter note. Where can I find any cartoons lampooning secularists?

Later I found this.

By publishing these cartoons, we are saying to the Muslim community
in Denmark 'we treat you as we treat everybody else' -
Fleming Rose, Jyllands-Posten

I found this quote on the BBC website and believe it gets to the
heart of the matter.

The secular West thinks it treats all groups with equal respect of
lack thereof. (It doesn't IMO but that is not my point here.)

The Muslims believe they deserve special treatment because their
faith is true. That is hard for the West to understand, especially
when Christians who make similar truth claims do not usually demand
the state to protect them and their faith.

More thoughts.

I fear that as in the UK and the US the largely liberal papers have
refused to publish we are in danger of compromise.

To say these cartoons should not be published is to side with the
Sharia. One may do it out of kindness and tolerance, but it is
nevertheless to observe the Muslim's law.

If the UK were to legislate in such a way that publication would be
forbidden, then the Shari'a gets a toehold in UK law.

A correspondent has responded that the reason behind the U.S
and British newspapers not publishing the cartoons is that we
have thousands of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan and many
other Islamic countries.

Another friend answered this saying that "given the attitude of those papers toward the military and the deployments to the Middle East, and their pleasure in publishing other inflammatory news and pictures [Abu Ghraib], I think I have to disagree with that explanation. I think it's sheer cowardice, excused by multicultural political correctness. "

Bothering me more is the report today, Sunday 19 February, of 16 Christians killed and 11 churches burned in Maiduguri, Nigeria, by anti-cartoon demonstrators. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4728616.stm
We know and have visited the city where one man we helped train is a pastor.

I have to say that if i was a Muslim I would be angered by the Austrian court's sentence on holocaust denier David Irving. So much for free speech in the West. What hypocrisy from the country that gave the world Adolf Hitler! No I am not a holocaust denier. I merely think that you should be allowed to be a foolish historian without being jailed for it. Hey, I'm angry about this and I am not a Muslim.