On an atheists' forum I'm on, which is unfortunately dominated by Libertarian Party types who are REALLY atheist when it comes to Islam, not as much atheist when it comes to Christianity or Judaism -- they have a "go as far as you like" attitude towards criticism of Islam. It often seem to me their attitude verges on outright racism. They love that the Danish newspaper ran the 'toons. They've insisted that the Danish cartoons have no racist elements; to me they clearly do, but they won't hear any of it. This article about the Danish paper refusing to print similar cartoons about Jesus (also a Mid Easterner, incidentally) should be helpful.
One of these brainiacs has a picture of himself and some buddies shooting a rifle through a Qur'an in his backyard, posted on his blog. He's merely offending the religion, not anyone's ethnicity. I've wondered myself about the clear line, if any, that demarcates "race" from "religion" in such cultures where ethnic identity is so tightly bound up with religious belief. I don't think the Lib guy would put up a pic of himself shooting a Bible, and sense he's actually a full on racist, but he knows the game and won't say flat out that he hates certain ethnic groups. "Just the religion."
-B.
Michael Pollak wrote:
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1703501,00.html
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> Danish paper rejected Jesus cartoons