> --- "B." <docile_body at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> >. 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.
>
> Ok, so the newspaper is guilty of double standards.
> However, what if a newspaper that did not follow such
> double standards had printed the pictures?
The double standard is indefensible to me. It is obvious that the paper is more interested in not offending xtians than muslims.
Muhammed
> strikes me as a rather vile, delusional ego-maniac.
> According to some of the textual criticism of the New
> Testament, Jesus may not have been the all-loving
> person as depicted in popular culture. Whatever the
> case, he is the poster-boy for a religion
> (Christianity) that has a long trail of blood. Why
> shouldn't Jesus or Muhammed be depicted in
> uncomplimentary terms? And why should one apologize
> for the burning of embassies as a reaction? How is
> this different from the Fatwa issued against Salman
> Rushdie?
> I am undecided as to whether I find these cartoons
> racist, however, my understanding is that the Muslims
> protesting the cartoons are doing so because (A) the
> cartoons show a depiction of Muhammed and (B) they
> depict Muhammed in an unfavorable light). In other
> words, they are not doing it to protest racism (am I
> wrong about that?)
>
> -Thomas
I see the cartoons as deliberately offensive to followers of islam but I don't think that makes them racist. Admittedly it can be a fine line between the two however so I am open to a persuasive argument to make just such a case. Is making fun of judaism always racist? Is making fun of islam always racist? Can you poke fun at a religion other than xtianity without it being racist? These are questions asked in all seriousness. I don't propose that I have any sort of definitive answer either.
John Thornton