A Danish newspaper is receiving death threats for publishing a series of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammed. Local Muslim groups are demanding an apology for the toons. The paper has hired security guards for the first time in response. Sigh.
One Plastic poster put it this way:
In any other religion it is possible to talk openly about the religion, to draw cartoons about it, to write novels about it (it is even more offensive to write a novel about the Prophet Mohammad, as Salman Rushdie discovered), and so forth. Only Islam requires that everyone in the world, whether they are Muslims or non-Muslims, must treat Islam at all times as being too sacred to be examined or freely discussed in any way.
Is he wrong?
I thought it was Danish, not Dutch
Ack. Change made. Thanks.
If you look at the three Abrahamic faiths, sacrilegiousness has been an issue for all of them. Islam has a particular injunction against making any images of the Prophet Muhammad (or actually, of anyone, but esp. Muhammad).
The way Islam is depicted varies. There are PLENTY of books, articles and websites out there that depict Islam in a terrible way, that attempt to debunk it and so on. But a relative few Muslims become seriously offended when people start to try to “dirty up” Muhammad or be provocative in their depiction of him.
[…] Some three months ago I posted about Danish cartoonists receiving death threats for their depictions of Muhammed. And, well, things have only gotten more intelligent since then, so it’s time for an update. […]