Notes on Political Venality, Pomposity and Associated Stupidity.

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Cartoons Are Just That.

Denmark is a lovely country...and the Dane's were a historically adventurous people. But, in today's world, it is mostly inconsequential on the world stage. However, after the publication of some cartoons in a Danish newspaper, the eyes of the Muslim world turned on the tiny, icy enclave...as if it had declared war on The Prophet.

What is at play here? Why the hub bub, bub? It is clearly nothing more than hate-mongering among certain factions in the Muslim community. Trashing the leader/prophet of a major religion is generally bad form, but it isn't something to shoot, kill or main over, because that's what most religions themselves consider bad form. No major religion purports to support violence as a solution.

Yet here we have some Muslim's declaring virtual war on a democratic nation that supports freedom of the press. It's enough to make you want to re-read the holy Qur'an, to see if humor, satire and stupidity are truly punishable by death.

The bottom line for many Westerner's is this; if you are a Muslim, and you can't slough this off and look at the real problems facing you, what chance do you have for the future?