This “Draw Mohammad Day” thing
To Muslims, Mohammed is the last Prophet of God – a particularly singular figure in Islam. He is the epitome of all the virtues one sees in the Quran, the model of a perfect human being. Volumes have been written compiling his words and actions, which along with the Quran, form the foundation of Islam. He is, in short, an intensely revered figure.
To depict him in a bear suit or with a pig snout – as he has been in two recent cartoons – is free speech, yes, but it is intensely offensive. It betrays a willful determination to refuse to see the world through Muslims eyes – to understand how innately the Prophet is loved by his followers and how profoundly flippant disrespect for him wounds us.
I fully intended to put an image of Mohammad on the blog yesterday, and then completely forgot about it. I also joined the infamous Facebook page as well, but quit once it became a mecca for every half-wit American racist and Muslim intolerant on the internet.
But to the writer of the CSM piece, yes, I would be offended if someone portrayed King as a monkey. I’m offended when my fellow citizens do it to images of Obama.
Difference is, I don’t physically attack the artists.
Miss Haq, you and your fellow Muslims are free to believe anything you wish, anywhere in the world. Just as there are those who believe in Jesus, Santa, or that we were attacked on 9/11 by forces unknown. Believe all you want. But what you believe has nothing to do with me. I happen to not believe in Mohammad, or Jesus, or whatever FSM of choice you might happen to follow.
What I do believe was articulated long ago by Rousseau:
Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.
Your “belief” that drawing a stick figure and calling it Mohammad injures you is not only ridiculous, it is yet another chain. I was born with the freedom to draw or write anything I fucking wish to. You were born with the freedom to either be offended, or be a rational being. You chose the former. A regretful choice that will continue to keep Muslims stuck in the 15th century for eternity…and part of why your faith is openly hated around the world.
Your choice. You have the freedom to object, we have the freedom to draw. You don’t have the freedom to stop us by force, only by suggestion. If you wish to be a member of the rational world, you best learn the difference between private belief and public action. Scribbled words in a book written by men with agendas- be it Muslim, Christian, or L. Ron fucking Hubbard are nothing more than that-words. They aren’t “proof” of anything. My freedoms as a man trump whatever fiction you choose to live your life by.
Your life, not mine.