If I see followers of a certain belief in a way that is counter to how they see themselves, am I not allowed to express my view?
If I look around me, and everywhere I see civillians being targeted randomly I see Muslims doing it -- and I'd like to point that out... Drawing a cartoon with the founder of that religion with a bomb in his turban is simply making a statement. It says to the world, "this is how I see Islam". If Muslims don't like it, they have the right to try to convince us otherwise.
Unfortunately, the opposite road was chosen, and the voices of the moderates have been scattered and stiffled.
In the BBC article that helped precipitate this post is a very patronizing Q&A on the subject that sounds like it's aimed at 4th graders. Most of it is pretty straightforward -- but I did find it a bit misleading in places.
In it, we see:
What do Muslims say about the cartoons?
Islamic tradition explicitly prohibits images of Allah, Muhammad and all the major figures of the Christian and Jewish traditions.
There are far too many examples that this is not true for this statement to hold water. Oddly, we see just the opposite in another BBC story which is linked right above this statement in the very same article. Wanna get your stories straight, guys? Just goes to show you you can't believe everything you read in the press no matter who published it. But one of the major problems pinning Islam down on anything is there is no "Pope", nobody who can authoritatively speak for Islam. Except he who has the biggest sword.
Has Muslim reaction to the cartoons been uniform?
Not at all - some Muslims have accused protesters of overreacting.
A weekly newspaper in Jordan reprinted some of the cartoons and urged Muslims to "be reasonable".
Indeed it hasn't been. There are reasonable Muslims. Like the editor of that very newspaper in Jordan... Who was arrested over publishing some of the cartoons.
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