Happy Draw Muhammad Day!
“The moment you declare a set of ideas to be immune from criticism, satire,
derision, or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible.”
– Salman Rushdie
Although some Muslims in the
Islamic world often seem to forget that the religion of Islam has had a long
and illustrious (see what I did there?) tradition of depicting Muhammad in art,
I absolutely love the idea of “Draw Muhammad Day” as a means to push back
against totalitarian theocrats and Islamic bullies who would seek to silence
the thoughts and opinions others.
An artist by the name of Heini
Reinert, recently submitted a piece for “Draw Muhammad Day.” It was my favorite
piece this year, as it depicted Muhammad being drawn by an off-page artist.
Muhammad was without hands, as the off panel artist hadn’t gotten around to
drawing them yet. Additionally, in an homage to one of the original
Jyllands-Posten drawings, a headdress with a bomb. The tiny Muhammad in the
cartoon is captioned as saying, “Hurry up with my hands so I can kill you for
drawing me!”
I especially liked this
drawing for a couple of reasons. In the Islamic world those who are without
hands are guilty of crimes, and the punishment is to cut off their hands. There
isn’t a greater insult, as hands are our tools that help us survive and thrive,
or to worship God. Cutting off one’s hands is to cut off their vitality.
Although Islamic blowhards
shout threats of violence against those who dare to depict Muhammad in art, I
think we should all start showing the Prophet (whenever and wherever depicted) without hands. Why? Because there is no
greater offense than silencing the free speech of others and trying to chain
their thoughts and words to the insular and peevish dogmas of an overly
self-righteous religion. Then, in retaliation to their refusal to submit to
such archaic, unegalitarian barbarism, to inflict real violence against them. This
is a crime perpetrated primarily by those in the Muslim world, and until
Muslims (all Muslims) can learn to act
peacefully, it is my strong opinion that the Prophet should be without hands
till that time when Muslims can either accept it as a form of punishment for
their crimes against other people’s rights and freedoms.
I shouldn’t have to remind
anyone, but it’s a well known truth that
People have rights. Not
religions.
As I briefly touched on
already, I also appreciated the cartoon because it references the bomb-turban
cartoon which sparked the original Jyllands-Posten Cartoon Controversy, which
lead to riots, a turn of violence, and ultimately 200 deaths worldwide. Instead
of apologizing for the turmoil they helped incite, the first reaction of Muslim
Imams was to cry Islamophobia and bring charges of blasphemy against all those
who would dare to disregard their fancies and blatantly dismiss any need to
kowtow with the same bent over reverence they do to a mere historical figure,
although perhaps not an unimportant one.
As always, after the first “Draw
Muhammad Day” there were more threats of violence, a call to silence Islam’s
detractors using the intimidation of death—that warped sense of justice that
exists only in the mind of a true xenophobe. Islam’s message was clear. If you
didn’t bow down, bite your tongue, and submit to the demands there were going
to be even more threats of violence—and, regretably, there always seems to be a
group of overzealous radicals containing at least one devottee willing to take
it upon himself to be the judge, jury, and exocutioner of another person’s life.
Why? Because that person drew
a simple, yet perhaps slightly irreverant, cartoon. And this only goes to
highlight the problem. Religious extremism convinces otherwise regular people
that their beliefs are under attack should someone else not agree with them,
and that the best way to deal with this is to go insane and begin killing other
people for a trivial offense (if even an offense at all).
Religious extremism makes its
adherents intollerant by pitting their religious faith against the outside
world, creating a false ditchotomy of “us vs. them,” and then saying that when
the rest of the world doesn’t bend down to their will, it is defiance,
disrespect, or a plot to damage their religious faith or beliefs. But the fact
remains:
People have rights. Not
religions.
It’s ironic how certain
hypersensitive factions want to call us all Islamaphobes when we write
criticisms of Islam, some valid and some wide of the mark, all the while not
seeming to realize that Islamaphobe literally means “to be fearful of Islam.”
And why wouldn’t we be fearful of Islam when its threatens us and holds fear
over us, when it threatens to abuse us if we choose any other lifestyle than
the Muslim one, and threatens us with oppression and tyranny should we rebel?
Why wouldn’t we be, at the very least, timid?
I should hope that before anyone
recklessly toss out the term “Islamaphobe” to describe those who they think are
gross and racist, maybe theyu should first consider that the term might be less
of a slander to that person than an actual description of the inherent problems
within Islamism and Islamic extremism.
In other words, maybe we have
every reason to be scared of Islam, just as much as we have a right to point
out why, and if that means we are “Islamaphobes” for criticizing Islam – I’m
sorry, but that’s just the way it’s going to be. And that’s simply not going to
change. Why? Because:
People have rights. Not
religions.
I wonder how many cartoonists
will have to die before people start to realize that any ideology, whether it is
Islam or any other, that seeks to bind our tongues and chain our lips and cut
off our hands cannot be an ideology designed to bring about an everlasting
peace, but rather is clearly an ideology designed to actuallize the worst state
of affairs imaginable, a world ruled by tyranny and oppression. How many have
to die for the most bent over backwards liberal to admit that it is so, and the
most conservative left wing nut to admit their own beliefs share a great deal more
in common with those they consider to be the enemy than they’d probably care to
admit?
Perhaps more telling is the
fact that this crying “Islamaphobe” at the first sign of any perceived
criticism seems to be a dodge not to deal with the initial criticism in the
first place. God forbid you admit not being perfect, Islam! God forbid you be
held up to a higher standard, and that these criticisms are meant to motivate
you to do so! God forbid you change for the better! That would just be ...
un-Islam-like.
So this cartoon controversy has
proved that Muslims know how to get mad easily. I mean, really
hot-under-the-collar, red in the face, on a summer day in the middle of the
desert, two humps on a camel – mad. That’s pretty darn mad. But I would bet a
full dollar that most of them didn’t even understand why they were so mad in
the first place. Not really, anyway.
Was it really because some anonymous cartoonist in some far away country
drew a silly, slightly mocking, picture of a famous historical figure, who was
a known warlord and conqueror?
Nah. I give Muslim people more
credit than that. Even the illiterate ones (note: literacy rates are extremely
varied among Islamic countries, ranging from high to low, but many of the
countries with the largest Muslim populations also seem to have the highest
rates of illiteracy) have to realize that getting irate over a cartoon they haven’t seen let
alone understood the gist of makes little to no sense.
It’s the ones who did understand that were the problem.
These are the ones who got
whipped up into a frenzy. But not because the lambasting was offensive. But
because they recognized what the cartoons represented ... the loss of authority
and the encroachment of antithetical ideologies, like the freedom of speech and
the right (yes, right!) to blaspheme. You see:
People have rights. Not
religions.
Here, for the first time in
living memory, Islam was wide open to criticism. Real, biting, harsh as hail
criticism.
Islam was still reeling from
the shock of getting doled out one polemic after another, a rapid fire
concession of critiques—some valid, others slightly less so—but if anything was
made clear by the criticisms dealt and the Muslim reaction to them, it was that
Islam just wasn’t ready to receive criticism, positive or negative. Not just yet.
The enlightenment had come too
soon to a people not yet primed for the responsibility of handling with care
their opinions and the opinions of others. As such, every criticism felt like
an pin prick, and Islam reeled back in terror and shock of the very sharp sting
they had experienced by coming into contact with the modern world.
The Imams, who knew that this
meant Islam would either have to learn to adapt or go down fighting, chose to
go down fighting. Not paying attention to the fact that they were on the wrong
side of history.
As such, Islam declared war on
what the rest of the world considered to be a civil discourse, the exchange of
ideas, and the right to cordially disagree—including the occasional satirical
cartoon—all things, mind you, which are legally protected in most of the
countries in which Islam seemed to be having a problem with.
All I can say is, welcome to
the 21st century Islam. You don’t like what others may think about you? Tough.
Sometimes you have to roll with the punches. How come? Because:
People have rights. Not
religions.
Perhaps, it’s worth pointing
out that as individuals people are allowed hold intolerant, obstinate, even
silly or nonsensical beliefs. As people
that is our right. People have rights, not religions. Of course, we may not
always agree with others when they share, in a public manner, their intolerant,
obstinate, silly and dumb beliefs, but as individuals, they have the right to
think however they wish.
Religions, on the other hand,
do not have the right to unchecked intolerance. Religious leaders, using their
authority, who incite mobs on the behalf of religious principles in order to
use intimidation to dictate what others may think and do, all while demanding subservience
to comply with its oft irrational demands, is straight up totalitarianism. This
we cannot abied. Why? Because:
People have rights. Not
religions.
Groups of people, coming
together to demand fair treatment, that’s fine by me. If you get your feelings
hurt, then let’s talk about it. But groups of people coming together to seek
vigilante justice for mere perceived offenses, that’s NOT okay.
It’s doubly not okay when it
seems that no real sense of justice can be had because no real crime was ever committed.
I know that some people don’t undersand satire. I know that some people have no
sense of irony. That’s simply not our problem. It’s theirs. And they need to
learn to deal with it without devolving into clothes wrenching, hair pulling
lunatics and violent madmen.
Here’s my beef with Islam. It’s
a religion that is a little bit out of control. There is no unifying group, so
it’s a lot of little groups all acting independently of the others, all seeking
what’s in their best interest, while ignoring the interests of others. It’s out
to silence us for liking humorous cartoons, or speaking our mind, or sharing
things which it might find offensive that we find entertaining. It’s out to get
the cartoonists who may raise valid criticisms through satire. It’s out to get
those who would seek to defend the cartoonists’ integrity as artists. It’s out
to shackle its detractors tongues and chain our mouths and keep them shut upon
pain of death.
Meanwhile, it calls us
intolerant!
See what I mean about not
grasping irony?
But it’s true. For the
non-Muslim, we simply do not regard silly superstitious rules with the same
amount of kowtowing obedience.
But here’s a newsflash. We don’t
have to.
Why? Two reasons. First, we
may not be Muslim. Secondly, as a non-Muslim we don’t adhere to the beliefs or
tenets of Islam, therefore we don’t believe in Islam’s god, and so Islamic rules
and regulations simply do not apply to us.
Even as I am critical of
Islam, it should be noted that I’ve never once tried to restrict what a Muslim
person can think and believe. But the moment a group of peoples, or a religion,
seeks to infringe the rights of what I can think or believe, or ther rights of
others, just because it can, that’s when I say it is even more deserving of
ridicule.
My message to Islam, is this:
Get used to the idea that
people have rights, not religions. Once you grow comfortable with this concept,
the rest will get easier for you.
The simple truth of the matter
is, if you don’t want to be made the subject of ridicule then, by all means,
stop acting so goddamn ridiculous all of the time.
If you want respect, you’re
going to have to earn it. Needless to say, you can’t earn people’s respect when
you are continually attempting to infringe upon their rights, bring harm to
them, or otherwise try to force them to concede to your worldview.
That’s the complete opposite of
being tolerant. In fact, there’s actually a word for it. It’s called INTOLERANCE.
And you actually have to
wonder why people draw cartoons criticizing and deriding you? I know it was
hard to find out this way. It always is hard learning that, contrary to what
you believed, you really are the asshole.
Poor Islam.
Poor, poor Islam.
So anti-social yet so in want of a good friend.
Author’s note: I wrote this article in May 20, 2014, long before the tragic
Charlie Hebdo incident in France where the satirical magazine was fired on by
two Islamic extremists who shouted out “God is great” and “the Prophet is
avenged!” as they killed 12 people for nothing more than excercising their
basic freedoms of expression and speech.
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