Discussion 1 to Meditation 475
An unfair comparison
by David Marjanović
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The comparison is unfair.
- Very, very, very few Christians have ever seen this interesting picture. Tens of millions of Muslims have been told about (not shown...!) the famous caricatures over months following their republication in a Norwegian newspaper. Clearly some preachers had a lot of time on their hands. Show the beer wrap to every preacher in every US fundie church... <putting hands in front of eyes>
- The caricatures were actually meant to provoke. The rather right-wing Danish newspaper wanted to find out "if Islamic extremists already have enough power to influence the discourse in Denmark" or something like that. The beer wrap is clearly just supposed to be fun.
- It's not just a question of religion, it's also a question of culture. Most Christians have been through the Enlightenment, most Muslims haven't been...
- A few years ago there was widespread public Not-Amusedness in Austria -- not Poland or Ireland -- over a caricature book called The Life of Jesus. For weeks it was a top topic in the media. Show the beer wrap to the US Bible Belt (see "Enlightenment" above), and I suspect you'll get your riot complete with burning embassies and all.
- Do you really believe there is such a thing as a spontaneous demonstration in Iran or Syria? Come on. What next? A spontaneous demonstration in China against a Japanese schoolbook...? In dictatorships, demonstration only happen when the dictatorship wants them to happen, or when they manage to end the dictatorship before the dictatorships ends them.