Danish “offensive” cartoons
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:category: faith
:date: 2006-02-09T20:55:00

I did not know what to think about the Danish cartoons much. First of
all, when you look `at them`_, it is really hard to be sure whether the
author meant them to be offensive at all. Second, well of course, I am
too much reader of `The Voice of the Martyrs`_ to take seriously Islamic
complaints about how Christians are disrespectful to their faith. I
really shouldn’t dig into the reports of VoM about situation of
Christians (and especially new converts to Christianity) in Pakistan or
Saudi Arabia, should I? However, nothing of that seemed interesting
enough to be written down and I didn’t have a time and urge to research
this thoroughly. Meanwhile, all what I wanted to say was written in much
better way and with true understanding of what’s going on by
`HonestReporting.com`_. And, just one example—\ `Tom Gross’ selection of
Arab Cartoons`_.

However, `I know`_ that the reasons for many social actions do not lie
in the rational causes, but in the symbolic struggle for status and
support. So, it seems that Honest Reporting’s (which is really strange
name) suggestion, that this case Islamic fundamentalist struggle to
affirm their support lovely collaborated with their governments effort
to find some other enemy than themselves. How lovely.

Thanks Mark_ for pointing me to the Honest Reporting site.

One off-topic comment. While looking at the `Tom Gross’ website`_ I
found that it contains a lot of highly controversial and critical
material. However, his articles on Roma_ sometimes get closer to the
skin, than feels comfortable. I have never heard about `Milena
Hubschmannová`_, which is shame and I just like `this picture`_.

----

I have decided to publish here the one picture—the most controversial
one, not because I would like to offend muslims, but because I really
believe that this picture is actually quite interesting and it can be
interpreted in many other ways than just the one selected by protesting
Moslems and almost all Western print.

.. _`at them`:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyllands-Posten_Muhammad_cartoons_controversy
.. _`The Voice of the Martyrs`:
    http://www.persecution.com/
.. _`HonestReporting.com`:
    http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/Offensive_Cartoons.asp
.. _`Tom Gross’ selection of Arab Cartoons`:
    http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/ArabCartoons.htm
.. _`I know`:
    http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0252013212
.. _Mark:
    http://marcsmessages.typepad.com/mm/2006/02/humor_in_the_mu.html
.. _`Tom Gross’ website`:
    http://www.tomgrossmedia.com
.. _Roma:
    http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/Roma.htm
.. _`Milena Hubschmannová`:
    http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/MilenaHubschmannova.html
.. _`this picture`:
    http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/img/roma_large.jpg