A bit of a side note, but from what I’ve read/heard from Muslims, what they object to isn’t the drawing of Mohammed per se, but the mocking of Mohammed. I’ve also heard some express annoyance that the media would misrepresent their view as if the problem was a religious edict against drawing Mohammed and not the mocking
I agree a lot of Muslims seem to be offended by any depiction of Mohammed—as I said to Vladimir, I was talking of those I have some experience with, i.e. French speaking (which tends to be biased towards the more educated and westernized).
(And come on, the bit about adding “Ali” was a funny and appropriate response, no ? :) )
(And come on, the bit about adding “Ali” was a funny and appropriate response, no ? :) )
It was a lot better and more humorous than other responses. But that point was that they were still offended enough to take that action. (Note also by the way that since this occurred at a major college campus this is presumably some of the more educated and Westernized Muslims).
I find it very normal that they took action—the purpose of the whole “Everybody draw Mohammed day” thing is to annoy Muslims, so a Muslim encountering a drawing of Mohammed in that context (as opposed to in a history book etc.) knows it’s purpose is to offend him or someone like him. Even if he doesn’t mind the actual drawing, he knows about the intent behind the drawing.
Empirically this isn’t the case. See e.g.the initial cartoon for Everyone Draw Muhammad day which resulted in the artist having to go into hiding from the death threats.
Also if you look at the relevant Wikipedia talk pages, there are almost daily Muslims showing up demanding that we remove all pictures of Muhammad. In another instance, at one college, the Muslim students were sufficiently offended by smiling stick figures labeled Muhammad that they added “Ali” after each so they would instead say they were Muhammad Ali. There might be some moderates claiming to only be offended by mockery, but it seems pretty clear that there are a lot of Muslims who are offended by any attempted depiction.
I agree a lot of Muslims seem to be offended by any depiction of Mohammed—as I said to Vladimir, I was talking of those I have some experience with, i.e. French speaking (which tends to be biased towards the more educated and westernized).
(And come on, the bit about adding “Ali” was a funny and appropriate response, no ? :) )
It was a lot better and more humorous than other responses. But that point was that they were still offended enough to take that action. (Note also by the way that since this occurred at a major college campus this is presumably some of the more educated and Westernized Muslims).
I find it very normal that they took action—the purpose of the whole “Everybody draw Mohammed day” thing is to annoy Muslims, so a Muslim encountering a drawing of Mohammed in that context (as opposed to in a history book etc.) knows it’s purpose is to offend him or someone like him. Even if he doesn’t mind the actual drawing, he knows about the intent behind the drawing.