If you’re American want a better idea of how Muslims feel, imagine if for some reason Chinese people had a national “draw Martin Luther King with big lips eating watermelon” day. Would the reactions be very different?
A lot of people around the world and in the United States hate the United States and make no secret of it, so we don’t need to imagine. The very fact that you didn’t talk about actual American reactions to the actually expressed loathing for the United States (by mockery of cherished American symbols among other means) suggests that you already intuit that the reaction of the average American to the very visible seething hatred for the US does not give us much of an idea of how Muslims feel.
If you are not aware of the seething hatred for the US, which I think is possible if you live in the US and limit yourself to American mainstream media, it is not because the hatred is not inherently visible—it is, for example by appearing on the covers of major European magazines—but because Americans don’t magnify its visibility within the US by obsessing about it in their own publications. In contrast, the visibility of the notorious cartoons of Mohammed is almost entirely an effect of the extreme reaction to it on the part of many Muslims.
But the US parallel is not even close to the best parallel. Islam isn’t a country, it’s a religion, so a much better parallel would be to Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ, which mocks Jesus Christ, or Chris Ofili’s Holy Virgin Mary, which mocks the mother of Jesus Christ. As far as I know neither of these artists were murdered by a Christian, as the filmmaker Theo Van Gogh was murdered by a Muslim. The Christian reaction to these artistic provocations was massively more muted than the Muslim reaction to the Mohammed cartoons.
I’m well aware of anti-Americanism (I’m French) - I’ve heard my dad cheer when hearing of the death of American soldiers in Iraq, a Chinese student say that he approved of the 9-11 attacks because of America’s support for Taiwan, etc.
(It’s funny you mention the Piss Christ; it was exposed in Avignon (here in France) and yesterday a group of catholics forced their way into the exposition, neutralized a guard and vandalized the photograph with a hammer. A far cry from Theo Van Gogh, I agree, but still not a completely pacifist response.)
A lot of people around the world and in the United States hate the United States and make no secret of it, so we don’t need to imagine. The very fact that you didn’t talk about actual American reactions to the actually expressed loathing for the United States (by mockery of cherished American symbols among other means) suggests that you already intuit that the reaction of the average American to the very visible seething hatred for the US does not give us much of an idea of how Muslims feel.
If you are not aware of the seething hatred for the US, which I think is possible if you live in the US and limit yourself to American mainstream media, it is not because the hatred is not inherently visible—it is, for example by appearing on the covers of major European magazines—but because Americans don’t magnify its visibility within the US by obsessing about it in their own publications. In contrast, the visibility of the notorious cartoons of Mohammed is almost entirely an effect of the extreme reaction to it on the part of many Muslims.
But the US parallel is not even close to the best parallel. Islam isn’t a country, it’s a religion, so a much better parallel would be to Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ, which mocks Jesus Christ, or Chris Ofili’s Holy Virgin Mary, which mocks the mother of Jesus Christ. As far as I know neither of these artists were murdered by a Christian, as the filmmaker Theo Van Gogh was murdered by a Muslim. The Christian reaction to these artistic provocations was massively more muted than the Muslim reaction to the Mohammed cartoons.
I’m well aware of anti-Americanism (I’m French) - I’ve heard my dad cheer when hearing of the death of American soldiers in Iraq, a Chinese student say that he approved of the 9-11 attacks because of America’s support for Taiwan, etc.
(It’s funny you mention the Piss Christ; it was exposed in Avignon (here in France) and yesterday a group of catholics forced their way into the exposition, neutralized a guard and vandalized the photograph with a hammer. A far cry from Theo Van Gogh, I agree, but still not a completely pacifist response.)