Satire and Islam

Enough is enough. I understand that Islam considers it to be sacrilege to do a picture of Mohammed, but it is a picture. They can do protests and marches and letters. Burning buildings and killing folks is another story. I think it is odd that there is almost a 3 month gap between when the cartoons were first published and all these protests. Now granted that a Norweigen newspaper printed them in early January, but still.

Islam needs to realize that people will say or do things you dont like. You can protest them civilly or you can act like a 2 year old (see the Joint Chief's civlized protest about a Washington Post political cartoon).

Where was the outrage we see here against killing women and children? Where was the outrage at people being executed by brutally having their heads chopped off? Where is the outrage at using children as bombers?

We repeatedly hear how Islam is not to blame, but when you dont hear them speaking against these actions or making as strong condemnations as they do on these issues I find myself to be increasingly less sympathetic.

Satire is one of the hallmarks of an open society. If you cant poke fun at the human condition, then you cant make commentary on it to improve it.

Furthermore, I think it is poor taste that the United States didnt stand by Denmark. Andrew Sullivan has some good posts on it. Freedom of the Press is one of the signatures of a free republic. We are on the wrong side here. Another good commentary is found here.

We should not apologize for having freedom of expression.