I Was A Good Boy

I didn't participate in Everybody Draw Muhammad Day . I understood the reasons behind the day and I also believe that it is a free speech issue. I don't think the threat of a handful of thugs to behead me or blow me up is a good enough reason to not participate. If anything when someone threatens you with violence in order to keep you from doing something that's exactly the time to make sure you do it because what else is that but bullying, and the best way to combat a bully is to not let them get their way. So I'm proud of my friends and the people I didn't know who treated the threats and warnings for what they were - childishness.

The irony of it all was enough to make anyone think the point was made, right? Well irony is something that is always lost on the brain dead and the fanatical because the last thing a fanatic can afford is the luxury of self-criticism. To second guess oneself when you're supposed to have total certainty about something is a dickey bird short of fanaticism. Question something and the club tosses you out, cupcake. So the fact that people were threatening violence to people who were demonstrating against people who threaten violence got kind of lost on the more pig-headed minions of Islam. Oh wait, did I just make a pun?

On the other hand the scheduled day did have a downside because though it targeted the 1 in every 250,000+ Muslims who would actually do harm to someone for making a drawing of Muhammad, it sort of put the other 249,999+ Muslims in an awkward place and - really - is as much an insult to their sensibilities without any good reason that it's enough to make a thinking person hesitate. After all, those who were silent probably also struggled with the incongruity; they also believe in free speech - especially the American Muslims, but they also understand the theological underpinnings of the tradition. In fact the "no image" tradition isn't just in Islam. It also exists in Christianity, except it's one of those many little things in the Bible that people tend to overlook - like stoning people who work on a Sunday or being forceful with your slaves. There isn't supposed to be an image of God anywhere in Christianity, but he's up on the ceiling touching Adam's hand and - if Jesus is the physical representation of God in the flesh - there's little Gods hanging all over the place. Some are even around people's necks. I guess people are too busy trying to find ways to condemn homosexual marriage, though it's a mystery to me why some edicts are remembered while others are conveniently passed by.

And the point is that the underlying reason that physical representations of the Prophet are not to be made is actually sane. It is a precaution against idol worship and that precaution also serves to keep people from placing Muhammad above God, which should not be done. In the mainstream of Islam this is how it is seen and this is how it is observed. And - truly - it is a bare handful of thugs - many of whom would be the moral (or, perhaps, ridiculous) equivalent of our own so-called "Religious Right" in that the key to their belief is strict adherence and the state-sponsored purge - who would actually go out and physically attack someone for making this image.

So based on my own self-criticism I didn't participate, and am even waiting to write about it or mention it officially until the "day" is almost over.

And then there was the self-criticism of the self-criticism. So there's this...



Have a nice weekend! May the peace and tranquility of God be upon you.