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Originally Posted by abaya
Nancy, thanks for your input... was wondering about your take on the situation. Good to hear about the moderate Muslim politician taking a stand in Denmark. I am sure there are many more moderates whose voices we are not hearing because of the media’s bloodlust.
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All you had to do was ask, abaya.
Did you know that a children’s book started this mess? Of course it’s not an ordinary children’s book. The book is entitled “The Koran and the life of the Phophet Muhammed”.
The author of this book, Kåre Bluitgen, caused havoc all the way to the Middleeast when he mentioned last summer that he was nearly done with the book but had had unforeseen difficulties finding someone who dared create what Bluitgen needed; namely a drawing of Muhammed - among others. A fair request considering that it’s for a book directed at children.
But no. The author learned to his cost that it was not possible to get an illustrator in Denmark to make a drawing of Muhammed to a children’s book. The reason is, of course, that it’s forbidden to depict the prophet and that some Imams/Muslims who, with authority and threats compel to speak on behalf of every single Muslim, take this ban extremely serious.
In my opinion this is nothing but a medieval-like dogmatic which has kept millions of Muslims in a spiritual iron grip for too long. How they deal with that matter in the Muslim countries is one thing, but a whole other matter is how the Muslim Koran preachers tries to put their Koran bans over on us in Denmark.
Christianity has formally forbidden any depiction of God. But only a few hundred years after the introduction of Christianity there were huge discussions about the ban with conflicts between the Pope in Rome and others. Today one can enjoy Rafael’s 500-year-old painting in the Vatican where both Jesus, the Holy Spirit and God himself is depicted.
The collision that takes place in Denmark these days between us who are broad-minded, tolerant and democratic and the Muslim fundamentalist who refuse to put their holy book in a modern coherence and refuses to aknowlege our way of life and values is serious indeed.
But how on earth has this matter gone beyond a writer’s difficulties finding an illustrator to a children’s book to a massive attack on the Danish civic rights?! The way this matter has escalated is utterly ridiculous.
So yes, The Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, did ask 40 cartoonists to draw images of the prophet with the purpose of “examining whether people would succumb to self-censorship”. And the reason for this is due to Bluitgen’s difficulties finding an illustrator who dared depict Muhammed. The illustrators didn’t succumb to self-censorship but they did ask to remain anonymous - and after the murder of Dutch artist Van Gogh can you blame them? And that really annoys me; that modern, westerner people are dictated by fear of Islam/Muslims. If someone wants to draw Muhammed or critizise Islam then he’s free to do so. And that’s what the Muslims need to understand and accept. Freedom of speech comes first. And yes, some people will always feel stepped on because of that but we shouldn’t let that restrain us because the alternative is worse.