Cartoons and common sense

I do.The unreasonableness lies in the fact that the cartoons point to violent aspects of their belief, as perceived in the West, and that by staging such vehement protests, burning embassies, and inciting violence and murder, they in fact demonstrate a core of truth behind this perception.

They pick themselves out as something special. Their prophet is better than anyone else, their laws should be everyone's laws, their truth is the only truth. I've heard people in the street shout these things at the top of their lungs. Now who's being silly here? NOT all who might be upset are NOT protesting? Are you sure about that second 'not'? I think you mean something else. They may not be terrorists in that they don't don an explosive vest and blow themselves up in a crowd, but the things they put on their placards certainly incite terror in the hearts of Europeans, for what they might encourage some of their fellow Muslims in Europe to do to innocent people.This message has been edited by Parasomnium, 05-Feb-2006 09:49 PM

You think I mentioned three things, don't you? Prophet, laws, and truth. Well, I mentioned four: shouting as well. In fact, I cannot remember when I last saw footage of muslims in the street who were not shouting "Allah akbar", which in essence means prophet, laws, and truth. I am talking about Islam.Of course, there are rabid Christians and Jews. There are rabid Hindus and Buddhists as well. There are rabid atheists for all I know. For any type of person you can think of, there is a rabid variety.But there seem to be an awful lot of rabid Muslims, compared to others. And their rabidness is of the scary kind.

I'm imagining it. I don't see, in my imagination, Christians calling for the decapitation of the maker of the imaginary Christ cartoon. Nor do I see them threatening 9-11 type violence. That's what I mean by the scary kind of rabidness. Somehow, part of the Islamic culture has taken on a very nasty, violent character, and I'm not sure if I trust the moderate in Islam to keep the violent in check.

That's what's actually so scary. These shouting mobs do indeed have a very medieval mindset which, combined with a peculiar fondness of blood - other people's blood - sets the stage for all kinds of nastiness to be around the corner. Today it's Beirut, tomorrow it could be Copenhagen.

How many Christians have flown airplanes into tall buildings, or blown themselves up in busy commuter trains? How many Jews? It's irrelevant whether it really has anything to do with Islam or not. The perception alone in the mind of a deluded sod that there is a connection with Islam is enough for yet another massacre. In that respect, it has everything to do with Islam, in whatever form.This message has been edited by Parasomnium, 06-Feb-2006 01:32 PM

I have seen moderate Muslims being interviewed, but, moderate as they are, they're unable to stop the fanatics. The only thing they talk about is that their version of Islam is the true version. And so do the fanatics. In the mean time, the violence goes on, indiscriminately.

Dark skinned, foreign accent? Of course not, what do you take me for? It's only the last thing you mention, the violence, or dare I say the unreasonable violence, that scares me. Perhaps you're right that mobs of all denominations are equally scary when violent, but Muslim violence has been in the news a lot. In fact, it's dominating the news. And I'm not watching Fox News c.s., but mainly news sources that can be labelled 'progressive'. Besides, it doesn't matter what captions they put under the footage, the images speak for themselves. The difference is that we don't see Americans nuking France, or an American army invading Europe. But we do see Islamic fanatics slaughter people in the street, or blowing themselves up in crowds. They not only say violent things, the act them out too.

You don't say. They demand respect where they have clearly demonstrated to have none whatsoever for innocent people in airplaines, skyscrapers, buses and trains. They demand apologies for mockery when the West has yet to hear apologies from them for real killings. A clearer case of hypocrisy is hard to find. I personally find it ridiculous that one should apologize for others, but if that's what they demand, then I think the ball is emphatically in their court.

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"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science." - Charles Darwin.

I see your point, Ian, but I think that opposition can take many forms. I think they would have earned much more respect by staging peaceful protests. Calling for indiscriminate murder is unreasonable by any human standard.Take anyone on the planet, put a gun to their head, tell them they did something to offend you, and would they mind being shot for it. I guarantee you that no one is going to agree because of the unreasonableness of the situation. But if it's unreasonable for anyone to accept it, then it's equally unreasonable for anyone to suggest it.When push comes to shove, the maxim "do unto others as you would have others do unto you" is universal.

OK, point taken. However, although I am loath to defend any violent action from anyone, I think it needs to be said that, nowadays, Christian and Jewish violence is hardly ever religiously inspired and seldom indiscriminate.I might be wrong of course.