a Journey

The Danish cartoons reflected the personal impressions/opinions of 12 individuals who were asked to express their personal take on Islam. I believe in the freedom of expression: these people were free to draw whatever they wished of their impression of Islam. I believe each of us was born with the innate ability and right to freedom: to think and thus form opinions is an aspect of our freedom.

The sticky part then, is where then does this freedom of expression end?

I will not condemn Jyllands-Posten (the Danish paper), and say that they were wrong to publish the cartoons,  because it would be an encroachment of their rights of a free press and the usual satirical nature of these sort of cartoons. Yet, having the freedom to do something does not mean that the subject in question is the best option for everyone. Was it ignorance that the Danish paper did not know that the Prophet Muhammad was not meant to be portrayed in any form? Or did they choose to ignore that fact and exercise their right to freedom of speech? I honetly do not know.

In the end, the personal opnions of these individuals and the consequent outrage and reactions worldwide have reflected deep-seated issues which have yet to be addressed in communities around the world.

Firstly, I do not see the link between Danish cartoons on Prophet Muhammad and Iran's Hamshahi declaring that it wants to satirize the Holocaust(!).The Holocaust was a genocide of the Jews. (How did we move from Danes to Jews again?) How then does a grevious insult put it on the same plane as the atrocities of WW2 Hitler? The insult was not planned and caluclated to bring about the greatest possible harm, or rather deaths and torture (although it has brought about much harm), it was a thought, it was happenstance. How can the memories and lives lost during the Holocaust be mocked and ridiculed based on 12 individuals' personal opinons?

A mistake was made. The paper was blunt and oafish about expressing the opinions of those 12 cartoonists, yes, that is true. Yet it is the opinons of 12 individuals, for which they themselves are responsible for. And no, I do not mean killing them for holding such opinons. The rest of the world need not "pay for their sins" and I certainly do not see how threatening jihad on the lives of Danes is justified. 

To be peaceful is to be tolerant and patient. To gain respect, one must first learn to respect. Many who riot say that they do so because they feel that their religon has not been given the respect it deserves. That is true. Yet, how can such actions convince the masses, who have no contact or interaction with Muslims in their community, otherwise? These are not moral gudings, just a reflection of the mechanisms of human nature.