Cartoons of Mohammad
A headline on the front pages of a local paper caught my eye: Again, Eurpoe is demonising a minority... now, I do not need to rehash the points of the debate (issues on free speech, religious extremism etc...)
Couple of other thoughts:
Firstly, such caricatures are not new in the Western media... political figures, religious sects have all been satired before... by the way, i do not think the Danish PM's remarks about free speech is overly convincing. As I have pointed out before, notions of free speech is often thought of having the freedom to say and write whatever you want (which is a silly concept)... because being "totally free" means that language and syntax rules should not apply. Obviously, the simplistic Hobbesian conception of freedom of action as the untramelled pursuit of desire still holds. Immanuel Kant would have made a better argument against such lousy notions of "freedom" that the Western world are still raising their voices about.
The practice of such satirical cartoons highlights a much bigger problem that is plaguing Western liberal democracies - in which the important matters are increasingly trivialized - we see these in political spectacles and on TV everyday.
Having said so, examples like these only go to show that God has given men much more freedom than fellow men give one another - which is the freedom to object, oppose or even "blasphemize" against Him... which is where the Islamic faith fails to recongnize - or should I say - isn't present within Islam.
The notion of redemption and forgiveness is something that only the Christian faith can truly witness to. Without a Incarnate Savior - who truly forgives those who sin against him - as human beings, we are left in a world that is devoid of any foundation or hope of reconciliation.
Couple of other thoughts:
Firstly, such caricatures are not new in the Western media... political figures, religious sects have all been satired before... by the way, i do not think the Danish PM's remarks about free speech is overly convincing. As I have pointed out before, notions of free speech is often thought of having the freedom to say and write whatever you want (which is a silly concept)... because being "totally free" means that language and syntax rules should not apply. Obviously, the simplistic Hobbesian conception of freedom of action as the untramelled pursuit of desire still holds. Immanuel Kant would have made a better argument against such lousy notions of "freedom" that the Western world are still raising their voices about.
The practice of such satirical cartoons highlights a much bigger problem that is plaguing Western liberal democracies - in which the important matters are increasingly trivialized - we see these in political spectacles and on TV everyday.
Having said so, examples like these only go to show that God has given men much more freedom than fellow men give one another - which is the freedom to object, oppose or even "blasphemize" against Him... which is where the Islamic faith fails to recongnize - or should I say - isn't present within Islam.
The notion of redemption and forgiveness is something that only the Christian faith can truly witness to. Without a Incarnate Savior - who truly forgives those who sin against him - as human beings, we are left in a world that is devoid of any foundation or hope of reconciliation.
posted by Benjamin Ho at
6:47 AM
3 Comments:
Check this out:
Behind the cartoon protests
The Monitor's View
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0210/p08s02-comv.html
I feel your criticism of Islam is unfair and biased.
"Having said so, examples like these only go to show that God has given men much more freedom than fellow men give one another - which is the freedom to object, oppose or even "blasphemize" against Him... which is where the Islamic faith fails to recongnize - or should I say - isn't present within Islam."
The only reason why this is present in Christianity and not Islam is because of the reformation instituted by Martin Luthur and other forward thinking philosophers.Here is an easily accessible source for those who do not know what I am talking about.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformation
Without the Reformation Christianity would still be trapped in the dark ages and such freedom as experienced by modern day christians would not have come to pass.Thus,freedom is not inherent to the doctrines of either Christianity or Islam and is actually the product of courageous men daring to speak out against the social norms of the time.
just wanna add that before the Reformation any deviance from the accepted school of thought propagated by the Catholic Church would have resulted in some severe penalties indeed...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquisition
Easy read once more...
This isn't a rant against Christians..I'm just trying to raise the point that Christianity is fortunate to have undergone the Reformation or it would be in the same situation as Islam would be nowadays.
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