RE: Cartoons and philosophy
The question as to why certain groups of Muslims react so violently against these cartoons mocking the Prophet has come up several times. Often, the violence of the reaction has been compared with that of -say- Catholics remaining calm when the virgin Mary is ridiculed.
One component surely is a general sort of discontent within the Arab world, as well as under Muslims outside of Arabia that the West is targeting and humiliating them. This impression may or may not be correct in general, but there is certainly something to it in the context of Danmark (or the Netherlands for that matter). Whereas before migrants from Morocco, Turkey and other Mediterranean countries were referred to as Moroccans, Turks, etc., now they are referred to as Muslims and usually in a critical or derogatory way. Migrants are lumped together by their religious indentity and it is under the heading of this identity that they are a 'problem' for these societies. So this accounts for some (small?) part of the outrage and discontent. This has been mentioned by many commentators and there probably is something to it.
However, I have not really heard or seen commentators mentioning the following consideration. When comparing the religious sensitivities of Arab Muslims with Western Catholics, one should not forget that the Western Europe there has been a period of more than 100 years of religious civil wars. The result, as you are all aware, was the birth of ideals of religious tolerance and liberal rights. However, this was not just a political result, this has had a profound influence on the Christian faith as it is practised. Christianity, in the West at least, has become politically liberal as well. Many Christians for example accept the idea that their religion is a private matter. This is not something that is inherent to their faith, but is the straightforward result of a history of religious war and living under secular and liberal institutions for many generations.
Islam, on the other hand, as far as I am aware, never seems to have gone through such an experience. As a result, Islam is not "secularized" or "liberalized" either to the manner or the degree that Christianity in the West has been transformed in the modern times. Therefore, the argument that muslims should tolerate the infamous cartoons because christians tolerate similar mocking of their faith is not valid. Islam and Christianity are not in analogous positions when it comes to such things: they are really different kinds of religion.
Whether that is a good thing or whether Islam should "modernize" so as to incorporate such secular and liberal beliefs is another matter. Some versions of the faith seem to have gone further down that road than others and I wish they all would.
One component surely is a general sort of discontent within the Arab world, as well as under Muslims outside of Arabia that the West is targeting and humiliating them. This impression may or may not be correct in general, but there is certainly something to it in the context of Danmark (or the Netherlands for that matter). Whereas before migrants from Morocco, Turkey and other Mediterranean countries were referred to as Moroccans, Turks, etc., now they are referred to as Muslims and usually in a critical or derogatory way. Migrants are lumped together by their religious indentity and it is under the heading of this identity that they are a 'problem' for these societies. So this accounts for some (small?) part of the outrage and discontent. This has been mentioned by many commentators and there probably is something to it.
However, I have not really heard or seen commentators mentioning the following consideration. When comparing the religious sensitivities of Arab Muslims with Western Catholics, one should not forget that the Western Europe there has been a period of more than 100 years of religious civil wars. The result, as you are all aware, was the birth of ideals of religious tolerance and liberal rights. However, this was not just a political result, this has had a profound influence on the Christian faith as it is practised. Christianity, in the West at least, has become politically liberal as well. Many Christians for example accept the idea that their religion is a private matter. This is not something that is inherent to their faith, but is the straightforward result of a history of religious war and living under secular and liberal institutions for many generations.
Islam, on the other hand, as far as I am aware, never seems to have gone through such an experience. As a result, Islam is not "secularized" or "liberalized" either to the manner or the degree that Christianity in the West has been transformed in the modern times. Therefore, the argument that muslims should tolerate the infamous cartoons because christians tolerate similar mocking of their faith is not valid. Islam and Christianity are not in analogous positions when it comes to such things: they are really different kinds of religion.
Whether that is a good thing or whether Islam should "modernize" so as to incorporate such secular and liberal beliefs is another matter. Some versions of the faith seem to have gone further down that road than others and I wish they all would.
posted by Bruno at Thursday, February 09, 2006
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