I am all for religious tolerance, and I happen to believe that the way Muslims often are marginalized in the Western World is wrong. However, the whole hubbub about the Danish cartoons is ridiculous and dangerous.
Yes, I understand that depictions of the Prophet are offensive to many Muslims. But guess what? These Muslims can choose not to depict the Prophet themselves, and not to read (or even to boycott) publications that do.
However, to be offended by a drawing, ink on paper or pixels on a computer screen, to the point of riots, arson, or worse, is to sacrifice the message for the symbol. Moreover, not all the world is Muslim, and it is ludicrous to hold others to one group’s standards, much less to impose these standards on the planet at large.
The people who are so outraged to the point of violence are no better than the fanatics of other stripes who would criminalize and persecute those who do not bow down before their idol, their dogma, their flag, or their party line. Instead of celebrating the strength and richness of Islam, they choose to put forward a face of an irrational mob that cannot be reasoned with.
There is a desire in the mainstream of Western societies, perhaps borne out of post(?)-imperialist guilt, to be sensitive to other cultures. That’s a worthy goal, but we must be careful, too, not to become so “sensitive” that we tear down the very framework of human values so laboriously constructed since the Enlightenment. Specifically, our governments and our press should defend the Danish newspaper’s freedom to publish such a provocative cartoon, even if they choose to voice their disagreements over the content or the decision to do so.
Slate‘s Christopher Hitchens has a more detailed analysis, including the State Department’s and CNN’s tepid responses.
