The Cartoons several threads are referring to...

[gatorboy]

Anyone have a link to the story? Thanks!

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. No, i don't. I would like to see them as well. Honestly, if the cartoons

had featured a caricature of Christ that had gotten the Talibornagains up in arms, would the wrold and DU reactions have been the same?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Unlike the Christians in this country,

who only have a "fake" war against them, American Muslims have been walking on eggshells since 911. I don't care how many hundreds of anti-terror fatwas have been posted, we are told we are "doing nothing" about terrorism. Some have naively suggested that somehow American Muslims can talk directly to the terrorists and make them stop. This makes as much sense as asking Quakers why they don't make the Catholic Church do something about pedophile priests. Islam doesn't have one main leader, like the Pope. Islam has many different sects; my particular one is outlawed in Saudi Arabia, and the Wahhabists consider me a heretic.

Meanwhile, mosques have been bombed, Muslims have been threatened, and Muslim businesses have been vandalized. I have seen those cartoons and I feel they could easily incite more hatred against Muslims, and that is why I object to them.

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. I haven't seen them so I can't comment, but I find it interesting and

worrisome that you feel they would incite more hatred _against_ Muslims whereas other posts I have seen are concerned about the cartoons inciting violence _by_ Muslims. (Which is why I asked the question I did in my original post. I think there is a definite stereotype of Muslims being dangerous and volatile.. the same kind of bigotry that might make a white person cross the street away from a large Afraican American man.)

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

10. the great lie

I hear this about Muslims all the time-that they are all violent, thin skinned, etc. Funny thing is that I have found Muslims to be the most generous, hospitable folks I've ever known. Realize that I have only met Muslims living in this country, and have had no contact with Wahhabists in Saudi Arabia-but I was warned once that I should not apply for a teaching job there because Wahhabists consider Sufis heretics.

[GreenPartyVoter]

15. There was a Muslim family that lived next door to us for a summer. They

are from Kuwait. They were fairly moderate, but she wore a robe and hijab as much for cultural reasons as for religious ones (although before her marriage she dressed as any modern woman would, even including bikinis.) Her husband preferred her to cover up. We spent a lot of time together because we both had very small children and neither of us drove (she had a license but her husband didn't want her driving. For that matter she also had a Master's degree in electrical engineering but she was supposed to stay home with the kids.)

But since the Iraq war had just started up I felt uncomfortable at times around them. I had no idea what their feelings were.. whether we were bullies or saviors. Eventually she mentioned that she and her family had fled Kuwait when Saddam invaded and told me that they went to Saudi Arabia where she had to wear a burqha and that she felt like it was suffocating her emotionally as much as physically. And the Saudis were very mean to the Kuwaiti refugees so they moved on to Dubai until the war was over. So I think at the beginning of the war she was probably glad to some extent that Saddam was gone, but I have lost touch with her since she moved back home and have no idea how she feels about it now.

But she was very sweet and we had a lot of fun together even though we had some cultural differences. We also learned a lot about each other's cultures. She was very surprised to find out that some Christian sects like my husband's family's have very similar rules about not drinking alcohol or when women can visit men. And I was really surprised to find out that many women in her country wear their robes for cultural reasons rather than religious ones, and that sometimes their robes were skin tight so rather defeated the purposes of hiding their figures.

I miss Badour and her family. I hope they are all well.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

18. Staying home with the kids is also culture

From what I have read and studied of the Qur'an and the hadiths (sayings of the Prophet), women are free to pursue careers. They are not required to do housework-the Beloveed Prophet did housework! They are allowed to keep all the money they make; the husband is required to provide for the family. Of course, what an individual couple decides to do is fine, but much of what many folks consider "Muslim" is really culture.

In this country, hijab is interpreted in different ways. All the Qur'an says is that both men and women should dress modestly, so as not to attract attention to themselves. In a hadith, it is stated that Mohammed (pbuh)was asked how to dress, and he said to dress the way the people of your country dress.

So I wear jeans and sweatshirts this time of year, neither being tight. In the summer I wear short sleeved shirts. I do cover my head a lot-but with a baseball cap, the headgear that most folks around here wear.

[Flirtus]

4. I'd like to see

the same cartoons redrawn with each religion's "Big Guy" represented.

I understand one of the cartoons shows freshly burnt up suicide bombers being told, basically "Didn't you get the memo? We're all out of virgins!"

I haven't seen them either, but the reports make it clear they are anti-war editorial cartoons.

Pluralism, editorial freedom, freedom of speech, under attack abroad and at home.

[cali]

7. For your viewing edification

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyllands-Posten_Muhammad_cartoons_controversy

[formernaderite]

12. I found a link that loads quicker

the wikipedia link to the larger cartoons is very slow:
http://www.di2.nu/files/Muhammed_Cartoons_Jyllands_Posten.html
Anyway, the cartoons are very mild and some quite funny...the outrage is hysterical.

[havocmom]

3. There are two cartoon controversies

One is about a Toles cartoon showing Rumsfeld as a doctor, charting on a patient who had no limbs left. The Joint Chiefs are in a tizzy. Who knew cartoonists had Pens of Mass Depression?

About 2/3 down on this page, you will see a bit about the Toles 'toon

http://americablog.blogspot.com/archives/2006_02_01_americablog_archive.html

The other cartoon mess is about one which includes a depiction of the Prophet Mohammad which violates Muslim views on idolatry. And I understand the Prophet's turban is made to look like a missile or something, which is also offensive to his followers.

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. Hadn't heard about the Toles one.

[havocmom]

8. Do check it out! Amazing that the Joint Chiefs have time to go after

a political cartoonist when they have a war to tend to!

[FSogol]

9. Actually any visual depiction of the prophet (Mohammed) is

considered an insult.

[GreenPartyVoter]

11. Some sects of Christianity are the same way about Images of Jesus.

[FSogol]

13. Sure, wasn't the entire Eastern Orthodox separation caused

by a dislike of iconography? And there was a time where we were forbidden to say the word "Yahweh".

[Bridget Burke]

16. No, the Orthodox churches were, themselves, torn about Iconoclasm.

And they were torn about the definition of the Trinity. Torn to the extent of mob killings--Christian versus Christian.

One reason that the simpler message of Islam was so successful. Not all conversion was done through war.

[FSogol]

17. I see. Thanks. n/t

[Bridget Burke]

19. Theological disputes of the early middle ages aren't taught ....

In the first 12 years of school. In fact, you can get advanced degrees in many subjects without studying arcane details of semi-ancient history. But history has a way of haunting us.

You're welcome!

[FSogol]

20. I know and that comparative religions course

is pretty far off in the past. Wish this stuff was more well known to the general public.

[ariellyn]

14. I want to see it too. nt