Quote:
Originally Posted by fleury
I'm all for freedom, but having a contest like this is simply being a ignorant jerk. Religion means a lot to some people. There's no need to needlessly insult something some people feel so passionate about. Standing behind freedom of speech in this case is a cop out. Live your life the way you want but no need to go out of your way to annoy people.
|
This is actually offensive to me. "Standing behind freedom of speech"? Freedom of speech has no impact on people's freedom to practice their religion (absent hate speech promoting some sort of violence against a religion like a neo-Nazi rally or something).
What you are attempting to do here is muzzle criticism of a religion on the basis of not giving offense. That sounds nice, until you realize that in practice all it's meant to do is enforce blasphemy laws prescribed by a particular religion on people who do not follow that religion. That's absolutely insane. Being able to criticize a religion - and remember that all a religion is is a set of ideals and prescribed behaviours set down in one or more holy texts - is crucial. Just as I can say, "Hey, maybe hunting down and killing witches as the Old Testament demands isn't the best use of our time", I can also say, "Hey, maybe killing people for apostasy isn't the best idea".
This contest may or may not have been motivated by bigotry but in theory, I support the idea of a "Mohammed Cartoon Contest" simply as a protest in favour of free speech generally. I'd participate but I'd rather not die, which sort of makes the point in itself.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AcGold
Maybe we should be considering why it's so important to them that they'd kill for it. Not to justify it but to understand, like in the crusades. What was making them so crazy? There was more to it than simple religious fanaticism run amok, it was organized by a central authority. Maybe these people are put up to it, I don't know. It doesn't make sense to just kill someone because of a drawing even if it offends.
|
It's hard from the perspective of a first world resident who's had the advantage of a thorough education to identify with the true belief in the provisions of a religion. If you really, truly believe that the best path to the rewards of heaven is through martyrdom, you will do things that appear crazy to people who don't share those beliefs. This is a communication breakdown that seems common - when people commit extreme acts and attribute them to religious motivations, many people are inclined to doubt that and go looking for some other cause because it just seems completely batcrap nuts.