Talking Dirty With Mohammed

Anybody that knows me knows of my deep commitment to freedom of speech and my massive disrespect and/or hatred of organized religion. So, "disgust" is a word that hardly does justice to my feelings on the protests over offensive cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper. People have been killed and property has been destroyed by Muslim extremists who are outraged at the insulting depictions of the holiest man in Islam, the Prophet Mohammed.

Wow, where to begin? Muslims violently protesting these CARTOONS are embarrassing themselves and their religion, giving fodder to those divisive non-Muslim Westerners who already have a pretty low opinion of Islam and its believers. Even an objective observer would have to conclude that a large group of Muslims are stuck in a medieval mindset, where insults are avenged with vigilante justice. There is no tolerance for non-Muslim criticism of Islam, and as the bloodfeud between Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq shows, there is no tolerance for debate WITHIN Islam.

Part of this controversy is based on the idiotic Muslim belief (a belief that many Muslims do NOT share) that living creatures cannot be depicted in art, since these would be mere imitations of Allah's creations. This has led to some beautiful formalist art in such places as the Alhambra in Spain. It has also led to ridiculous moments such as when Muslim children are discouraged from drawing animals in kindergarten because it would be idolatrous. I'm not sure how cameras and film can exist in Muslim countries since these too create images of living beings, but religious beliefs are rarely consistent or intelligent.

What to do? Sure, the cartoons in the Danish newspaper are offensive. Muslims have the right to be offended and to peacefully protest the publication of these caricatures. However, it is much more than peaceful protest - Muslim extremists are trying to terrify Westerners into curtailing their criticisms of the Islamic religion. There should be more criticism, not less. The role of women in the Muslim world is beyond reprehensible, and it cannot be talked about too much. I reject that Muslim countries have the "right" to dictate what a woman can or cannot wear, or where she can go to school, or what professions she can hold. I loathe those multicultural idiots who shrug off the horrible sexism in the Muslim world as an internal societal quirk. Some things cannot be tolerated in any human society - the barbaric treatment of Muslim women is one of the most blatant modern examples.

One last point - it is a cliche but also a truth that the autocratic governments of the Arab World encourage Muslim extremism as a way of sublimating anger at the state. Egypt and Saudi Arabia, for example, have no problem with bloody protests against Israel, or bloody protests about cartoons in Danish newspapers, because these topics distract the angry mobs from their main problem, their own brutal dictatorial governments. It is useful to the tyrants of the Middle East to misdirect their peoples' anger toward external "problems."

Sadly, Realpolitik prevents the United States from speaking out against the archaic monarchies and juntas of the Muslim World, because for all our bullshit about spreading democracy, the last thing the United States (and the rest of the Western world) needs is actual democracy in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, or Pakistan. Radical Islamic groups would surely win open fair elections in those countries, and as we Americans learned in 2004, the majority of the body politic is made up of dumbasses.