Dream with me

In Defence of the Offended (A discussion on the Danish Cartoons)

With Christianity in all its denominations, there is nothing to say you cannot use an image of God or Jesus for whatever purpose. In fact, it seems to be the opposite. Just look at your average church stain glass window, for example.

In Islam, however, it is not the same. From what I gather it is in fact forbidden to use any pictorial representation.

Mocking Christianity has, in the last forty or so years, become something of a staple in British society in particular. Freedom of speech supposedly protects those of us who wish to criticise the establishment or simply make questionable jokes.

However, to my mind, this Danish debacle is born almost solely of ignorance on the part of the cartoonist and the newspaper that ran these frankly revolting pictures.

Freedom of Speech is an important nay sanctified right but it should not be used as a shield to hide behind when you want to offend someone else. In the global political climate that we live in, it was irresponsible of Jyllands-Posten, the conservative newspaper who ran the pictures, to publish them. What can possibly be gained by deeply offending people with whom we already have strained relations?

For us in the �civilised West� (although more and more I wonder if we were ever deserving of that glorified title we gave ourselves) freedom to say what we like about whatever we like is something that just come naturally. I wouldn�t think twice about laughing about some Christian tradition like Harvest Festival or something (You�re all going to Hell but a tin of crappy canned goods can save your soul!). What the West cannot get their heads around is that to make the same jokes about Islam is deeply offensive.

It is not some weakness or some failing of Islam that makes people take offence. It is not a reaction of extremism nor is it a part of this imagined doctrine of death that most Westerners seem to think Islam contains. It is, quite simply I think, that people are taking offence to having their faith ridiculed, debased, or worst of all, disrespected to such an appalling extent.

Prague's chief Catholic Cardinal Miloslav Vlk said �They feel it [the offence] so even though the Prophet Mohammad is not God. We Christians do not have enough courage when something like this touches directly God. This is good to realise.�

The quote suffers a little from the translation, it must be said but I think he raises a good, and above all compassionate, point. If a Catholic Cardinal can find it within himself to understand and even empathise with the Muslims affected by this ridiculously offensive situation why can�t others? People make jokes and others take offence. So we hide behind freedom of speech and wait for the furore to calm down.

That tact won�t work this time. This furore isn�t going to just blow over. I think Jyllands-Posten needs to wake up and smell the coffee. Apologise and stop hiding like cowards. Stop giving offence, learn a little about a different culture before you attempt to parody it and people may not try to kill you tomorrow.

Ja Ne