Bounty set over Prophet cartoon

[Allegra]

Uh-oh. Another one.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Bounty set over Prophet cartoon:

"The purported head of al-Qaeda in Iraq has offered a reward for the murder of a Swedish cartoonist over his drawing depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
The $100,000 (£49,310) reward would be raised by 50% if Lars Vilks was "slaughtered like a lamb" said the audio message aired on the internet."

[The Ace]

Sheesh, Imagine the number of Christian religious jokes out there. One idiot makes a bad joke and all hell breaks loose.

Maybe these guys should get out more.

[pyan]

Do these people realise that they destroy continual work by Moslems in this and other countries to persuade us that Islam is a good, moderate and worthy religion....?

[Hypes]

No, probably not.

[Mighty mouse]

Do these people realise that they destroy continual work by Moslems in this and other countries to persuade us that Islam is a good, moderate and worthy religion....?

Alas perhaps an aspect of their intent. I wander what part tolerance plays in religion these (end of?) days.
Having just read a collection of Salman Rushdie 's essay pieces, 'Step across this line', he does not restrict his observations to Islam. He describes the bible as 'the holy book of a bronze age nomadic tribe translated by decadent Greeks'.
I may have missed it but I don't recall any death threats (from fundamentalists or otherwise) for that one.

[Curt Chiarelli]

Extremists on both sides are pushing for Armageddon. It's gotten to the point where the corpses of a few writers and cartoonists will be joined by the rest of the human race. This image sums up our collective futures quite nicely if religion is not jettisoned from our socio-political discourse:

[Connavar]

The problem i had with this stupid cartoonist isnt the fact he did a drawing of the prophet.

The problem is that he knew he would make alot of muslim angry most importantly for him he would make the islamic terrorist angry. Thats his goal for PR and money. This link of news is proof of that.


The big problem is that its says in The Quran you cant draw any pic of The Prophet. Thats what makes muslims angry most. Its unholy.

It makes me very angry to see what they are doing to The Prophet cause its an open field right now. Thanks to the islamic terrorist its alright to make fun of Islam and no one will care. The only muslims with power seems to be the terrorist....


If there were there a pic of Jesus having sex with his mother or someone else trust me there would be a much bigger problem. This cartoonist would get crushed by so many people,the media etc.

[dustinzgirl]

This is not about religion, it is about control through violence. If the groups can control what free people see, think and feel, then they win. Putting up a "bounty" is an ego move showing that yes, they are big and bad, no, they can't take a freaking joke, and yes, they are rich enough to screw with, well, everyone.

Extremist control has nothing to do with the religious doctrine. Most of the time they ignore the doctrine and just make **** up in their heads.

I say, we all make a bunch of shirts with that image and bomb the crap out of them with it, along with some free speech doctrines.

Um, people having sex with thier mothers in any shape is disgusting and likely to cause an uproar. What if I drew a pic of you having sex with your mom, don't you think your family would be a little pissed?

[Vladd67]

The anti Jewish cartoons produced in Islamic countries make some of the 'anti Islamic' ones look tame.

[Connavar]

Originally Posted by dustinzgirl

This is not about religion, it is about control through violence. If the groups can control what free people see, think and feel, then they win. Putting up a "bounty" is an ego move showing that yes, they are big and bad, no, they can't take a freaking joke, and yes, they are rich enough to screw with, well, everyone.

Extremist control has nothing to do with the religious doctrine. Most of the time they ignore the doctrine and just make **** up in their heads.

I say, we all make a bunch of shirts with that image and bomb the crap out of them with it, along with some free speech doctrines.

Um, people having sex with thier mothers in any shape is disgusting and likely to cause an uproar. What if I drew a pic of you having sex with your mom, don't you think your family would be a little pissed?

Its very easy speaking of free speech when its not your religion symbol that is made a joke of.

Free speech is wonderful and everything but you should have some respect for people's religion.

Thats why these terrorist have so much power in islamic countries, why they hide behind people. They make it look alike its a religion war and things like this might be a joke for you but not for most muslims.

There is a big difference beteween us regular people and Jesus and Muhammed a very big difference.....


You must be an athiest almost to not see the difference.

[Mighty mouse]

My understanding of Islam (and forgive me if I am incorrect) is that democracy is not part of it and therefore presumably any socio-political system that does subscribe to democracy is consequently at odds with it.

Politics and religion being intertwined (I recently heard one pundit describe the Conservative party in the UK as 'the political wing of the Church of England') in future society, the metaphysical implications of science aside, on a social level it would be interesting to speculate on the outcome of restricting (if it were possible) any religious 'indoctrination' only to people aged 18 or over.

[Connavar]

Your understanding of Islam ?

Please dont watch tv news about Iran or some other islamic dictatorship looking country and think you know everything about Islam view's of democracy.

Dont judge billions of people cause of a few.


Those countries are ruled by power hungry men that you will find in many countries no matter which religion.....

Politics and religion? Everywhere country in the west has a conservative party just like the on in UK you are talking about that use religion as a tool.

Heck listen to Bush talk, he thinks he is god's right hand man.....

Mixing politics with religion has been a big problem for human kind since The crusade days maybe even earlier. Would be nice if they werent mixed but we dont live in a utopia exactly.

[thaddeus6th]

I think the problem is that a large minority of very vocal Muslims react to claims their religion is violent by engaging in, ahem, violence. It's then very difficult for the perfectly ordinary Muslims, of which there are many, to persuade the non-Muslims that Islam is peaceful.

However, death threats over a cartoon is just nonsense. I don't think faith should get special protection and be exempt from freedom of speech. If you can't say something that offends other people, freedom of speech becomes freedom to be agreeable.

Over the next few decades (particularly in the UK and Europe generally) we're going to have to decide whether freedom to mock religion, which Jews and Christians have endured for some time, extends to Islam or whether religions deserve a privileged position (they don't).

[Connavar]

Originally Posted by thaddeus6th

I think the problem is that a large minority of very vocal Muslims react to claims their religion is violent by engaging in, ahem, violence. It's then very difficult for the perfectly ordinary Muslims, of which there are many, to persuade the non-Muslims that Islam is peaceful.

That what makes you so frustrated as a muslim. The so called leaders of many muslim countries dont care about their religion and what the extremist are doing to it.

They have the power to bring down extremist in their own countries or make a statement against explaining that their people dont agree with the extremist and that it isnt Islam vs the west. Its only a few crazy killers.

Im from Somalia where we dont even have a goverment so there isnt someone leader to complain to about the extremist and what they are doing.

[mosaix]

Originally Posted by Connavar of Rigante

you should have some respect for people's religion.

I'm genuinely not being provocative here Connavar just interested in you view - but why?