Danish Cartoons

As I was browsing through the blogosphere, I came across this
post somewhere. Its by some woman living in the USA and what she feels about the entire Danish cartoon fiasco. What follows is my thoughts on her post, and what I think of the issue. Make sure you read her post first, else you may be a little lost. Also, anyone wishing to see all the cartoons, click on the title of the post.

Young as you may be, but you are filled with a lot of bitterness in you. And in your moment of anger, you have managed to move away from the topic. Let me clarify a few things for you-
1. The point here, as you said it yourself, is that different people have different customs. So in your society something which is considered very normal, maybe totally unacceptable in another society. A united world is possible only if it is peaceful, and peace in turn can be achieved only if we respect the sensitivities of others. To give you an example consider this: As much as you respect your freedom of speech, I'm sure you even respect the freedom to wear what you want to, that is given in your country. But inspite of that freedom, you cannot be seen in the nude in public places. Why is that? Well, it's because you will affect the sensitivity of others. It is for the same reasons that you will not find any European or American or anyone from the western world wearing a bikini in Pakistan/The UAE or any other Muslim country for that matter.
Showing sensitivity to another culture does not mean that you are letting go of your freedom of speech.

2. That being said, I completely agree with you that these acts of violence are instigated by a few religious leaders who will do anything to gain more power. As you said, these acts of violence harm only the people who cause them, and their respective countries. Also they are completely unjustified in blaming the USA for something it has not done. But this is something which happens in each and every country in the world, including 'The America' which you truly love and admire. It is like a primal nature of man. For example, you had gangs running amock raping and looting and pillaging in New Orleans when it was flooded. Now weren't those people harming themselves?

3. You said, "You do not see us killing, destroying, burning everything or everyone who is not muslim." You may not have done this against Muslims per se, but there are other people like the Native Americans and Africans against whom you have heaped centuries of injustice. Just because there are a few stray incidences of terrorism (although on a mass scale) by the Muslims, this makes your blood boil?
Forget not that there were cults like the Ku Klux Klan in your own America, who thought that only those having fair skin deserve to live. The Ku Klux Klan and many others like it have been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of dark skinned people. In your country, you may not kill because you disagree with someone's opinion, but you do much worse: You dont even give the person a chance to give his opinion. You kill on the basis of caste and creed. Even today, you all look down upon the African Americans. Isn't that opression too?
Also as far as crimes against Muslims go, your soldiers in Iraq have torn the Holy Koran, and urinated over it in front of the captured Iraqi's. How would you feel if tomorrow someone was to get into your house, take your Bible, rip the pages off and use them as toilet paper? Or if some Arabic newspaper publishes a cartoon depicting Mother Mary as a two bit whore flashing her titties in some parade for some beads?

4. You say," These people do not get to see the news like us, it is edited. They only see what they want them to see on the TV. They never get the whole truth or story." Do you REALLY think that all that is shown to you on TV, or that which you read in the newspaper is the ultimate truth and nothing but the truth? Haven't you read a word about Iraq? About how CNN 'chose' to do selective reporting to show America in a good light. About how the American war on Iraq was supposedly about Weapons of Mass Destruction, but was actually about the capture of Iraqi oil fields and to gain a strategic army base in the Middle East. About how the US Marines comitted the same attrocities that were comitted under Saddam Hussein's regime, from raping the Iraqi women to torturing their prisoners in ways that you can't even think of.
American's have been made to believe that they are the greatest country in the world (it is in many ways)and can handle anything that is thrown at them. This is what your news channels and papers feed you. And then one day 9/11 happened. Although it may not have destroyed your economy, but it shattered the smug sense of (false) security that the Americans had.
You may have your heroes from 9/11, but there are many who consider Osama Bin Laden as their hero and saviour. Your acts of violence too feed their hatred and makes them grow stronger and believe in their cause.

Just as sitting in your home you feel that blaming USA for something it has not done is unfair, imagine how the Iraqis, North Koreans, Vietnamese, etc etc feel about having USA poke its nose into their affairs, inspite of them having done nothing that affects USA. If you meddle in others affairs, you must be prepared to pay the price.

5. You must remember that most of the Muslim countries are under developed or developing. There is high iliteracy and unemployment in these countries. In such a scenario, it is easy for someone to take advantage and mislead the people in the name of God. By saying that you hate all Muslims, you too are blaming millions of peace loving Muslims who have nothing to do with all of this. Just like you hate them, there are many who hate all Christians.

Lastly, I would like to say that reading all of the above you may think that I support all that which is going on. All I say is that there are two sides to every coin, and one must see the entire picture before getting all worked up. This goes for the Muslims as well as the non-muslims.
Hope you are more enlightened now.