Sunday - February 05, 2006

They Just Don’t Get It

I have been giving a great deal of thought to the recent kerfuffle over the Danish cartoons that have the entire Muslim world in an uproar. I’ve come to the conclusion that Muslims just don’t get it. This thought came to me while reading an article in the Washington Post today that put it all into a unique perspective.

The WAPO interviewed several American Muslims to get their opinion on the recent riots and embassy burnings in the Middle East. I noticed that every one of the interviewees seemed to be blinded to the hatred and violence being done in the name of their religion.

It’s as if the Muslims, including the educated, well-to-do ones in the US are looking at the world with a “everything is someone else’s fault, we deserve respect” viewpoint. It’s as if to a man and woman they are incapable of looking at themselves as others see them. Here is an example ....

Area Muslims React With Tempered Anger
Some Say Depiction Overstepped Liberties
Sunday, February 5, 2006
(WASHINGTON POST)

Wearing a brown golf cap against the cold drizzle, Rocky Omary stood outside Walima Cafe in Falls Church, where he and about 50 other men of Middle Eastern descent had just watched the Tunisian soccer team take a drubbing from the Nigerians.

That trouncing was bad enough. But Omary had other, more disturbing, insults on his mind: specifically, the recent publication in European newspapers of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad as a terrorist.

“I’ve been getting a lot of e-mails about it, and I’m distributing them all,” said Omary, a Damascus native who sells real estate in Northern Virginia. “There is a limit to freedom. There are 1.2 billion Muslims in the world. Let’s have some respect.”

“Just because you can say something doesn’t mean you should say something,” the teenager said. “If somebody showed a picture of the pope with a bomb on his head, that would cause a great public outcry. Nobody would be talking about freedom of speech.”

Washington area Muslims say they are closely following the furor in Europe and other parts of the world sparked by the cartoons, which first appeared in Denmark and Norway. In interviews yesterday, they expressed anger and hurt feelings. And although they said they recognized the value of freedom of speech, they said the freedom must be matched with respect and responsibility.

“Technically, you have the right to walk into a crowded theater and yell ‘Fire,’ “ said Uzma Unus, 34, a teacher in Sterling who is also vice president of ADAMS. “But is that responsible?”

Yesterday, crowds in Syria set fire to the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish embassies. And, according to a wire report, a radical Islamic preacher in Lebanon demanded that the Danish editor who first printed the cartoons be killed.

Such reactions are “not warranted,” said Robert Marro of Great Falls, who was attending prayers at ADAMS. Europeans could have defused the situation by apologizing instead of staking out a hard-line position of upholding free speech, he said.

“Growing up in America, I’m used to political cartoons, but . . . it’s clear that this just crossed the line,” said Marro, a retired U.S. diplomat. “What would the reaction have been if on Jan. 16, The Washington Post had published a picture of Martin Luther King with gangsta-rap clothing, a crack pipe and a Saturday night special? . . . It would have provoked a storm of outrage.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/05/2006 at 06:32 AM   
Filed Under: • Editorials • RoPMA •  
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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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