"A Little Too Far" - A Rant

Posted by Johnny at 11:15 p.m.

The cartoons depicting Muhammad may have gone too far for Muslims, but the rioting does not make up for it. This article of news has been beaten to death by other bloggers and less credible news sources (CNN), so I won't post any links - at least any that pertain to the state of Islam.

These cartoons may have been offensive to Muslims, but I'm pretty sure there have been more offensive drawings of other religious figures throughout history.

One that immediately comes to mind appeared on a movie version of the best (arguably) comedy on TV. Here's the link. Christians without senses of humour: beware. Here's another one. And another.

So, which is worse? The relatively tame drawings of Muhammad in the newspaper, or Jesus demonstrating his "powers" to a crowd of believers. Well, it all depends on who you are and where you live.

In the west, we often take for granted that we live in a society where we can poke fun at religion and politics without being stoned to death or bombed. We can also defend ourselves from rapists without fear of being hanged. So when we see the reaction in the Muslim world to drawings that are offensive to Islam, we think, "Are you fucking crazy?" But we will never truly understand a mindset and culture that is so different from our own, so the only thing we can do is try to respect theirs and hope they do the same with ours.

There is, however, a global reform that I would like to see in my lifetime:

Religion should not be used as a basis for government or its legal system.

Most religions are hundreds or thousands of years old. And still, the fundamentalists are clinging to these ancient value systems that were only relevant when women were truly objects and the number zero did not yet exist. This is not only the case in Islamic countries, but also in the US.

Bush is trying to, and succeeding in, introducing fundamentalist Christianity into the US government. Every abortion doctor that is murdered, every child who learns Intelligent Design instead of Evolution, every gay couple who is denied a marriage license, and every poor hurricane victim who is told that God is punishing them is a victim of the Ultra-Christianization of the United States.

Governments should only be built upon a system of secular ethics (as best they can). This system of morality examines which actions are wrong not by asking which actions offend God, but by asking which actions are inherently wrong. For instance, killing someone out of hatred or passion is wrong because it is wrong, not because it goes against the Ten Commandments. On the other hand, killing someone in self defense is not wrong / gray area because it is justifiable according to ethics, but still against the Ten Commandments.

Of course, ethics are the most complicated basis for morality because it is open to all sorts of interpretations. Take, for example, the situation with the RIAA and digital music. Is it right for the RIAA to sue individual users for downloading mp3's? No. Is it right for people to "steal" music by downloading it? No.

In all honesty, I won't see this change in my lifetime - in fact, it might get worse before it gets better. All I can do is hope that all the decent people in the world will stand up for themselves and not let fundamentalists of any kind take over the world. They can believe whatever they want, but they have no right to force those beliefs on anyone else, including me.