Muhammed Cartoons

Just wondering what everyone thinks about the cartoons of muhammed drawin in the danish newspaper “Jyllands-Posten”
Should they be banned or not? What are your general opinions on this?

I think it is blashpemous, but free speech means exactly that. I can say(and draw) what I want. I have drawn my own depiction of muhammed, and urge people to do the same. Fight for free speech!

If you have not seen the cartoons, they can be viewed here

I can say that i see why people are getting so angry about it their faith is strong and they feel insulted but then you have to look at like… where the cartoons where made/drawn the people are use to such things and are not affected where as the people who are angry/insulted aren’t use to such things. so i’m not really sure wheater to go yay free speech… or those things shouldn’t be drawn it’s insulting :confused:

This may be off-topic but did anyone else see the south park episode that poked fun at this issue [“cartoon wars pts. I+II”]. The premise of the episode was that Family Guy was going to show a depiction of mohammed in their latest episode even though the middle eastern terrorist groups threaten to retaliate if the cartoon is shown. Cartman goes to get the episode pulled, yadda, yadda, yadda…you get the picture.

If you’re interested in my opinion though, I would say that I support the freedom of speech that is observed in my country. But it shouldn’t be used by any group to take pot-shots at enemies. With that said I think that the whole “you insulted my religion, I’m gonna hurt you for it” thing is just the latest excuse for extremests to attack their enemies. I mean c’mon, people have been aiming zingers at the christian faith forever and nobodys gotten seriously pissed about it since the crusades (yeesh, hope that didn’t come out wrong :eek: ). Honestly though, out of these so-called “mohammed depictions”, the only ones that left a bad taste in my mouth were the “turban bomb” and “virgin shortage”…

I am a muslim and i was insulted by the cartoons. I will tell you why:

Our religion states that NO ONE (muslim or non-muslim) is to draw, pretend to be, act as our beloved Prophet (PBUH). So when people drew the cartoons we were outraged whether the cartoons praised the prophet or made fun of him.

The cartoons stated horrible things which were extremley insulting. such as the fact that the prophet has a bomb on his head. In other words, it is making fun of our religion as well as our prophet since it is stating we are terrorists.

I know there are bad, horrible muslims that gave us an extremley bad name. But that does not mean we should be judged. I mean we hate all the extremists too because now everyone thinks we are hijackers that want to kill all non-muslims, especially America.

No, we aren’t like that. I mean how would you like it if I poked fun of your Lord, the person you look up to the most by making him look so bad and saying things that are untrue?

I am for freedom of speech however there MUST be limitations. Otherwise people say racist remarks and offensive remarks when it comes to religion and anything else that is a weak spot to society.

Well my view is rather simple: free speech allows that newspaper to publicize those cartoons and free speech allows muslims to show their anger in a nonviolent way. At least we got a public debate from this, which wouldn’t be possible if every not-so-nice opinion gets forbidden because someone else’s opinion could get hurt. BTW I don’t find those cartoons funny at all.

I’m all pro free speech, and I don’t think these cartoons should be forbidden or banned or anything like that. People have the right to say, draw or think what they like. The only thing is, I don’t see why someone would draw or publish these. First of all, they are very distasteful and not funny at all. Second of all, it seems to me like an attempt to “flame”, like to upset and offend muslims. I just think the whole thing was extremely unnecessary… but no, no one has or should have the right to ban pictures.

I’ve also heard the question “why didn’t someone do something?” and I think that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard. Here in Sweden we see all kinds of pictures every day. Pictures of Bush, Jesus, different celebrities, etc. One could even argue that our cartoon in Metro (the morning newspaper) is offensive to both turtles, men and women. I think maybe some people overreacted to these pictures, because all kinds of offensive pictures are posted every day… something will always offend someone, that’s just the way it is. There’s no point in burning flags or embassies, like the extremists did. I’m not saying people don’t have the right to be offended or upset, they do, and they do have a right to make their voice heard too, but it’s just that this time, the whole thing was blown out of proportion by both sides.

Oh and Wissam, absolutely no offense to you, but I hardly think it’s fair to ask the non-muslim people to follow muslim laws (I’m referring to how no one can draw or pretend to be Muhammed). We don’t have these laws. It’s the same thing as asking people in one country to follow another countries laws. If we don’t belong to your religion, we can’t be expected to follow your laws either.

I see your point Olesia, but drawing OUR prophet is just asking for trouble because the Danish cartoonists are not muslims and therefore have no right. I mean would you like it if i drew Jesus Christ when i have no right since i am not a christian and all?

So i guess ur right, i shouldn’t expect u to follow our rules but that does not mean that drawing cartoons was wrong since this way the Danish cartoonists have just entered a “No trespassing zone”

I’m sorry if this doesn’t make sense, i’m not in a good mood (because of something else and not because of this discussion don’t worry).

ps. Please don’t argue and compare this to TV and the media by saying “but cartoonists from all around the world draw and criticise Bush, so anyone can critise anyone” - NO
Religion is diffrent than criticising politics or whatever.

Please don’t take this the wrong way, i am not attacking Olesia or Christians in any way.

Just out of general curiosity (no hostility intended), why would it be in somebodies religion that you can’t draw or depict the leading guy, the head honcho of a religion? Like why would it be considered an offense to draw Muhammid?

If free speech had limits, it wouldn’t be free speech, it would be limited speech. I am not racist, but I am proud of the fact that I have the right ot make bigoted comments angainst anyone I choose(I do not make these comments, I just like that I can).

Free speech doesn’t mean impunity for saying something. It means freedom to say things, but you’re still responsible for what you say.

Thus, if the muslims want to turn their faces to the guy who drew that or spit on his foot, they’re not going against any rules. I just think seting things on fire and killing people is a bit too exaggerated…

People are also free to make racist or even nazi comments in the street, but they’ll get arrested (which doesn’t mean they aren’t free to keep making remarks in prison).

Violating freedom of speech is not punishing people for what they said, but censoring. Censorship is what free speech protects you from, not punishment. :smile:

Lol, I love this issue. And yea I’m about to go Carlos Mencia on you guys.

First off, Muhammed said, “People will die for what I believe in.”
This gives me the impression of terrorist. The Impression, so I’m very suspicious! Now if a muslim comes up to me, I’ll be uncomfortable because I think he is uncomfortable around me, now if I talk to him, and get to know him, and realize he’s fine. I’m fine. Hopefully this doesn’t show me as racist, because I am not. But I do remeber a scripture from my childhood that said, “I will die for what I believe in.” A total reversal of the Muslim way. Anyways…sorry if I’ve offended any muslims, but I’m not through yet! :happy:

Second thing. Jesus has been depicted in many cartoons, mostly muslim!!! Now I respect there sense of free speech, and I do not protest, so I don’t see why others would! In the bible it tells us to defend Jesus, or so it says. Yet we don’t defend him with our fist…anyways…I’m not done yet…

Finally Muhammad has been drawn many times in the past and yet…there weren’t protest in the past until now…how do you suppose that?

Again if I’ve made anyone mad, take it out on a punching bag. :eek:

Yay, you’re a fan of Carlos Mencia too! :grin: He’s so awesome, isn’t he? I can’t get enough of his show… :happy:

Ok i am not going to continue posting on this thread because i am outnumbered and because i am sure somehow things will start to get ugly. Do not think this is because i cannot win this arguement because that is not the case.

It makes me really sad to hear that Redifin, however i do not blame you. There are extremley bad muslims in this world that have made us look so bad among Europeans and Americans.

Sorry to go off-topic here, but let me tell you this. Our religion has nothing to do with Terrorism. Jihad is NOT terrorism. the Extremists such as Bin Laden have Altered the meaning of Jihad as “killing innocent people through Terrorism”.

No that is wrong. I am too tired to explain the true meaning of Jihad because somehow this will turn into a three page essay. If your still interested in Jihad, check out this site:
https://www.answerbag.com/c_view.php/116#q_129

So let me say this, Underneath the rumours, our religion is a good one. But don’t take my word for it. Look at some websites - Real Websites on Islam such as :
https://www.islam101.com/

i find this situation rather funny, but i feel the muslims overreacted all to much… i mean, what would happend if Bush started giving out gold for any muslim head he gets served… i think thats abit barbaric and thats how the muslims are acting, instead of solving it with diplomacy they solve it with violence and barbarian ways…

Just to be fair, keep in mind that this was not all muslims. Only extremist and militant muslims. And from what I remember from 9/11, there was a LOT of hatred towards muslims too, some muslims were even scared to go out… I see the difference here, pictures don’t directly kill anyone like 9/11 did, but the thing is, it was only a few people who were responsible for 9/11, but all muslims had to take a hit for it. And then they got bombed too for something Usama did. So in my opinion, both sides are waaaay more barbaric than they should be.

yes you are right indeed… but there seem to be a slight more extrimists down there then there are here… they are all humans to but they grow up under the wrong circumstances… you can see immigrants that arive to norway aswell… most of the crime done here is by immigrants even though there is alot more non immigrants here ofc… but i do not blame them, i bet even i would have been a barbarian if i grew up with war… however i do have something in common with muslims, i think we all hate Bush… hehe :grrr:

People who believe in religion, I don’t care. But that they all loose their minds in complete blind rage over the printing of Muhammed in Denmark and Norway is just plain idiotic. Period finale. cold look

[color=indigo]Freedom of expression is a wonderful thing that all people should have the right to do. However, the fact that you can say what you want about anything doesn’t mean you always should.[/color]

[color=indigo]By the sounds of it, this newspaper printed the cartoons with the sole intent of bothering a certain kind of person, Muslims in this case, which is pretty much the worst reason you can have for doing anything. I don’t know anything about Jyllands-Posten, but I get the impression that they were printing images known to be offensive just because they thought sensitivity to the faith of others is actually fear of some blood-thirsty outrage of a barbaric people, fear that must be challenged and put down by your merciless printing press of justice. Don’t blame freedom of expression, blame the arrogant pricks who express themselves.

So what should Muslims do? Use freedom of expression for yourselves, like Wissam has done, and tell people that it just wasn’t right for them to do what they did. If you’re calm and reasonable about it, people will understand.[/color]

I believe in freedome of speech, but inschool where I come from, we’re taught that with free speech comes a responsibility not to say anoything rude or offensive. That means that even though we can say whatever we want, we should abuse that right by insulting people, these cartoons are not funny at all BTW.
So, I am against these cartoons. They bring insult and injury to a religion based on love that has already had it’s name ruined enough by the odd terrorist who just happens to be muslim. Freedom of speech is one thing, but in this case it has been abused.

The only thing I’ve ever found odd, is the reputation that the Islam religion has. That has to come from somewhere. Like, radicalism occurs in all religions, I understand this. But, why does it seem to happen way more in Islam? It could be that leaders manipulate the religion into brainwashing the masses, but I don’t know. (ie, using an obscure quote in the Koran to justify blowing yourself up in the middle of a group of people).

Whatever the case, I think we can all agree what the most evil religion is: Scientology.