The news today reported that a French newspaper, Charlie Hedbo, was firebombed, supposedly because it published a cartoon of the prophet Mohammed. Mind you, they also had him as 'guest editor' of the current issue but, after all, it is a satire magazine. You will note, from the picture above, that they seem to be multi-denominational in the people that they 'offend'.Now, from what I have seen of the magazine on-line, I don't think it is really my sort of thing but I cannot let a religion, any religion, try to intimidate people who do not follow that religion.
I really have difficulty in understanding the injunction that Mohammed, the #2 in Islam, not be portrayed in any form when the world is full of paintings and caricatures of God (#1 in Islam), Jesus (#3 in Islam) and Mary, the #1 woman. Do these not offend? If not, why not?
I also have great difficulty in understanding why people take their religious 'teams' so seriously. If they want to have rules that govern how their followers behave, that is fine but don't try to impose them on people who are not followers. It's like cricket clubs having rules on how to bowl cricket balls trying to tell people who play tennis how to serve tennis balls. Keep your rules in house.
Killing people, bombing buildings, issuing fatwas and any other forms of intimidation are not signs of a mature or peaceful religion.
"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest."
- Elie Weisel.
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Posted by J Cosmo Newbery.
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6 comments:
For some it's drugs, for others it's religion. It's not so much the damage these people do to themselves, it's the collateral damage to their loved ones and friends that gets me.
I'm with you on this one. If people want to follow a particular religion and all the dogma that that involves, fine. However, none of them seem to be able to keep their religious opinions to themselves and feel the need to interfere in people's personal choices if it's against what their particular 'church' preaches.
There's a documentary series coming up this Sunday (I think) on either ABC or SBS about the Bible. Many different viewpoints to be aired. I'll be watching it.
So much of both religion and politics has become "team sports" in the sense of us against them, group-think -people using a group identity to expand the dimensions of their egoism. Contracting those dimensions is to me what authentic spirituality is actually about.
And if you think differently I'm not inclined to kill you!
That's a relief, Paul. Thank you.
Sometimes it feels like the entire world is insane!
Good post!
So I ask you: where is the protest?
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