An excellent piece with which I'm in total agreement. And thank you for mentioning the Ahmadis, who are viciously persecuted.
I just want to add though that I think it is hard for those of us in Christian or secular countries to understand just how depictions of the Prophet are viewed by many Muslims. I think it really does feel to them l…
An excellent piece with which I'm in total agreement. And thank you for mentioning the Ahmadis, who are viciously persecuted.
I just want to add though that I think it is hard for those of us in Christian or secular countries to understand just how depictions of the Prophet are viewed by many Muslims. I think it really does feel to them like an actual attack, a deliberate attempt to hurt them. So while I would absolutely argue that we *should* be able to show such cartoons, I would question whether it is helpful to do so. I wouldn't expect to sit in an RE lesson and hear my teacher making fun of Christianity, and I think we have to consider that Muslims students may feel demeaned by this.
I hope I wouldn't ever go out of my way to be gratuitously offensive about any religion purely for its own sake. That said I don't think it should be punished in law or otherwise. In the case of the teacher, the school's own investigation found that he wasn't using the image to make fun of Islam, but to illustrate a wider point about blasphemy and societal reactions to it (which he most certainly did, albeit not in the way he intended).
I don't think it should be punished in law, or in any way. And I totally get that that wasn't his intention.
In short, it's something we should be free to do, I just wouldn't advise doing it because of the upset it would cause. It's like calling someone fat to their face. I should be able to, but I think I should choose not to.
Islam actually teaches that Muslims should rise above this sort of thing and not retaliate, anyway. There’s no religious basis for this kind of violent, angry response.
An excellent piece with which I'm in total agreement. And thank you for mentioning the Ahmadis, who are viciously persecuted.
I just want to add though that I think it is hard for those of us in Christian or secular countries to understand just how depictions of the Prophet are viewed by many Muslims. I think it really does feel to them like an actual attack, a deliberate attempt to hurt them. So while I would absolutely argue that we *should* be able to show such cartoons, I would question whether it is helpful to do so. I wouldn't expect to sit in an RE lesson and hear my teacher making fun of Christianity, and I think we have to consider that Muslims students may feel demeaned by this.
I hope I wouldn't ever go out of my way to be gratuitously offensive about any religion purely for its own sake. That said I don't think it should be punished in law or otherwise. In the case of the teacher, the school's own investigation found that he wasn't using the image to make fun of Islam, but to illustrate a wider point about blasphemy and societal reactions to it (which he most certainly did, albeit not in the way he intended).
I don't think it should be punished in law, or in any way. And I totally get that that wasn't his intention.
In short, it's something we should be free to do, I just wouldn't advise doing it because of the upset it would cause. It's like calling someone fat to their face. I should be able to, but I think I should choose not to.
Islam actually teaches that Muslims should rise above this sort of thing and not retaliate, anyway. There’s no religious basis for this kind of violent, angry response.