I couldn’t agree with your position more. I take exactly the same stance regarding Christian fundamentalists…if you want respect for your beliefs, begin with the notion that others beliefs are just as valid as your own.

Great writeup! How odd is it that drawing a cartoon can enrage entire countries? Some readers might be interested in this link I stumbled upon, seems that some groups are going to force a public debate on this issue by bringing it into the hands of the public: http://www.DrawMohammad.com

-Deak

It seems like the childhood phrase…”you can dish it out, but you can’t take it” applies here.

The problem here is not just drawing a cartoon, the issue is that western mass media are trying to show an ugly and violent face of islam and muslims to the public for many years, and these cartoons are along the same policy.

you wrote “when you allow individuals in your religion to kidnap, behead, torture, rape, mutilate, and freely spout hate speech, then you can’t expect to take the moral high ground on any social issue by stating you have been offended”, no one in islam is allowed to do such acts, this actions are strongly prohibited by islam, there are many people allover world allover history commit they dirty acts in the name of religion, if one who calls himself muslim kills someone, no one can say islam or mulims are violent, if a european kill someone you can’t say europeans are bad people.
if you want criticize militants or terrorists do it, but i dont understand why someone may want outrage all muslims and they prophet, it’s a little suspicious to me.

Mr Moho, the slaughter of over 3 million Hindus, raping their wives and daughters, burning down their homes and temples, in East Pakistan in 1971 by the Pakistani army was not the act of a few, the destruction of the statues of the Lord Buddah was not an act of a few , there is still no remorse from the global muslim communities about these cowardly acts, I agree with Jason. How come obscene paintings of Hindu dieties by Mr MF Husain who is a muslim did not spark voilence from 1 billion strong Hindus from around the world. http://sanatan.org/en/05/Protests/MFHusain/paintings.php
This voilent exhibition by muslims worldwide as a result of publishing this cartoon of the prophet Mohammad and all of the cowardly acts described above is exactly what the holy Qoran prescribes for its infidels.
“You can dish it out but you can’t take it”.

For more information on the slaughter of Hindus see: http://hinduholocaust.blogspot.com

Those who died in east pakistan in 1971 weren’t hindus alone. Infact in one study by freedom fighters council in Bangladesh, it showed that about 15% of those who died in 1971 are hindus. Rest of those were muslim. East pakistan and now bangladesh was and is an islamic country (state religion is islam) with more than 90% of the population being muslim.

Schd claims that only 15% of those killed in 1971 were Hindu. But according to his next stat, Hindus were still disproportionately targeted for killing. In any case, there were once many more Hindus that the current 7% in Bangladesh – for example, see http://www.hinduhumanrights.org

Also, Bangladesh was not an Islamic state at independence in 1971 – it was declared a secular state. It was only declared an Islamic state after the army took over. And then the persecution and ethnic cleansing of Hindus continued, still going on today.

I think it is not freedom to attack others and insult them , and it is courage to apologize when you do something that offend others with out – as you say – intending to do so .
Do you know how many Muslims are there in the world ? Do you know what prophet Mohammed represent to us ? I think you do , but this didn’t stop people who made this cartoon from creating more problems with Muslims , as if there weren’t enough of them !
All the Muslims were so angry when they heared this , many of them started to be violent and attacked embassys , that was not an action , it was a reaction to something these people have done .
Yes , they were not right to attack , but do not provoke people so so mush and then ask them to rational .
At the same time these carttons were out and the west was defending what they did by saying ” freedom of speech” . We heared in the news about a british thinker who was arrested because he said the Hollocaust didn’t happen . why didn’t you apply freedom of speech with him ?
Stop making provocative actions and they will stop giving violent reactions .

To draw a picture and to kill or attack someone violently are NOT on the same level. Period. How many comics are there made out of Jesus or other Christian holy characters. Thousands! An still no christian has been burning an embassy anywhere. It sounds obscene…

If it is so hard. Why do muslims move to Europe? Why do they read newspapers that offend them? After all, all the muslims could stay in their home countries and possibly all this couls be avoided in the future…

It’s so inequitable just to think of ALL Muslims as barbarians!!
Skies & seas are blue>>> but blue is not the only color
China has the greatest population >>> but Chinese aren’t the only people
Flu is the most common infection >>> but it’s not the only one…etc

Mr. Punja said:” the cowardly acts described above is exactly what the holy Qoran prescribes for its infidels.”
I would like to clarify this point: when the holy Qur’an describes the “infidels” by such deeds, means that these deeds must NOT be done by Muslims. In another words: any muslim acts that way is considered as a bad muslim & will be guilty deserved to be penalized…
Another important thing, in Islam we MUST pay respect for ALL messengers of Allah(God). So, it’s forbidden for us to MAKE FUN of any messenger at all.
” How many comics are there made out of Jesus or other Christian holy characters. Thousands!” How come that anybody say something and then do the opposite?!

I am Bangladeshi.I know what happened in bangladesh in 71..Yes true that more than 3 million ppl were killed then..but not most of them were hindus…actual info is most of them were Muslims..

the thing is those who killed all those innocent unarmed ppl were just killer..not muslim.I am muslim..I hate Pakistan..I will take revenge for what they have done with us..But still that doesnt mean i have to hate islam..coz look closely ..pakis aint even muslim..all they are doing killing and terrorism and other hatefull activity which aint allowed in Islam..so pakistani ppl are not Muslim…so dont get confused pakistan with Islam..

Muslim wont allow any one of creating cartoon of jesus.