Thursday 20 May 2010

Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!

Today we’re sending a message that we will not be intimidated. Today, everybody draws Mohammed!

The lunatic fringes of the Muslim faith want to claim that images of their prophet are off-limits. And they will enforce this edict with threats of violence.

Screw that.

I don’t care if images of your prophet are sacred.

Mohammed Likes Portello

Yes, this is about disrespect. And if it offends you, that’s fine. You’re allowed to be offended.

I’m constantly offended by the influence of religion on our government and our culture.

But this is about something more important than respect.

This is about meeting threats by violent fanatics with what they deserve … mockery and laughter.

8 comments:

Quick Joe Smith said...

"This is about meeting threats by violent fanatics with what they deserve … mockery and laughter."

I'm not really sure I agree with this. Isn't it simply an act of defiance against a foreign culture trying to impose itself on us in our own yard, so to speak?

There's no reason why even a dignified depiction of Muhammad wouldn't achieve the same effect. It doesn't need to be laced with scorn and mockery, though I do see the temptation.

Dave ~ said...

I totally agree Matt.

A decision I made long ago is religion gets no free rides.

If this was a netball team sending death threats because of a depiction of their captain, they would be locked up sooner than you could say 'Travel!'

You don't like pictures of your prophet, well that's unfortunate. But I will not abide anyone, religion or not, sending death threats because they don't like something. Fucking well tough.

Same goes for the Catholics and their 'investigation' into child abuse. They should be treated like any other business - held accountable to the same rules as everyone else. Nobody should be allowed to hide behind the collar.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some offensive art to create.

Matt said...

Hi Joe,
The mockery doesn't need to be in the form of an explicitly offensive image.
In fact, I think that's the best approach: to have inoffensive stick figures, which highlights how ridiculous it is to be offended by them.
This subtlety obviously gets lost when people start adding testicles and pig snouts and such.

And thanks Dave. I look forward to your offensive artwork.

catherineLd said...

he's so cute!

Quick Joe Smith said...

If it was something that only riled up the extremists who jump up and down about this sort of thing, then I'd probably be more on board. They deserve it.

But it's going to offend a lot more than that (by intention) who don't deserve it, and that's just something I can't get behind.

Out of curiosity, do you know why Muhammad didn't want his image recorded in the first place?

Rob said...

From what I remember of what I learned at uni, it was something to do with the idea that you should not idolise him. It's the word, not the person, that is important. I think there's an irony there somewhere.

Rob said...

I was close, but not quite. According to wiki: "The key concern is that the use of images can encourage idolatry, where the image becomes more important than what it represents."

Matt said...

Thanks for that Rob.
I think that pretty clearly shows the stupidity of being offended by a stick figure with the word "Mohammed" under it.
I mean really ... who's going to idolise that?