Mohammad Cartoon Crudeness.

I have to disagree with so many blogs who seem determined to show as much disrespect for Muslims as possible with not only reprinting the offending Danish cartoons, but making up their own. I realize that many feel they are throwing it back into the face of fanatical Muslims who threaten us, but they seem to forget peaceful Muslims are offended too.

I also think it is a bit hypocritical for us to get all angry at crude depictions of Christ, yet feel that it is somehow ok to depict Mohammad in the same way. Yes, I understand that we don't believe in Mohammad, but the people that depict Christ that way don't believe him either.

It's really about common courtesy. Why do we seem to think that the only Muslims we offend by this are the ones who are terrorists? There are over a billion Muslims in this world and most of them are not terrorists. We have to learn to live together on this planet in peace. I don't think offending their faith will bring them any closer to democracy and it especially won't bring them any closer to understanding our faith and freedoms.

I've been getting a lot of heat on other blogs for saying this. One other commenter at LGF asked me, "Why should we try and understand them?" Because if we don't try and understand them and their culture, I can guarantee you they will never try and understand ours. By doing things such as this we look like the hedonistic "infidels" that people like Osama want the Middle East to think that we are. We are not that. It is the kind face of this nation that they need to see.

We have got stop looking at the Muslim world through the prism of our culture and start looking at it through the prism of theirs. Do you think that by showing them what freedom of speech looks like in this way, that they are going to think it is a good thing??? Getting along in this world starts with respect for each other's differences. We don't have to agree with them. We don't have to live by their rules. But if we want to show others the greatness of freedom, we can do a lot better than this.