Mohammed’s Cartoons
Aziz has an astute observation, one which has kept me from getting fired up about this issue:
You can print, say, or draw whatever you want. Just don’t be surprised when – and let’s frankly admit this – the people you are deliberately trying to provoke conclude that you’re a complete jafi. A jafi, whose soaring rhetoric about freedom and respect for Islam and the sacredness of the cause to bring liberty to the middle east as a grand antidote for tyranny and oppression, just came off looking a lot less sincere. A lot less.
There is a lot to question about Islam. There is a lot that Islam must explain – and will have to explain if anyone acts upon the rhetoric flowing from Muslim quarters. But when your goal is to offend, and you succeed, you must accept the consequences.
I have offended with my writing – most of the time unintentionally – and I have apologized sometimes. There are other times when I have said things that I believe and will not apologize for. I have suffered the consequences as a result.
I have also practiced restraint: there are offensive things that I could have written in the heat of the moment but refrained from doing so. Is this self-censorship? I use my conscience as my guide, and have come to trust it.
My conscience is telling me that this isn’t my fight. However, I believe this will change if the protests and threats turn violent towards Europeans, Americans, or even other Muslims.
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