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Originally Posted by Professor S
Half of the entire problem is perception, also. All the West sees is the bad side of Islam. I know there is good Islam and modern thinkers in Islam. My problem is that I think those people also let themselves be ruled by fear of fanatical Islamic factions. If Islam wants to revamp its image and promote a peaceful version of itself, its members must stand up and take control of their belief, and not let the violent minority keep the majority under its thumb. The silent many are as damaging as the violent few, a violent few that appear to be growing in number with each passing day.
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That was the intention of the cartoons from the start, according to the Danish editor who allowed the cartoons. The cartoons, he said, were not a hate message saying that all Muslims are violent. They were meant to point out that the peaceful religion of Islam has been seemingly taken over by the violent minority and the peaceful majority needs to step up and take their religion back.
If you can find the interview with that Danish editor, obviously he says his opinion much better than I can repeat it. He did quite a few interviews back during the heat of the riots. I'd provide a link but I can't find it.
For example take the most cited cartoon -- Mohammad wearing a bomb for a turban. The face of Mohammad should be a peaceful symbol, but instead the perception is that Islam is blood-stained and violent, so the symbol is distorted and is no longer peaceful. The message is that the face of Islam has been pillaged and ransacked and stolen and it needs to taken back by peaceful Muslims themselves.
For any of you who haven't seen the cartoons, I think seeing them for yourself truly shows how much they have been blown out of proportion. Google them or
here are the cartoons. Should I be careful about posting this link? The funny thing is, I
did think twice about it, and I'm still not sure if one of you moderators will decide to remove it. I can't imagine any reason why it matters anywhere and especially at a forum like this, but with riots over such a little thing as a cartoon I'm not sure anymore...
The feeling is similar to one of the cartoons. There is a cartoon of a newspaper cartoonist sweating in fear as he draws a simple picture of Mohammad -- with no bombs or anything, just a drawing of his face. The perception of a violent Islam is so pervasive that we can't even draw a non-opinionated drawing of Mohammad and publish it without thinking twice about it.