Glass Maze Every jumbled pile of person

Cartoons

Flemming Rose, the Danish editor who commissioned the cartoons that have set the Muslim world on fire, speaks out:

Has Jyllands-Posten [the newspaper in which the cartoons were published] insulted and disrespected Islam? It certainly didn’t intend to. But what does respect mean? When I visit a mosque, I show my respect by taking off my shoes. I follow the customs, just as I do in a church, synagogue or other holy place. But if a believer demands that I, as a nonbeliever, observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for my respect, but for my submission. And that is incompatible with a secular democracy.

Yes, exactly. The problem here is that the parties condemning the Danish cartoons (including, alas, our own government) are conflating two concerns: the propriety of saying controversial/offensive/sacriligious things, and our absolute right to say them. The first is up for debate. The second is not.

Absolutely right, Ramseys. Now if we could only persuade the leaders of these various religious groups to go to God (all at once, please!) to get it straight as to which is the TRUE religion – and oh, yes, please have God get back to the rest of us, in person, so as to spare us the guess work/worry of choosing whom to believe on this tiresome question. Gad, organized religions….. a pox on all their houses, I say…. L