cartoon riots

I don’t know what to think about the Muslim cartoon riots going on. My thoughts are sort of fragmented based on a few issues.

I am so thankful that no one in our country has chosen to print these cartoons. The absolute last thing our country needs at this point in its relations with the Islamic world are to have them burning our embassies over this issue.

At the core of my beliefs in human rights and freedoms are the sustaining virtues of freedom of speech and freedom of religion. All people should be able to believe what they want to believe, and say what they want to say without the worry of censorship of government or society. But I don’t believe that those freedoms mean that you are free to use them to incite hate or intolerance. Freedom comes with responsibility. To me, to have the freedom of speech does not mean that you have the right to mouth off to anyone at anytime about anything and not suffer consequences. This freedom requires you to understand how your words impact others. People need to be aware of the consequences of what they say. The Danish newspaper that started this all had a responsibility to understand that the cartoons they were printing would be condemned by believers in Islam. (To be fair, even if they did know that Islam prohibits pictures of Muhammad, and that their publication of the cartoons would be received harshly by the Muslim community, I don’t believe that ever would have imagined that Danish embassies around the world would be burned because of their choice to print these images. Who would have imagined this?)

Freedom of religion has its responsibilities too. Of course, people should be free to believe what they want to believe. Of course, people’s opinions of God and spirituality and life will be different from person to person and faith to faith. What is important when considering this freedom is to have respect for other people’s faiths, and understand that with your right to believe what you want comes with a responsibility to not force that belief onto others. I am a Christian. This faith forms the basis of my worldview and is fundamental to my identity. The freedom to be a Christian is fundamental to my life. I have many friends who are not Christians, but it is not my job to condemn them for their choices. If I chose to live my life that way, I would have missed out on so many great friends and relationships that have enriched me as a person and deepened my faith.

I also have a hard time with the riots because so many people make fun of Jesus all the time. His image is no longer considered to be strictly holy or religious, and has been used many times to market kitschy items from Urban Outfitters or used in political cartoons. I have made my peace with the fact that not everyone in the world considers Christ to be as important and sacred a figure as I do. I have made peace with the secularization of my God, so I feel like others should have to endure it as well.

This secularization can also be used as a tool to understand the world and how they view my faith. I think it is important for Christians to understand how the world views us and our faith, and that can often be revealed in a movie like “Saved” or in a political cartoon. I understand that the cartoons were outrageous, but I think that this Islamic community may need to recognize that the cartoon symbolizes how some in the world feel about their faith.

There is also another issue of great concern to discuss. Why don’t Christians react in the same way as these Muslims have when our God is defamed? Why aren’t more Christians outraged at the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar” or a Jesus Christ football bobble head (which I have seen)? Is that a failure on our part, that we are no longer impassioned for our God like others around the world are for theirs? What does it mean about the evolution of our faith? I don’t have the answer for this one, but I think it is worthy of asking.