That Draw Muhammad Contest Is A Terrible Idea

I think this drawing Muhammad contest on Facebook is a terribly bad idea.

First of all that Facebook group is using the wrong target.

So a bunch of extremist alleged Muslims called Revolution Islam threatened violence towards the creators of South Park for daring to make an episode that involved Muhammad. Here's more information about this group. Comedy Central censored the episode for their own reasons.

So somebody decided to react against this private censorship by setting up a Facebook group to draw caricatures of Muhammad.

That is the wrong way to go about this. They should have found a picture of whoever was responsible for the threat, or make up their own, and make an unflattering caricature of him or them.

Second of all I don't think the people responsible for that Facebook group understand just how passionately many Muslims hate to see this happen to Muhammad.

Now those of us who live in 'the West' (whatever that is) have grown used to living in a world where people say outrageous things and we, for the most part, let them do this. They may say things we believe are profoundly wrong or offensive. But we accept that this is the necessary price we pay to live in a free society.

But those are Western concepts which, while they seem perfectly natural to us, like water to a fish, are somewhat meaningless in the dar al-Islam.

(I'm scared I might be saying something that might be interpreted as being patronizing here. I don't intend to do so, but I must speak about this.)

I remember one story mentioned in Princess Sultana's Circle (2002) by Jean Sasson. Sultana, the Saudi Princess at the center of this book, related a story of how she met a female relative (if I remember correctly) who was highly agitated. Sultana asked another lady what was wrong with her.

She then told Sultana how something absolutely horrible happened to her. I can't recapture the story in its dramatic sense, but essentially she was walking around, had to hide temporarily (I think) and then when she returned to the street she saw to her utter horror a poster that depicted Muhammad in an offensive manner.

After seeing this poster she was still even now being plagued by thoughts of that poster. She couldn't get that image out of her head. She was very disturbed by it.

And at the end of the chapter Sultana said that despite all the horrible things that had happened earlier in the book, a niece's unwanted marriage, discovering a millionaire's dark secret, Sultana said to herself, (I can't quote, this is from memory) I am so glad I do not have to deal with that.

So when I saw the protests over the Danish cartoons I was not that surprised because I thought about that woman who so horrified by what she saw in that poster. Whenever something like that happens I think of that woman.

This is the type of passion that this Facebook group is thoughtlessly and needlessly provoking all over the dar al-Islam.

Here's an ASSIST News news release on one such protest in Pakistan in which the Muslim protest leaders portray this event as trying to disrupt harmony between Muslims and Christians. I am scared that this incident might cause that to happen somewhere.

I do not think the people behind this Facebook group understand how dangerous this insensitivity is.

That is why I wish to state here that I think this draw Muhammad contest is a bad idea. It should not have been done.