Someone needs to draw a picture of Muhammed doing the best things in the world that a human can possibly do. Be a model of excellence, strong father, supporter of the community and a proper symbol of the Islamic Faith. If a Muslim has the need to attack or destroy due to someone showing a positive, not-at-all condescending view of Muhammed, there are serious fucking problems.
Someone needs to draw a picture of Muhammed doing the best things in the world that a human can possibly do. Be a model of excellence, strong father, supporter of the community and a proper symbol of the Islamic Faith. If a Muslim has the need to attack or destroy due to someone showing a positive, not-at-all condescending view of Muhammed, there are serious fucking problems.
It's not about what he's doing. It's the theological virtue of iconoclasm that makes any and all depictions blasphemous.
Remember the golden calf? Moses smashed it, because it is a false idol, but even a true idol is also blasphemous. Statues of God are a big no-no. What do you see in a Jewish synagogue? You'll see words, some stars of David, some nice decorations. You won't see any pictures of god. In a Mosque you will see crescent moons and lots of other geometric patterns.
What do you see in a church? Pictures of Jesus being nice. Pictures of Jesus walking on water. Statues and pictures of various saints. On Christmas, a diorama of Jesus as a baby. On the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel there is a painting of God and Adam together. Pretty much the exact opposite theologically-speaking. Ever hear of idolatry? That's what this is.
Jews and Muslims are theologically iconoclastic. No idols, period. Jews won't even say the "true" name of god, always using one of many alternative names. They also will not write the name of god on a paper, as that paper then becomes special. That is why you will often see G-d.
The difference here is that even the craziest of fundamentalist Hacidic crazy Jews don't care at all if you have false idols or anything else that is against their rules. That is as long as you stay out of their neighborhood. If you come to visit, they might throw some vegetables, or worse, at you. Whereas a few crazy fundamentalist Muslims will use violence to force others to obey their own theology.
Now the last thing you might ask is why? Why not have statues and pictures of God? Easy answer. First of all, your picture of god is so totally not accurate. Not even close. Therefore, any picture or sculpture you have is a false idol. But even if somehow you see God, and draw him. People are now worshiping this picture of God and not God himself. You might say, well the picture is accurate, so they are worshiping God. Well, no. Imagine you go in a room and in the room God is standing there. On the other side of a room is a photograph of God. Now everyone bows down to the photograph instead of the real deal. God is everywhere, so that is what you are doing!
Of course, they all fail to acknowledge the FSM and his noodly appendages. Pastafarians are the best idolators.
Someone needs to draw all the major gods playing poker.
No, that would offend the Muslims. How about working a soup kitchen?
Scott just said that that's bad too. Even though I still find the whole situation to be more messed up. Faith is sure deceiving that way, because it makes me wonder IF a figure came down from the skies saying it was Muhammed or Jesus, wouldn't some people just say that it would be a lie? Just saying that this lie would be a test of faith? Is there a limit?
Someone needs to draw all the major gods playing poker.
Someone needs to draw all the major gods playing poker.
No, that would offend the Muslims. How about working a soup kitchen?
What we need is sort of a West Side Story between the gods people still believe in and the gods people no longer believe in.
That would be EVEN MORE offensive. West Side Story was based off of Romeo and Juliet which is trashy and overrated compared to the other works of Shakespeare. And it even involves gangs and racism, so you'd have even more people in an uproar.
Crazy Christians get just as pissed off about sacrilegious things. We just don't take their threats seriously because it wasn't radical Christians who flew planes into the WTC, and we have a high exposure to calmer Christianity in this country. It's a tiny group of Muslims that are acting crazy. Comedy Central just contributed to the hype by taking their threats seriously.
Also, what about gods and other god-like beings that are in various apocryphal texts that judeo-christians maybe technically should believe in but aren't? In similar news, can my wizard learn a spell in the 3.0 PHB if it isn't in 3.5?
Well, if they're going to get pissed off no matter what you do, I say go all the way. Have a picture of Muhammad having gay sex with Jesus while eating a bacon sandwich.
Comedy Central just contributed to the hype by taking their threats seriously.
Well, again, that certain small segment has shows a predilection for intense violence. Fred Phelps is every bit as crazy, but he hasn't killed anybody. Yet. It's really a no-win situation; you either kowtow to the crazies so they don't kill you, or refuse to kowtow and let people die.
But yes, I know it's only a few Muslims that are that crazy. However, I believe a larger group feeds into the "no depictions of Muhammad" insanity. It's a basic belief, and then you have people who take it even farther. If you can get the vast majority to become reasonable about it, the crazies will become marginalized.
What the fuck? "You can't criticize the U.S. because we're single-handedly responsible for saving you from the Nazis"? Not only is the entire argument nonsense, the premise is false.
It begins. Pakistan is "extending a ban on Facebook to YouTube, Wikipedia, mobile Blackberry services, and a number of other websites" in response to the holiday. The "other websites" include Flickr .
Oh, and for good measure:
. <--- Muhammad smiling and petting a kitten (from a distance).
Comments
Remember the golden calf? Moses smashed it, because it is a false idol, but even a true idol is also blasphemous. Statues of God are a big no-no. What do you see in a Jewish synagogue? You'll see words, some stars of David, some nice decorations. You won't see any pictures of god. In a Mosque you will see crescent moons and lots of other geometric patterns.
What do you see in a church? Pictures of Jesus being nice. Pictures of Jesus walking on water. Statues and pictures of various saints. On Christmas, a diorama of Jesus as a baby. On the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel there is a painting of God and Adam together. Pretty much the exact opposite theologically-speaking. Ever hear of idolatry? That's what this is.
Jews and Muslims are theologically iconoclastic. No idols, period. Jews won't even say the "true" name of god, always using one of many alternative names. They also will not write the name of god on a paper, as that paper then becomes special. That is why you will often see G-d.
The difference here is that even the craziest of fundamentalist Hacidic crazy Jews don't care at all if you have false idols or anything else that is against their rules. That is as long as you stay out of their neighborhood. If you come to visit, they might throw some vegetables, or worse, at you. Whereas a few crazy fundamentalist Muslims will use violence to force others to obey their own theology.
Now the last thing you might ask is why? Why not have statues and pictures of God? Easy answer. First of all, your picture of god is so totally not accurate. Not even close. Therefore, any picture or sculpture you have is a false idol. But even if somehow you see God, and draw him. People are now worshiping this picture of God and not God himself. You might say, well the picture is accurate, so they are worshiping God. Well, no. Imagine you go in a room and in the room God is standing there. On the other side of a room is a photograph of God. Now everyone bows down to the photograph instead of the real deal. God is everywhere, so that is what you are doing!
Of course, they all fail to acknowledge the FSM and his noodly appendages. Pastafarians are the best idolators.
From : CACAH
But yes, I know it's only a few Muslims that are that crazy. However, I believe a larger group feeds into the "no depictions of Muhammad" insanity. It's a basic belief, and then you have people who take it even farther. If you can get the vast majority to become reasonable about it, the crazies will become marginalized.
Hopefully.
(I have the suspicion that some FRCers will kill me for posting this. XD)
Problem?
Oh, and for good measure:
. <--- Muhammad smiling and petting a kitten (from a distance).