~~~ Η «ελληνική πραγματικότητα» υπάρχει μόνο στο μυαλό εκείνων που δεν μπόρεσαν (ή δεν ήθελαν;) ποτέ να ξεφύγουν από αυτήν ~~~
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Violent protests over
cartoons of the Prophet Muhamad
Is this a religious issue or a political one? Hard
to tell.
Here is the opinion of a young colleague of mine
whose judgment I value.
To some extent
religion is a tricky matter. Cold logic might suggest that making fun of one's
religious beliefs is perhaps not as bad as making fun of their political
beliefs: the latter is an informed judgment while the former is something
accepted de facto. BUT, when emotions come into play, things become tricky. My
impression is that the reason the cartoons were so controversial was not because
they were comical, but exactly the opposite: they were highly political. And it
is the political context that annoyed the important people, who then urged the
Muslim populations to these extreme reactions. And in that context, freedom of
speech should come into play.
I was wondering how
often cartoons related to Christian God (depicted as a bearded old man) or St
Peter and Christ appear in papers. There are also a couple of films of satiric
nature that have involved the Christian God:, The man who sued God, Bruce
Almighty etc...
All in all I think
it is a tough question, but I am leaning towards freedom of speech. I think it
is a political question that has been disguised as an ethical one.
. . . back to the Blog!