Draw Muhammad Day - A Muslim Cartoonist

http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2010/07/draw-muhammad-day-muslim-cartoonist.html

This is one of the best articles I have read on the Cartoons, I have written several on the subject and have offered pluralistic solutions to the imbroglio, but Mr. Wilson has done it right. It is really not religion stupid, it is the evil need to hate some one, denigrate some and fakely feel secure and worthy in their lives.

The miscreants are always looking to tempt and aggravate those, who are too eager to be aggravated. As a society, if we can limit this cock fights to them, we can be free from such hate contamination. Really, on the other hand if no one reacts, there will be no temptations to mischief.

As I read the comments, I see a few horses jumping aimlessly and bringing in topics that has nothing to do with the article. I face that kind of comments on face book and I ask the commentators to stay within the subject and say anything they want, but don't horse around and waste every one's time on non-related topics. I delete them after the warnings.

http://www.mikeghouse.net/

A Muslim cartoonist on "Draw Muhammad Day"
by G. Willow Wilson

When Seattle cartoonist Molly Norris was put on an Al Qaeda hit list for her "Draw Muhammad Day" project, my inbox started filling up.

Since I'm one of the only practicing Muslims in the American comics industry, people assumed I had some kind of profound insight into the reasons these cartoon incidents keep flaring up. But the only explanation I have is too simple to satisfy anyone: they happen because hate sells. It sells in the West, where anti-Muslim hate groups feed on incidents of Muslim rage; it sells in the Muslim world, where extremists are only too happy to use examples of Western intolerance to win over new recruits. This is the reality we live in: any satirized depiction of the Prophet Muhammad feeds into a global propaganda war, whether the artist intends it or not. There is no longer any such thing as artistic immunity in the battle of images, and to think otherwise is fatally naive.

Molly Norris thought otherwise. But as soon as she realized what she'd gotten herself into, it was too late: by taking the offending images off her website and issuing a bewildered apology, she enraged the Islamophobes who were ready to hail her as a martyr to their cause. In the opposing camp, Al Qaeda spokesman Anwar Al Awlaki was unwilling to give up such a plum opportunity to rally support for his jihad. A tepid explanation was not what either party wanted. Extremists of all stripes need blood and conflict in order to survive. Molly Norris has no true supporters: in order to be of any use to either the Islamophobes or the jihadis, she must be a blasphemer whose life is in jeopardy. As a peacemaker she loses her utility.

This is the central tragedy of these endless cartoon scandals. No one is looking for a resolution. Drawing insulting depictions of the Prophet Muhammad has become a favorite pastime of hipster racists, whose bulbous-nosed bushy-bearded 'satire' resembles the anti-Semitic cartoons of the Third Reich. Thanks in no small part to the vigorous, often violent outcry from hardliners in the Muslim world, these artists are elevated to a kind of freedom-of-speech sainthood whether their work has any real merit or not. Death threats are issued, lives pointlessly imperiled, careers of pundits--never themselves in any danger--made overnight. Noted American Muslim leader Imam Zaid Shakir put it best: this isn't the clash of civilizations. It's the clash of the uncivilized.

Molly Norris never drew a picture of the Prophet Muhammad as a wild-eyed Semitic bogeyman. She drew a cartoon teacup, the sort of thing you might find in a children's picture book. Her intent was to inject a little innocent humor into an increasingly absurd conflict. What she didn't realize is that there is no room left for innocence or humor in what has become a cynical exercise in mutual provocation. In honor of Draw Muhammad Day, her legion of unasked-for followers posted cartoons that were more and more grotesque and hate-filled. The result was a threat against Norris's life from an al Qaeda spokesman--and fellow American--who does a better job of caricaturing himself than a cartoonist ever could. She disavowed her own comparatively innocuous cartoons, took down her website, and went into hiding. But the battle begun in her name rages on.

What Norris failed to understand is that by creating events like "Draw Muhammad Day", artists hurl rhetorical stones that go straight through their enemies and hit Muslims like me. Al Qaeda isn't hurt by Draw Muhammad Day. Its entire PR campaign is built on incidents like these. Without the Molly Norrises and Jyllands Postens of the world, Al Qaeda would have to get a lot more creative with its recruitment strategies.

Artists who caricature the Prophet inevitably claim, as Norris has done, that they never meant to hurt ordinary Muslims, but ordinary Muslims are the only ones who are hurt. As a Muslim in the comics industry I spend more time than is good for my mental health defending the art and the religion I love from each other. Events like the fallout from Draw Muhammad Day make me think I'm wasting my time--the hate runs too deep on both sides. My conscience won't let me support the criminalizing of art, but neither will it let me support a parade of cartoons depicting lurid, racist stereotypes of Arab men and passing them off as satire of a holy figure.

Molly Norris claims she never meant for this event to become a hate-fest. As silly as that sounds--anyone who's spent more than half an hour on the internet could have told her how this would turn out--I believe her. If provocation was her objective, she could be basking in the light of notoriety as we speak. Instead she's being vilified not only by extremists like Al Awlaki, but by her own former supporters. She's learned the hard way that this conflict was never about her art or her ideas. As her fans turn their backs, looking for someone with a better stomach for scandal, it's clear that no one was ever really interested in what she had to say.

G. Willow Wilson is the author of The Butterfly Mosque, a memoir about her conversion to Islam and life in the Middle East; as well as the award-winning comic books AIR and CAIRO.

Jesus Cartoons by South Park

http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2010/06/jesus-cartoons-by-south-park.html

Ultimately goodness triumphs. Let freedom prevail, there is no end to controlling others, it is time we dispossess and disown Jesus, Muhammad, Moses, Krishna and others, they are not our property and they belong to all of us. Christians don’t own Jesus, Krishna is not the property of Hindus nor Muhammad is owned Muslims. Let’s not bottle them, it is not prudent to reduce their message to a few. Each one of them wanted us to be good beings, let's be one.

The problem is not cartoons; it is the intolerance of the few. A majority of Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus and others understand that, diversity is part of their life. When you have the power, you solve problems with humility and not arrogance. Arrogance flares up the conflict and causes people to take a stand and dig in their heels, humility brings understanding and understanding leads to solutions of co-existence.

The insecure among us are frightened and want to quell and even annihilate others to “feel secure” alas, that were the truth. Security comes from within first, and then from what surrounds us. If we want goodness to prevail, we have to create that to surround us.

In April this year, I wrote, “If you know the producers of South Park, please let them know that there are more Muslims willing to protect their rights than a few radicals who have threatened them.” - http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2010/04/south-park-incident-with-muslim.html

In February 2010, I asked the Indians, “If he (MF Hussain who painted nude pictures of Hindu deities) were to be in Afghanistan, Iran or Saudi Arabia, he would have been killed. As a nation, do we want us to be like Afghanistan, banning everything and imposing on others?

When Passion of the Christ was released, the Christians and Muslims together formed an alliance to protest the release of the film in India.

The radical Christians have killed the Doctors or bombed the clinics that performed abortions; the radical Jews have forced the Palestinians out of their homes and radical Hindus and radical Muslims have done their share as well.

Most Muslims including me were against banning Rushdie's book, we wrote against it and spoke against it. I had appealed to the fanatic fringe among Muslims to ignore the cartoons and follow the model of the prophet and pray that goodwill prevails, and several mosques have done that in their Friday sermons, but a few hundred individuals violated civility and resorted to violence.

Jesus had all the power in the world to turn every human into his follower; he did not do it, neither Moses, Krishna, Muhammad, Buddha, Nanak, Bahaullah, Confucius, Mahavir, Zarathustra or the spiritual masters from the earth based and indigenous traditions believed in copy catting humans.

The believed in freedom, their goal was not to convert any one, but guide people to learn to get along with everyone. They understood that a female from the Zulu tribe or a male from the another tradition or a prince were all created by the same process and were programmed to last anywhere from 1 second to 150 years at most. They believed in diversity of thought as God’s will, but getting along with those difference was also God’s will, and that is what they taught.

The purpose of religion was to guide us how to live with others that differ from us and not be afraid of the stranger. Every religion offers numerous lines of guidance on embracing the stranger, as knowing the other takes the fear out of us and brings peace and security.

Wasn’t Jesus ridiculed in his life, wasn’t each one of the spiritual masters ridiculed, chased, harassed and persecuted? They could have turned the evil upside down and created a heaven, they chose not to, because they believed in the freedom of speech.

Let our anger be not the temptation for others to mock, let our love be the way for them to love every one of the spiritual masters. If you want the honey, you don't kick the beehive. Win love by love and not punishment or anger.

Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker, writer and an activist of Pluralism, Justice, Islam, India and Civil Societies. He is a conflict mitigater and a goodwill nurturer offering pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. http://www.mikeghouse.net/
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Religious leaders unite against planned Jesus cartoon
By James Hibberd James Hibberd Tue Jun 1, 11:47 pm ET

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – It's not on the air yet. It's not shot yet. There's no pilot yet. There might not even be a script yet.

But Comedy Central's plan to develop an animated project about Jesus Christ has the biggest names in the TV watchdog business forming a protest supergroup to preemptively smite the show.

Brent Bozell (president, Media Research Centre), Tony Perkins (president, Family Research Council), Michael Medved (talk radio host), Bill Donohue (president, Catholic League), Rabbi Daniel Lapin (American Alliance of Jews and Christians) and Tim Winter (president, Parents Television Council) are joining forces to form the Coalition Against Religious Bigotry.

Comedy Central's "JC" is in development, which means it's still a couple of steps from getting the green light as a series. The project is about Jesus trying to live as a regular guy in New York City and wanting to escape the shadow of his "powerful but apathetic father." Because Comedy Central recently censored "South Park" for its portrayals of the Prophet Muhammad, some Christian leaders see the prospect of a Jesus cartoon as proof of an offensive double standard.

CARB will hold its first press conference on Thursday to urge advertisers not to support the project, should it ever hit the air.

"After we reveal the vile and offensive nature of Comedy Central's previous characterizations of Jesus Chris and God the Father, we expect these advertisers to agree wholeheartedly to end their advertising on Comedy Central and discontinue their support for unabashed, anti-Christian discrimination," Bozell said in a statement. "Why should they be supporting a business that makes a habit of attacking Christianity and yet has a formal policy to censor anything considered offensive to followers of Islam? This double standard is pure bigotry, one from which advertisers should quickly shy away."
Comedy Central had no comment.
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