Is Draw Mohammed Day a Bad Idea?
Some bloggers think that Everybody Draw Mohammed Day is a bad idea. Here for example is one:
Tom Morton, Why I think “Draw Mohammed Day” is a bad idea
Draw Mohammed day is this silly idea someone came up with in an attempt to show unity against extremists who threaten death to those who, well, draw Mohammed.
...
The problem I do think exists is that this is exactly the response the extremists expected and hoped for.
Consider; they can turn to converts now and say “look how evil America is, they are escalating this, lets go kill them!”.
...
Is the threat not already unrealistic? This whole new problem originally came from a blogger who made vague threats of death against the South Park guys.
It was very unrealistic threat. Norris actually gives it credbility - that is fear.
I left the following response:
You obviously have never been threatened by Muslims. The mere utterance of a threat already engenders fear - no one needs to give it credibility. No person should fear for his life because of opinion.
If you give me a penny for every Muslim who killed, stoned, tortured, burned, or beheaded someone in the past 365 days I will gladly list the events but for the fact that even though I do not know you, I doubt you have the money to cover the wager.
What is very revealing however, is how bigoted you really are. Do you honestly believe that all a Muslim recruiter needs to do is point to an insulting cartoon and turn to Muslim converts and say “look how evil America is, they are escalating this, lets go kill them!”. Is that what a Muslim is to you? A person on the verge of psychopathic murderous rage waiting for a cartoon to trigger his pathology?
Or if you do not believe this, then your argument is hollow and we have nothing to worry about, Muslims are fine individuals indeed who may be insulted but would never turn violent.
Are Muslims too dangerous because any slight could set them off on a murderous rampage or we can make fun of them all we want because they are harmless? If the latter, then your opposition on the grounds of possible violent revenge is moot; if the former then I can only conclude we should not allow them into our country. Which is it?
I have never understood people who can hold those two concepts in their head simultaneously:
- Muslims are like dangerous, wild, violent, murderous psychopaths - say nothing to antagonize them.
- There is nothing wrong with allowing Muslims to come to America, they pose no danger to our way of life.
Let me explain what Draw Mohammed Day is all about: Every time a Muslim threatens an American over some insult to Mohammed or Islam then we should draw tens of thousands of insulting cartoons of Mohammed and Islam. Either the threats will stop or Muslims will be so ridiculed and so mocked so often that they themselves will make sure no Muslim ever threatens another American ever again. Unless we make it extremely uncomfortable for them - they will make it extremely uncomfortable for us.
Comedy Central took the threat as realistic - they censored themselves in fear. Unless a million people make insulting drawings, there may never ever again be a TV broadcast, film, documentary, or clip of anything remotely critical of Islam.
“The first human who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization” – Sigmund Freud
