| coolbeans said: ^This shit used to be something you'd see on a parody website. Reading through the OP, I'm absolutely baffled by the viciousness against France & Macron here. I thought "Islamist" was a specific category that didn't include all Muslims. It's also nice to see a world leader have some stones regarding this topic. Anyone, including Erdogan, fuming at Macron or burning effigies of him probably doesn't understand that everyone has a limited patience. If the "this has nothing to do with Islam" line is bandied by officials and bodies continue piling up by violent men who're yelling "Allahu Ackbar" then what do you expect? I'm happily stand corrected if supplementary video of Macron doing/saying something more wicked is shown. But if you're that incensed by what Macron has said, I can only hope your anger is multiplied tenfold knowing a violent extremist praised your God while killing innocent people. The fact that so many Muslims (caught on tape) put more effort into caring about the former than the latter speaks volumes to me. |
It's kind of like if I criticize the Westboro Baptist Church, citing its disturbing angles and views and its hateful and downright dangerous views on others, and then all regular christians attack me for attacking them and their faith. It's very telling that the two recent attacks in France were against people in a church, and an actual priest; this is a religous war to some, despite the very clearly communicated point that it's about secular, rational thought versus religious extremist doctrine. Unfortunately, large parts of the Western world have grown accustomed to relativization and rationalizing the actions of certain groups and factions due to a perceived need for perpetual protection, which is why semi-integrated speakers and coloumnists are even able to write their "yeah, beheadings are terrible but bringing more blasphemy is not the answer" pieces with fairly little opposition. Many are afraid to insult certain groups, and extremists use this to their advantage. If someone told me face-to face that they felt personally offended by Macron's words, I would ask them the following question: since specific sects within a greater world religion were singled out as the perpetrators and main issue here and you're clearly so upset, does that mean that you identify with these groups in any kind of way? If the answer is no; then why the outrage?
Any person's right not to be offended should never stand above the basic human right to live, and live free at that. Most of my muslim aquintances over here have taken the whole matter well, they say that their personal relationship with god is in no way harmed by someone, somewhere showing drawings of the prophet. I'm happy to be living in a region where blasphemy laws are a thing of the distant past and there's a clear and distinct separation between church and state, blasphemy laws is a medieval concept and has no place in a modern society of any kind.
