To understand the violent reaction to the cartoons, you must really understand the peoples, their various cultures and Islam itself. No small feat either.... There are many more sects within Islam than within Christianity and Judaism combined.
I wonder how many western people realize that criticizing the Prophet Muhammad can get you a death sentence in at least 6 Muslim countries? If you published those cartoons in Saudi Arabia (as a citizen), you would cetrainly be imprisoned and perhaps executed. Foreigners would certainly be expelled, but not until after a very nasty experience in the basics of Islamic law.
Yet, the Saudis can be viewed as being among the most tolerant of Islamic nations. Others are not so "open minded". Either way, if people better understood the culture (Islamic), they would realize that the cartoons, no matter how mild westerners view them, are deeply insulting to Muslims. Nonetheless, those involved in the violence are but a small minority among the various Islamic sub-cultures, and it's normal for these groups to get the most press coverage.
Unfortunately, a growing number of fundamentalist Islamic teachers do teach violence against non-believers as being required, usually by distorting text of the Qur'an to twist its tenets by parsing text to change the meaning such as "slay the idolaters wherever you find them" (At-Tawbah: 5).
Truly, it seems as if a new jihad is declared every week.
With regard to war or jihad, Islam draws a clear distinction between combatants and non-combatants. Non-combatants such as women, children, the old and infirm are not to be killed. Yet, it doesn't take much thought to realize that radical Islam ignores those portions of the Qur'an that disagree with their hate. The big problem is that a significant percentage of Muslims (many of them of marginal education) follow their mullahs, imams or ayatollahs with blind faith and an absence of reason. They are conditioned by their culture NOT to question their religious leaders. Here, we question everything.
However, not all conservative Muslims or even Muslim sects are intolerant. I would say that most are not. For example, My wife and I are friends with a family in Algeria. They live near the city of Ghardaïa , in a small village in the M'Zab valley. They belong to the extremely conservative Ibadi sect . Despite a strict adherence to the Qur'an and a very formalized social structure, we have found them to be warm and generous people. They respect our different faiths, and go to great lengths not to offend. We, as Christians, fall under the category of wuqūf, or people who are not believers, but are not viewed as sinners or destined for hell. Among themselves, they would be categorized as walāyah, which indicates true believers. We would never have walāyah status, but that doesn't mean we would be treated with any less regard. Indeed, we have been invited to the wedding of the youngest son Omar next year. It is very unlikely that we would be able to attend, but we will send a gift, probably something for their home.
In case you are wondering how we know them... My wife taught two of their boys english and she helped provide basic supplies for their tiny village school. Many families in the village cannot afford to provide simple things like pens, pencils and notebooks for their children. So, they do not send them to school. My wife raised enough money to provide them adequate supplies of these items. They tell us that enrollment has more than doubled this year. They send us lots of photos and forward letters from the children. In turn, my wife sends the school kids candy. In addition to the Algerian school, my wife also raised money for a small school in Morroco. We know a teacher there who struggles with getting enough money for the absolute basics. So, my wife manages to raise enough cash to provide much of the shortfall in materials and supplies required. While she never expects anything in return, these are a proud people and they will send tokens of thanks that she absolutely cannot turn down, lest she violate their strong cultural sense of obligation.
We also have friends in Egypt, who sent us some remarkable paintings done on papyrus.
My brother calls my wife a "one person State Department." Thinking about it, I believe that the State Dapartment could take a lesson from a middle-aged housewife.
By the way, most educated Muslims believe that the holocaust was real....
My regards,
Widewing
