No One Wants the Roundabout Dog
The Secular Muslim group SEMUS that I wrote about in a previous post have now backed off and decided not to publish Vilks’ Mohammad caricatures after all. The reason was that he also drew a caricature of a jew, after having been provoked by a journalist who claimed he would never dare to insult jews like he insults muslims. SEMUS are apparently afraid of legal consequences of publishing anti-semitic material. That reasoning would be fine, if anyone had at any point suggested they do such a thing. The jew caricature had nothing to do with the set of Mohammad drawings and were not to be part of any exhibition.
Meanwhile an Iranian top diplomat suggested that there’s a grand conspiracy behind publishing these drawings, a conspiracy designed to ruin the relations between Sweden and Iran. The Iranian president then decided it’s obviously the Zionists that are behind the whole thing.
Good lord, this is depressing.
The one interesting thing that’s come out of this mess for me personally is that I’ve been thinking about this Swedish word: “kränka” (v.), “kränkt” (adj.) and “kränkning” (n.). I’ve come to realise there’s no English equivalent that really corresponds. Despite the fact that English has a much larger vocabulary than Swedish, there are a few important concepts missing.
The verb “kränka” can mean violate, infringe or transgress. The way it’s most commonly used in Sweden, however, it means something more on the lines of insult, offend, hurt or outrage. And the way it’s bandied about in all worldview-related debate these days, you’d think that people have nothing to do other than feeling offended. Muslims are “kränkta” by Mohammad caricatures. Christians are “kränkta” by photos of Jesus in a homosexual context.
Moreover, the moment Humanists such as myself pipe up with claims like “children shouldn’t be forced to go to church on the final day of school” (as is often the case in Sweden, as many schools don’t have proper auditoriums to gather in) or “hotels, unless they have a christian profile, shouldn’t promote christianity before other religions by allowing gideon bibles”, christians will counter with “oh dear, the poor Humanists feel “kränkta” by a harmless end-of-school ceremony and a bible in a drawer, what next, will they want to change the Swedish flag because it displays a crucifix?”
Well, no. And as far as I’m aware, no Humanist ever used the word “kränkt” about themselves in this context. We tend to be a lot sturdier than that. In fact, the only people who seem to use the word are those who think that religion and religious practices should be awarded some special kind of respect in society.
I, of course, do not respect religion. I respect people’s right to think and believe whatever they want. But there’s no obligation for anyone to respect other people’s actual opinions. If someone feels “kränkt” by a drawing or something equally inane, well, that’s their right - and their problem.