They Really Don’t Get It
Lars Vilks has received the dubious honour of being caricatured by an Egyptian artist (hat tip to Allotetraploid). He has, as was to be expected, responded by praising the drawings and asking for more. The artist in question, one Ashraf Hamdi, seems to get increasingly frustrated with Vilks’ refusal to act insulted. In a response to a comment, Hamdi says:
just wanna Mr. lars to know that we have cartoonist able to draw too using the same terms. wanna him to feel HIS TERMS about FREEDOM of EXPRESSION .
Umm… ok? Vilks, like the rest of us up here in this godforsaken country, has grown up with freedom of expression. He knows what it means. It’s not going to offend him.
If you think there are things in this world that absolutely may not be insulted in any way, you’re not going to last long in the modern world. That’s the whole problem with many people’s religious views: They assume some things are holy, and they expect the rest of the world to care. Which obviously isn’t going to happen.
What’s worse, there appears to be a fair number of secularists who actually think we should entertain these ideas and refrain from wounding people’s feelings. Instead we should strike up a dialogue, show respect and tolerance. Sure, those are (arguably) nice sentiments. The problem is that the kind of people who honestly think that drawing caricatures (or indeed any pictures) of Mohammed should be forbidden won’t ever listen to your carefully phrased, non-offensive dialogue. They have made up their minds about what’s holy.
The people who are open to dialogue are not the ones who protest against blasphemy.
lars vilks, mohammad caricature, islam, freedom of expression, freedom of speech
I think that you are correct — it is time to stop being polite.
I took a look at the cartoonists ‘work’. He is one sick puppy. Perhaps Freud was correct about the negative impact of sexual frustration.
Comment by sechuam — Wednesday, October 3, 2007 @ 17:53
Personally I find Hamdi’s Vilks caricatures infantile. The inability to understand that Vilks won’t be offended is childish in itself, and the drawings really don’t help at all. But of course, I tend to prefer dry wit and satire rather than the sort of vulgar stuff this guy’s drawing. The art’s pretty good though.
Comment by Felicia Gilljam — Wednesday, October 3, 2007 @ 21:23
‘Infantile’ sums it up perfectly. I thought that the content and art work resembled something that a pubescent teen might have drawn. Like you, I prefer more subtle humor.
Comment by sechuam — Thursday, October 4, 2007 @ 04:19
Maybe we’re not getting any further by bangin’ our heads trying to understand why they burn our flags because of some cartoons/pictures.
When understanding i so far away i tend to think that the matter in question is about something else, really:
The flagburners are mad at the western world, in general.
Maybe we could try untangling all their fears, hatred and disappointment with us by simply asking them, question, by question:
“At what point did you start to be angry? When was that? At a certain war? Another war? A battle? Market injustice”
I know i’m naïve, but in the long run, it will not be solved until we examine the anger issues and answer them as best we can.
Comment by Enkla Z — Friday, October 5, 2007 @ 12:06
Nice post Furiku. I think you get at the essence of the point which is really not very complicated…
Comment by Anders Rasmussen — Monday, October 8, 2007 @ 20:43
I can only agree. It is an odd idea in the religious mind that their own irrational faith should somehow be excluded from criticism.
Comment by Anders Gardebring — Tuesday, October 9, 2007 @ 14:23
Anders; From a memetic perspective, it’s not really odd at all. An idea that carries with it the assumption of infallibility is obviously a lot more likely to pervail in the mind of its carrier than an idea that allows itself to be scrutinised. Many people lose their faith because they start employing reason, and religions recognise this - hence their holy books will tell you not to use your intellect. The moment islam truly opens up and allows itself to be picked apart by reason is the moment it dies. Same with all other religions.
Comment by Felicia Gilljam — Tuesday, October 9, 2007 @ 14:38