hate vs. hate

[firecat]

An American Muslim cartoonist discusses the fallout from "Draw Muhammad Day". She makes a lot of good points and I had trouble deciding which bit to quote.

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2010/07/by_g_willow_wilson_when.html

As a Muslim in the comics industry I spend more time than is good for my mental health defending the art and the religion I love from each other. Events like the fallout from Draw Muhammad Day make me think I'm wasting my time--the hate runs too deep on both sides. My conscience won't let me support the criminalizing of art, but neither will it let me support a parade of cartoons depicting lurid, racist stereotypes of Arab men and passing them off as satire of a holy figure.

Comments

[yifu]

Thanks for linking to this.

"What Norris failed to understand is that by creating events like "Draw Muhammad Day", artists hurl rhetorical stones that go straight through their enemies and hit Muslims like me."

Exactly. Too many people use occasions like this to keep painting Muslims with the same brush and reaffirm preconceptions.

[trixtah]

Nice find.

I also get irritated by some of the rank hypocrisy as well - there are still plenty of instances of Christians complaining bitterly about depictions of holy figures in their belief system: http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/wellington/2313572/Sex-shops-vision-of-ecstasy-angers-church

And yet still no orchestrated campaign to encourage Christians to "get over" their quaint ideas in that sense.

[supergee]

It's Heinlein's three-monkeys parable: Terrorists kill & bomb to prevent pictures of Muhammad, and those who are terrorized pass the terror on to innocent Muslims. I do think that part of the punishment when the original terrorists are apprehended should be having to look at pictures representing Muhammad killing people, attempting to masturbate a 1-inch penis, etc.

[jae]

Wow, very interesting.

-J

[demonspawnmom.livejournal.com]

Beautifully written - thank you for sharing!