Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Religion Is Starting To Get Interesting

Must say that I was a bit non-plussed about the furore surrounding Muslims getting upset about pictures of Mohammmed lampooned in cartoons. I guess if I was Muslim though I would be quite offended by them. Being an atheist I don't have to worry about my religion having the piss taken out of it.

A valid point was made by Tim Blair on Triple J last night when he asked why, after having been initially published in September, have Muslims taken so long to take offence to it? Granted, it is in poor taste and I can see that they have reason to be upset but not to the extent that it was been taken so far. Protest is one thing but destruction of property is another.

This morning on the radio I heard that an Iranian newspaper was showing that it had an editorial sense of humour. My words, not those of the news. They are running a competition for cartoons of the Jewish Holocaust. Christianity didn't rate a mention, apparently. I didn't think that Iranians were all that well known for their sense of humour. Gold coins will be awarded as prizes. Let's see what the Israelis can come up with as they have deeper pockets than the Iranians.

Austen Tayshus, world famous Aussie comedian, said years ago that if Jesus had been executed by electric chair then the Christians would be known as Electricians. I'm glad it isn't the case as I am an electrician. I don't see him having had his property destroyed by angry mobs. Get a grip people.

Race and religion can have a bit of fun poked at them, in my book, but vilification is not on. Are we talking about vilification or plain bad taste?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dunno where I have been, but I have not seen any of the offending cartoons.

Anonymous said...

Any opportunity to destroy and burn will be taken by some, like in France last year, now in various places.

How can people who believe their religion to be true be so unsecured and violent? They want to shut everyone up, like China wants to shut up or censor any hostile idea.

We are in the 21 century but we are still in the middle ages.

Hammy said...

Ma - the cartoons have only been published by one newspaper in Australia.

Anon - true. Any excuse for some violence. Definitely extremists and not true believers. More interaction between government and religion are going to take place.

Anonymous said...

If the god of the prophet was offended by the cartoons, and he has not struck down the cartoonist himself, either he has no will to do violence or is unable to do violence to the cartoonist himself. So why should his followers pick up to do violence in his stead? They would be acting against the will of their god or acting in the behalf of a god that has no real power.

Give this a thought.

Anonymous said...

Meh, Jesus has been a regular on Southpark for ages, and it took God himself to explain to Cartman why he didn't bleed out of his anus like all the girls...
I don't see any riots resulting from that... Bottom line is religion, like anything else, can be taken the piss out of.