I am sympathetic towards Muslims who feel that any visual representation of Mohammad is considered an abomination. I also understand how offensive it can be when mainstream media marginalizes or even mocks the significance of a religious figure - the recent image of Kanye West as Jesus on the cover of Rolling Stone comes to mind (as a sidebar, as La Shawn Barber points out, could Kanye have gotten away with posing as Mohammad on the cover?).
A thoughtful Muslim, Imran Anwar, provides us with his take on the cartoon situation:
“Would all these “fair and balanced” media and papers publish cartoons (in the name of free speech) showing Prophet Jesus Christ as a big Homosexual telling his apostles and followers to become Christian priests and rape little boys in Church? After all, this is a constant “current events” topic, especially in America and who knows in how many other countries, where the church is consantly hiding and protecting abusive priests who molest children.”
Imran brings up an interesting point. What we’re talking about is disparaging a religious figure, and certainly Jesus has gotten his share. Movies like “The Life of Brian” and “The Last Temptation of Christ” are only the tip of the iceberg, but had a cartoon shown Jesus raping a child, I’m sure the Catholic Church, and all Christians, would be rightfully up in arms.
The difference, however, is that some Muslims make matters worse by proving that there’s an element of truth to the images aligning mainstream Muslims with violent and uncivilized behavior. Don’t you find it ironic that a cartoon aligning violence with Muslims then spurs on violence? Now Denmark has issued a warning to its citizens against traveling to 14 Muslim nations for fear of violence.
It seems that the truth hurts, even if the truth is utterly offensive. Although adolescent in nature, at least Iran has responded in a nonviolent manner.