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Monday, February 06, 2006

Open letter to the crazy guys who burned that embassy and their pals

Cartoons? Come ON people!

Okay, I get it, you guys don’t like having your prophet portrayed in artistic works, and it was probably particularly offensive to have him represented as a terrorist. That sucks. I would probably be pissed off too.

But to go on the rampage over it? Jeeze people. Get a grip. So some idiot thought it would be funny to draw a silly picture (badly, I might add.) And some other idiot thought it would be funny to print that picture. So what? We all know they’re idiots… their actions prove that. But unfortunately being an idiot isn’t a crime. And as long as idiots walk this Earth they have a fundamental right to say whatever idiotic things pop into their heads… provided what they say doesn’t imply the threat of violence towards or discrimination against other people.

While I’ll admit these idiotic cartoons do teeter on that line, the legitimate authorities (who may or may not also be idiots) have ruled that they are on the safe side of the line.

Sure, you guys have every right to be upset about the cartoons. They’re offensive. So complain to those authorities, make a stink about it, get people thinking and talking about how they should be more sensitive to other people’s religious beliefs. Burning down embassies and missions and trashing Christian neighborhoods is not a good way of doing that. All you’re accomplishing by that is proving the point that idiotic cartoonist was trying to make in the first place. Don’t you see that?

Perhaps idiocy isn’t limited to just one side of this issue.

But why are these cartoons causing such a fuss? It’s not as if no-one in the mass media has ever made fun of a religious figure before.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of the South Park animated series, are seasoned bashers of religions. They have depicted and made fun of figures from Christianity, Mormonism, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Scientology and Islam too. Where were the protests when South Park showed Jesus having a magic contest with David Blain? Where were the embassy burnings when they called Joseph Smith and his followers “dumb”? And why didn’t you guys riot when they showed the Prophet as a fire-wielding super-hero?

I don’t buy it. You guys are making much too big a deal about this. I think you’re overreacting, and you’re being unreasonable. Proving a point is one thing, you’ve done that already. But this must stop.

Just knock it off now, okay? We get it.

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