Respect or bullyism?

Now I didn't really get up to speed on the prophet-cartoon issue until yesterday. That's what working on a Ph.D. (and spending all your time on weather.com, hoping and praying and begging and almost crying for snow) does to you. But I'm glad I finally did get up to speed on this, because it's a most interesting issue. And a somewhat frightening too.

I just read a lengthy discussion on my friend Stína's blog about the cartoons. Before I knew the word of it, I had posted a blog-size comment on her last post. Assuming that Stína won't sue me for copyright infringements, I'm reproducing (most of) the comment here:

"I am totally commited to the idea of respecting other people's beliefs and values, and I have to assume that the people around me are willing to do the same. I do not accept that fear for one's life for speaking one's mind is an unavoidable cost of living in such a society. I'm not talking about libel here. I'm talking about the right to utter your mind without having to fear for a mob to take your life.

Why did the editor of the "scum"-newspaper Jyllandsposten (btw, why did the "scum" ever enter the discussion here? You need an Order of Merit to be allowed to open your mouth in public?) post the cartoons in the first place? Bea says (and I can't get a link to the comment) it was to provoke. Wikipedia says it was in response to reports from a writer who couldn't get an artist to decorate a children book about the prophet. Now, why would a whole dozen of artists refuse an offer to decorate a book like that? For fear they might be killed by (am I allowed to call them?) extremists, for having depicted Mohammad. If this is correct, that Danish cartoon artists fear taking on an assignment to decorate a childrens' book for fear of being killed, then there is something seriously wrong.

Let's look at this from another angle. Let's think about... birth control. Is it right to have old, white, heterosexual right-wing Christian males decide for all the women in the United States, and further afield for that matter, whether they be educated about birth control use? We're talking about not offending someone's religious beliefs here. The Christian right believes that using birth control is a sin and is doing frighteningly well in imposing its view on women not only in the US, but also in African countries that need UN (i.e., US) assistance to deal with HIV. Treating African HIV spread with abstinence, because the funding agency has the power to impose its religious beliefs over the recipients of the aid? Give me a break here!

In my mind, the issue of the Danish cartoons and of birth control in the US and Africa are different sides of the same coin. Call it freedom of speech, call it freedom of religion, call it the freedom to maintain your convictions and dignity and not being bullied into giving them up."

In addition, I would like to put a link here to zombietime's collection of depictions of Mohammed through history. Looks like Jyllandsposten wasn't the first to publish drawings of the prophet at all. Scroll all the way down the page for some modern low-profile cartoons of Mohammed, but first make sure you read the intro at the top of the page.