More Cartoon Madness: Hypocrisy?

From my comments on SDA:



Now I know a lot of you support the decision of Denmark's Jyllands-Posten to publish the Mohammed cartoons. I do too. Because of this, we are being criticized by many who see this as evidence of crass hypocrisy on our part.



I can see why some people would think this; but there is a very important difference that shouldn't be overlooked here: many of the Danish cartoons were innocuous. They were also printed to prove a point: you shouldn't be afraid for your life to draw a cartoon in a free and open western democracy (Y!PH [the Sheaf cartoonist] take note, these people stood up for your rights by doing what they did).



The cartoons from The Muse and The Sheaf have no such underlying goals. The only purpose of both cartoons is for the cartoonists to smugly congratulate like-minded individuals on their supposed "moral superiority" to Christians. I'm not going to comment on who's got the moral high ground here. That's not my intent. These cartoons were designed specifically to offend. As I've noted before on my blog, offending to make a valid point is one thing, but offending just for the sake of offending is quite another.



I can completely see why Muslims have gotten upset over two of the real cartoons Jyllands-Posten printed (as opposed to the faked ones designed to stir up mobs in the Middle East). And to be honest, I can sympathize with Muslims here. I get annoyed when people criticize my religion, even if they are making a valid point in doing so. I understand where moderate Muslims are coming from. What some people are missing is this: conservative bloggers aren't supporting Jyllands-Posten because they hate Islam. They're supporting Jyllands-Posten because of the violent reaction to the cartoons in the middle east (and yes, for the most part we're quite aware this has much to do with the politics of the region. Islam is simply the justification used by these rioters). There is no hypocrisy on the part of conservative bloggers when it comes to this issue - we support freedom of speech in the face of oppression and violence, but by and large we do not condone the random slurring of the religious beliefs of one billion people. And neither should The Muse or The Sheaf when it comes to Christianity. It's all about respect.