Viva la Revolution!

Freedom of speech is only worth defending when the work in question is actually any good

Wow. What an interesting end to the week, what with all this crazy Muslim-guy business in Denmark, France and the rest of Europe.

Naturally, I was not happy about the cartoons. In fact, I was livid. So livid, in fact, that I had to italicise the word. In some ways, I am still angry, but it’s not the cartoons that offend me, it’s the intent of those people who support and published the cartoons.

Before going into that, why am I not offended about the cartoons? Quite simply, because they’re rubbish. I mean, they’re not even remotely clever enough to be funny as all good satire is supposed to be. They’re bad jokes. They’re David Brent jokes. If there’s any reason for the Muslim world to be angry about the cartoons, it’s because the cartoonist really didn’t put enough effort into his work. I mean, the least he could have done was create something a little more risqué and biting.

Even Salman Rushdie failed on this count. The Satanic Verses may have been blasphemous against Islam, but the only truly justifiable reason I can see for killing the guy is for writing a really rubbish book. I’ve read it, and I could not see why all the plaudits heaped upon it were applicable. It was appalling, in the same way a song by Keane, Muse and Coldplay is appalling. It was bad art. Really bad. It was like when Officer Barbrady read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and it put him off reading for good. I felt the same way after reading The Satanic Verses.

The only time I could actually say that someone succeeded in insulting Islam is when the late Theo Van Gogh went syphilitic-insane with his anti-Muslim tirades. Now, that guy made an effort. Mind you, he was a right-wing anti-Semite who said Jews should stop complaining about Auschwitz, so he obviously got some practice in insulting minorities. Make of that what you will.

But I digress. In reference to the cartoons: if anything, it was a wasted opportunity and Muslims should not be bothered about them.

However, this doesn’t solve the other issue. Namely, what was the intention behind printing these sub-par illustrations? Ask me, I’d say it was sensationalism mixed with a little racism. Never was it an issue of free speech. In France particularly, where anti-Muslim sentiment is rife, it can be argued that the publication of the illustrations was used to demonstrate how ‘superior’ democracy is compared to the supposedly dogmatic Islamic faith. It is very much the main crux of the secularist argument: “Hey sand-niggers, you live in our country; you abide by our freedom of speech rules, because we’re better than you and our way of life is better than yours.” I think the Enlightenment has gone to someone’s head.

I don’t think it’s fair to say that just because Christians tolerate being mocked, that Muslims should be as accepting. There are three problems with that argument.

Firstly, if the attack was made on Jews, or the Jewish faith, no one would dare say ‘lighten up’ even though the Jews are just as dedicated to their faith as the Christians and Muslims. Now, it may be because the Jews are a race as well as members of the same religion, but the essence of the argument is the same. The majority of Muslims in Europe are from the East, or their parents are. Very few people imagine a white man with a beard as a Muslim, unless Santa chooses to convert. So why should Muslims be any different to the Jews?

Second, Islam, though the second largest religion in Europe, teaches Muslims to respect the laws of those whose lands they inhabit. I don’t see why the Muslims should be the ones doing all the work here. We should meet in the middle, or you’ll find that further ammunition is being provided for those extremists recruiting new members. I can very easily imagine them saying “Brother, why do you obey the laws of these godless people when they trample upon your dear faith without reproach?”

It seems the secularists have inherited the colonial mindset from their forefathers, telling the bloody Pakis to stop worrying. The only problem is, we’re just as educated as our former sahibs, and we’re not standing for this crap anymore.

Third, don’t you get the feeling that maybe, just maybe, Christians and Muslims are two entirely different people with different mindsets? It’s called diversity and it means that no two people are ever the same. Just because you think it’s OK to bully and cajole one group of people and the values that are dear to them, doesn’t mean you can try that act on another group of people. Especially a group of people willing to sacrifice their own parents, children and spouses if that is what their faith demands. In Islam, the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is the Best of All Creation. There has never been a man more principled either before or after his time. Nor has there been a man more forgiving of his enemies. If you don’t believe me, I encourage you to pick up a biography about him. Any will do. So, to think that by insulting him, you’re just treating us to the same party, you’re very badly mistaken.

The only thing I can devise from this is that either the publishers had no idea of the repercussions of producing such crap and thought people would be OK with it, or they did know and thought it would make good money. I am going with the latter, based on my pessimistic view of secularists who think they know better than everyone else. Irrespective, the cartoons are just terribly done and those who defend such material are like people who say “James Cameron’s Titanic is a work of art.” In other words: idiots.