Flexible ethics
On Thursday, a friend mailed a gag to an office-wide email list, which went something like this:
I bought a teddy bear for ?10. I named him Muhammad, and sold him for ?20. My question is, have I made a prophet?
Responses included comments questioning how a man of his intelligence (he’s a very, very clever guy, and one of the quickest comedians I’ve seen) could find such a thing funny. I’m not sure if I’m surprised or not, but he was made to send an official apology out afterwards. This upsets me, because it is my strong opinion that if people are of that much intelligence, then they should realise that free speech and the ability to laugh are far more important than what you call a fucking teddy bear.
I believe that you should respect a person regardless of their culture and race, and I believe that you should try and be good to people at all times, but I’m not sure where I stand on respecting religions. I used to mix them in with race, and I still defend Islam vehemently when I hear ridiculous statements about it from Christians or Zionists, but in the same way that I don’t respect the parts of Christianity that teach blind obedience in the face of logical decisions, I’m not sure that I do, or should, respect elements of Islam that wish to lock people in a Sudanese prison for making a naive mistake naming a teddy bear.
Oh, and in case this didn’t make the news in the US, you can find the news in this article.
I’m interested in people’s thoughts. In a mischievous and possible unwise bout of curiosity, I sent the above joke out (as if from me, rather than as a forward) to my small office address book after the shit hit the fan. I didn’t receive a single reply, which is, err, not normal thank you very much. My guess is that people were probably insulted, but what I wanted was responses and to understand why. I certainly don’t have all the answers on this one. Dear all knowing blog-brain, enlighten me?
I can only speak for over here in the U.S.
I know that for a lot of people in this country Islam as a religion and the various races in the Middle East are inseparable. So any jab at Islam isn’t seen as a comment on the religion and the intolerant aspects of that religion, but more as a racial slur.
People get very, very careful and very, very uncomfortable if they think that racism is involved. I’m guessing that at least some of the reaction you’re seeing is along those lines.
It would explain why your friend was forced to issue an apology as well.
Yuh, that’s fair enough. I guess that makes the comment about his intelligence ironically inaccurate, as it is his intelligence that lets him seperate the religious crazy from the people, and laugh at it as such.
I’m torn on this one. Here’s why: I think we should be open-minded about all things. As a Catholic, I’ve been called variously an idol-worshiper/pagan. Neither are true, but I can see where these criticisms of my faith come from. The knee-jerk reaction with anything pertaining to Islam is just too low-hanging a fruit for people to just leave. SO, I say “lighten up.”
BUT, there are mitigating factors here. One of the seminars my husband went to was on “world religions” where they had a local Imam talk about Judaism, Christianity and Islam. He made a chart to show how the religions rank obedience, love and social justice. Christianity ranked Love, social justice then obedience. Judaism social justice, obedience then love. Islam obedience, social justice then love.
Now, it may be over-simplified, but in Islam obedience to the will of God is primary. Always. I really think they think that God will blame them for standing by idly while others smear God’s or his one true prophet’s name.
Real life in the US is that the local Muslims are pretty easy going. We live in a heavily Islam neighborhood due to our proximity to the Mosque. The Imam’s property is next to ours. Last winter, one of our other neighbors joked that he had to leave early for the airport and be SURE not to go to the bathroom while waiting for his flight home to Pakistan. With his wife and three children… But he joked that he will be the person “randomly” selected for search and takes it as a fact of life.
Are some Muslims too tense? Yes. BUT, I think the vast majority just want to live their lives in peace.