[Buddha-l] Buddhism and blasphemy

[Dan Lusthaus]

A propos the cartoon controversy, if you haven't seen the actual drawings at
issue, try

http://www.michellemalkin.com/archives/004413.htm

There is also a link there to another site which displays traditional images
of Muhammed PBUH (debunking the claim that Islam has ever forbidden artistic
representations of the Prophet).

If you look at the cartoons, you will discover that many are quite creative
and clever, most are innocuous, a couple point out that Muslims are overly
prone to respond violently to perceived offenses, and only a small
percentage contain anything remotely provocative in content.

Of the latter, one depicts Muhammed PBUH with a turban shaped like a round
black bomb with a lit fuse. That is the most provocative, and given the
Islamic world's response to these cartoons, quite on target.

The next most provocative, depicts an Arab man (not explicitly identified as
the Prophet) flanked by two women who are entirely covered in black robes,
except for the open strip over their eyes. The man, in contrast, has a black
bar (same size as the missing strip) covering his eyes, as if blind. He is
also brandishing a large blade. You decide for yourself on this one.

The only other cartoon that appears even minimally provocative -- and if
THIS is provocative, that's an even BIGGER problem -- has someone,
ostensibly the Prophet, standing on a cloud in Paradise toward which a
string of frazzled suicide bombers are advancing. He says to them: "Stop,
Stop, we ran out of virgins." Some of us might even prefer THIS Prophet to
the one imagined by those who find this offensive.

If Europeans would like to be as obsolete in Europe as Buddhists are in
India, then follow Buddhist moralistic advice. You will die from the same
disease.

Richard extols freedom of speech. The question remains, how much -- or how
little -- intimidation is required to have people voluntarily relinquish it?

(more glum than Richard's closing),
Dan Lusthaus