[Buddha-l] Buddhism and Blasphemy

[Whitney Bodman]

I gather that the reason for the extra cartoons is that these were
hate-mail that Danish clerics had received.
I think the ME response was mostly triggered by the lack of Danish
response to Muslim concerns.  They refused to meet delegations of
Muslims who traveled to Denmark to make their objections known.  The
Danish snub probably reflected local politics, and the riots in Lebanon,
Syria and Gaza reflect the local issues there.  This is all not really
about the cartoons, but about Iraq, Abu Ghraib, Hamas-Fatah rivalry,
Christian-Muslim tensions in Lebanon and a host of other issues.
This reminds me (intended tie-in) about the discussion on this site of a
bikini with Buddha images, one right over the crotch.  Some were hurt by
this, or offended.  Others saw this as an opportunity to be reminded of
essential Buddhist teachings of non-attachment, but there were no
political ramifications.
What I am wondering is if, In Buddhist history, there have been times
when high political tensions have erupted in similar ways over issues of
blasphemy.

Blessings,
Whit

Whitney S. Bodman
Ass't Professor of Comparative Religion
Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
100 E. 27th St.
Austin, TX  78705
512 404-4835 (o)
512 289-3205 (c)

-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen Hodge [mailto:s.hodge at padmacholing.freeserve.co.uk] 
Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2006 2:10 PM
To: Buddhist discussion forum
Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] Buddhism and Blasphemy

Joy Vriens wrote:

>  a rough way to say that their religion is manipulated by some for
>  political reasons (e.g. the Syrian government is being accused of
>  organizing some of the riots).
Actually, in my opinion the 12 Danish cartoons were fairly innocuous and
not 
even very funny.  But nobody here seems to have picked up on the fact
that a 
group of Denmark-based inams took a portfolio of 15 cartoons to the
Middle 
East.  The extra three cartoons are much more inflammatory and it is has

been suggested that it was actually these that initially triggered the
ME 
response.  Now why would these imans have, presumably knowingly, taken
the 
extra three cartoons with them ?

Best wishes,
Stephen Hodge