Everybody Draw Mohammed Day Is Spiteful, Pathetic And Prejudiced
MOLLY Norris has decreed that May 20th 2010 is Everybody Draw Mohammed Day. It’s a response to the South Park episode that put Mohammed in a bear suit – you can read about it here – and got a few shadowy Muslims upset.
We love freedom of speech – so long as it, er, doesn’t offend anyone. But if you say someone has, say, bad hair, they just need to know. It’s not offensive – it’s just imparting valuable information. It’s helping. It’s British.
The likes of Glenn Reynolds, HotAir.com, Dan Savage and Reason magazine back the plan. But they are wrong to, unless their aim is to offend.
The notion of creating a special day to cause deliberate offence to all Muslims is abhorrent. If you want to satirise the extremists, do so. Go for Revolutionmuslim.com, the mealy-mouthed group that warned of terrible consequences should the episode go aired uncensored.
And look beyond the Muslims in the story. Look at the person. Look at the nutcase who needs religion to legitimise their lunacy; the fool who wants to be special – wants to be noticed; look at the man with his god on his sleeve.
It’s our right to be offended. But to cause offence without humour nor humility is just spiteful. Anorak cannt tbelieve that was Molly Norris’s intention… As she says:
I make cartoons about current, cultural events. I made a cartoon of a fictional ’poster’ entitled “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” with a nonexistent group’s name — Citizens Against Citizens Against Humor — drawn on the cartoon. It was in specific response to the recent censoring of a South Park episode, a desire to bring home the importance of the first amendment. I did not intend for my cartoon to go viral. I did not intend to be the focus of any ’group’. This particular cartoon has struck a gigantic nerve, something I was totally unprepared for.
Personally I can feel afraid of Muslims because I really have no idea if in their hearts they hate non-Muslims. There are so many interpretations of the religion that I hear told — sometimes it is a very extreme translation (that’s the scary part, the radicals that believe that Westerners should die), then at other times it sounds more peaceful.
I hope for the sake of this country that moderate Muslims will speak out with everyone else against any violent members of that or any other religion. That way I would know that there is a difference. Maybe this cartoon I made, this fictional poster of “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” had such a wildfire effect because it is finally time for Muslims and non-Muslims to understand one another more.
I am going back to the drawing table now!
Thanks,
Molly
Posted: 27th, April 2010 | In: Reviews Comments (33) | TrackBack | Permalink
