Mind
The Only Place Where You Can Read My Thoughts!
Friday, February 03, 2006
The other side …

Apparently; the heated arguments that we have witnessed on our blogs the past couple of weeks, are not close enough to what has been going on around the global blogosphere. What we have been seeing and/or reading urged me to take a virtual journey around the globe and read for myself what the other side had to say …

Needless to say, the anger and rage was not limited to Muslims only; and they are not all on the same side, trust me when I tell you this. 

Some were just angry that the Muslims got angry, claiming that there are evident contradictions and clear double standard, as how can Islam be a religion of peace and tolerate terrorism or at some extreme point, promote it.

Quoting one of the bloggers: "The followers of Islam say, "Islam is a peaceful religion". But when commenting on the Danish cartoons, they say, "Death to the cartoonist, death to the newspaper, death to the editors, death to Denmark". So much for peaceful." Read more …

Some felt that this is a sort of a payback for something and found it to be an opportunity to deliver a message: "My heart is bursting with an expression of agreement with the cartoon, shouting a big "Yeah!" in reaction against terrorism, and those who fund it, and those who defend it, and those who complicitly avoid talking about it or doing anything about it." Read more …

Some thought that this incident should be a lesson that we all must learn from: "The Great Muhammad Cartoon Scandal has been very educational. One thing it has taught me is that many, many Muslims around the world simply don't have any real understanding of Western culture or the Western mindset.

Many Muslims don't seem to understand that the angrier they get the more we want to continue creating and spreading cartoons. If they laughed at them or ignored them then the 12 original cartoons would have been restricted to Denmark where a few readers of one newspaper would have seen them. Now that protests and riots have spread around the globe the offending cartoons have been reprinted in most European countries and are on countless Internet sites, where they will be available forever.

The effect of their anger has been to spread the images they are angry about. Countless millions have seen what they didn't want anyone to see."

And he adds: "This scandal has driven another nail into the coffin of the myth of the "Moderate Muslim." For years we have been told that most Muslims do not support the fanatics, that the terrorists have "hijacked Islam." So where are these moderate Muslims? They are harder to find than Bigfoot. In fairness I had one Muslim commenter who did not like my cartoons but said he supported my right to post them. But that's one guy." Read more …
 

Another expressed that he was touched by a picture of Muslims praying peacefully more than all the rage expressed by the majorities, and I guess a picture is really worth a thousand words, check what he had to say:



"This one picture of a Muslims in Denmark, gathering to pray, this one touched me more than the ones of screaming, livid Muslims in Palestine. There are so few of them, quiet, and just praying calmly in a public terrace. The angry ones are home, and angry amongst angry buddies.

I wonder how these guys feel." Read more …

I really wanted us to take a deeper look at what the other side is thinking and expressing. Some of the blogs and comments were very hateful that I could not allow myself to quote them.  Read here to get a clearer idea of what I mean(*).

This makes me really wonder; isn't the way we deliver the message is as important as the message itself? Sometimes delivering the right message using the wrong method defeats the purpose and kills the initiative.

Effective communication takes place when the message delivered is exactly equal to the message received, and right now, we need to resort to wisdom and give rage some time off. This is really getting out of control and at some point we have to draw the line.

So when will this end? What would be enough? How long will it take to understand that the whole issue was driven out of proportion? What does it take to make it stop and for the whole world to move on?

Frankly, I wouldn't have heard about these cartoons if they were not turned into such a big deal by those who are mostly against them; us, and millions of people around the world were just like me, so what did we gain by spreading them and the debates about them? You tell me!!

(*) Please note that the post here was very unbiased and not offensive to any party in this dispute, however; some of the comments were of an offensive and hateful nature and that is what I was referring to.
I am obliged to bring this to your attention as part of my blogging integrity :)

Thank you Chad for bringing this to my attention and I apologize for the misrepresentation.

 


posted by Khalidah, in Around the World @ 3:08 PM, , (9) comments
On February, 03, 2006 3:32 PM , Me (the thankful one...) said:

To see the reaction around the world on the news this morning, the somewhat violent looking protests, especially in indonesia is kind of scary. It's as though all the built up anger over many things is all being "exploded" towards the illustrations from Denmark. Kind of like, it's really a bigger issue than just the illustrations, you know what I mean? This appears to me that it's going to cause an even bigger rift between the EU and ME. Sigh. Sometimes it's best to take your mom's advice, like when she tells you to ignore someone at school who is the bully or taunting you, because when you react, you're doing what they wanted you to do. Does that make sense? So in a sense, the illustrations from Denmark are showing the "bad" side of Islam and here you have the protests, outrage and even some really horrible behavior happening now -- and the Danish are all now probably thinking "see we told you" Now this is totally my opinion, so don't hold it against me - okay? promise? :) Just from what I've seen and heard it seems that this has been blown out of proportion. Yes, the illustrators are wrong, but how far will this go?

On February, 03, 2006 6:02 PM , Fadi K said:

True .. Thank you for this , you've just said what i wanted to say

smart ya 3ame :P)

On February, 03, 2006 6:23 PM , Batir Wardam said:

I do not like the angry and provocative responses by the Muslims targeting the nation of Denmark and the danish people. However I strongly encourage any response against the right-wing and anti-islamist movements across Europe. This is our right to defend our values. I am not a religious guy, but I do respect the culture of the west as much as I respect the culture of the Bushmen in Africa and Latin America, and I expect others to respect my culture and value. What really annoys me is that whenever an article or any media product in Europe criticises the state of Israel it turns out to be an anti-semite act that draws the condemnation of all people. Why attacking muslim values is considered a "freedom of speech". I hate such double standards.

On February, 04, 2006 6:15 AM , kozo said:

people what is the matter with you, do you realise what you are saying, this is prophet mohammad 3alaih al saltu wal salam you are talking about, if we are not going to be angry now so when will we.
And for the "wise" person who is talking about effective communication if this message isn't outrageous enough for you it is for many other people, and they are using the exact logic you are referring to "equal response"

On February, 04, 2006 8:47 AM , Ramroom said:

Amazing Post Khalidah...

Our messages are always sent to others the WRONG way, which makes them stronger all the time. Impulsive we are and would just love to shout before event thinking! They knew we were going to show the uncivilized part of us and start shouting and wanting to KILL etc etc... That's exactly how they picture us and that exactly how we prove them right! Sad but true!

On February, 04, 2006 6:20 PM , Khalidah said:

Me, the world has gone crazy ha ..

Fadi, call it telepathy then :D

Batir, I understand where you are coming from but something tells me that there is more to this fiasco than meets the eye, and we are doing exactly what they expected we would .. we are acting on an impulse, not digging deeper to get to the bottom of it .. Alas!!

Kozo, thank you for your comment and for visiting my blog ..
Please do not misunderstand what I am trying to say here ... no one is saying that we should not be offended by the silly cartoons, we are and we all should .. but the way we reacted is only proving them right and giving them exactly what they wanted .. they have successfully distracted our attention from so many things taking place in this world .. just don't react without thinking .. take a deep breath and look around .. maybe you will figure out who gains the most by what is happening ..

Ramroom, thank you for understanding what I am trying to say .. :D

On February, 05, 2006 5:10 PM , Issam said:

Khalidah, this is an excellent post. You captured the argument from the different parties that directly involve in this conflict.

On February, 05, 2006 5:21 PM , Khalidah said:

Thank you Issam for your comment .. unfortunately, JP citizens overlooked this post in the midst of the many others so it kind of got lost ..
I had to repost it because of the note at the end as I was contacted by the blogger I referred to .. he wanted a clarification of what I meant when I said:"Some of the blogs and comments were very hateful that I could not allow myself to quote them" because this was referring to the comments and not to the post itself .. so I had to clarify ..

Thank you again

On February, 12, 2006 12:54 PM , Cheesemeister said:

I think that in the end the Muslims praying peacefully in Denmark will make the difference. The ones retaliating with violence will only make certain people say "see? They really are violent!" I hope for more of the peaceful people showing those who made the cartoons and others who think like this how wrong they are.
Peace.