maskofdeception

Imagine this,
you wake up one morning and decide to turn on the TV. With no good shows on early in the morn, you decide to flip to CNN.
Surprisingly, you find out that the headline of the morning is about,
1. a riot (woo hoo, another one! yes, and the world just can’t get enough of it!)
2. of muslim protestors (oh no… must it be the muslims?)
3. protesting against a cartoon contraversy (what, it’s just cartoons-)
4. displaying an crude image of the prophet muhammad (WHATTTTTTTT?!!?!?!?!?!)

yes, it is the danish cartoon contraversy i am talking about.

now there are three ways to see this problem:
1. seeing it from a muslim’s p.o.v: this is a rude act as the muslims have never shown an image of the prophet muhammad, moreover in a disrespectful way.
2. seeing it from the danish p.o.v: the "freedome of speech/media" that the westerners are so darn proud about.
3. seeing it from the middle point: the muslims will find this offensive. the danish see it as freedom of media. the way i see it? A WHOLE BIG MISUNDERSTANDING.

see? this is where intercultural communication kicks in. Now I praise the lord for all the trompenaar-hampden turner and hofstede videotapes, pages of "riding the cultural waves" and "software of the mind", EPIC seminars and multicultural endeavours that i had to endure. Now i get it… so this was what they were talking about in chapter blabla about the use of intercultural communication! multicultural misunderstandings can lead to gigantic and dangerous conflicts. like, the riots in Beirut/Damascus for instance.

I guess the P.O.V that best suits mine is P.O.V #3. I am, as they call it, a liberal muslim. Yes, I believe in my religion. But no, I do not believe in the extreme-ist behaviour that some muslims are carrying upon. Take this case for an example, yes, I do believe that these caricatures exhibit a lack of respect for the islamic religion. But why, (i repeat), why, must we (once again) use violence to express our outbursts and condemn-ment? (yes people, i know that condemn-ment is not a real word)

the protests and riots that exploded in the Danish embassy and consulates all over the world makes me feel…. ashamed. yes, you did read correctly, i did say ashamed. The muslim image worldwide has already been tainted with violence and terrorists, and these acts just add up. and what’s this now? a reposting of anti-semitic political cartoons to fight back? a childish act. why don’t we sit down, call in our best diplomats and negotiators, and settle it down like adults.

I am pleased to see that members of an Islamic society in Saudi Arabia had taken this matter seriously and taken upon a more discreet way of protest- by meeting with Danish officials. See? Why can’t we just take a calm approach the way they did?

As the Afghan president Hamid Karzai had said, and I quote, "Islam teaches forgiveness" (VOA).

I think that if we act upon a matter like this with a cool and open-minded demeanour, we shall settle things without any bloodshed, and, we can, (get this)…. we can also dignify our images as the once terrifying and violent people to the forgiving and levelheaded people who are also so nice and kind…

peace. that’s all I want. Oh, most of the world wants that too. xP

Hmm, and one more thing to add before I end my own form of freedom of speech;

the danish government do not have any power over those publications. One person’s view may be different from the others. Just because one (or more) danish people had created despicable caricatures like those, does not mean all of them think the same.
furthurmore, just because a number of muslim groups have used violence as their way to express their feelings, does NOT mean we are all terrorists.

everybody is  their own different individual, their thoughts and personalities will mirrorize the attitudes and values that they have received throughout their lives from their numerous experiences.

signing off,
kem

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 5th, 2006 at 1:42 pm and is filed under Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.