I participated in the Draw Muhammad Day, and I think it served useful purposes. The obvious one, that of defying religious zealotry, but another was standing in solidarity with a secular student group here in Madison who saw their own drawing-based protests interfered with, and their academic freedom challenged, for daring to draw a series of chalk stick figures.
Yes, it is childish. It's a childish world we live in. Nevertheless, as Myers pointed out, it's a humorous and non-violent protest of the very real threat of violent theocracy. As you point out, this isn't limited to Islam; in my own life I've suffered far, far more at the hands of Evangelical Christians.
I accept your challenge, Prof. Cole, and I'll immediately put the same complete lack of care and talent I did challenging theocratic members of the Islamic into offending a wide variety of theocratic groups with bad stick figure drawings.
As promised, I completed the challenge, for the most part, to draw cartoons offensive to zealots from other religions.
The badly drawn results can be seen at http://jsears.xidus.net/blog/?p=867
Actually, no, your right to free speech does not end when you 'hurt' someone else. Not here in America anyway.
Hurtful speech is often both the most useful and the most necessary kind.
I participated in the Draw Muhammad Day, and I think it served useful purposes. The obvious one, that of defying religious zealotry, but another was standing in solidarity with a secular student group here in Madison who saw their own drawing-based protests interfered with, and their academic freedom challenged, for daring to draw a series of chalk stick figures.
Yes, it is childish. It's a childish world we live in. Nevertheless, as Myers pointed out, it's a humorous and non-violent protest of the very real threat of violent theocracy. As you point out, this isn't limited to Islam; in my own life I've suffered far, far more at the hands of Evangelical Christians.
I accept your challenge, Prof. Cole, and I'll immediately put the same complete lack of care and talent I did challenging theocratic members of the Islamic into offending a wide variety of theocratic groups with bad stick figure drawings.