Jyllands-Posten
Jyllands-Posten's editor speaks out on why he printed the cartoons. Seems pretty reasonable to me.
I've heard many opinions that it would be better if we could resolve these kinds of tensions without having to resort to obviously inflammatory, and probably offensive, acts like this. Maybe we could talk about it, start a dialogue, do some persuasion, etc.
Problem is, if you look across the length and breadth of human history, it almost never works. Modern western civilisation has reached the point that it has through much the same process as aircrash investigators have made airtravel safer. First a plane crashes, and then they figure out why. The crash is useful, because it identifies the problem, makes everyone realise that the problem exists, and encourages those responsible to do something about it.
It's absolutely tragic that people die when the airline crashes, and it'd be nice if we could solve the problem before the airline crashed... but you can just imagine how that'd go, can't you? The first person to raise a safety issue would be dismissed by the airline for scaremongering, by the manufacturer for defamation, by the governments and tourist-industries as costing jobs, etc. The only absolute proof that can't be denied is a smoking pile of wreckage and bodies. What's more, the process works -- airline travel has become enormously safer over the years. Modern western civilisation stands where it stands because we've seen the horrific, flaming wrecks of fascism, communism, militarism, etc, and we've said 'okay, that design is malfunctioning, let's try another one'. And liberal, capitalist democracy is the only system still standing after that rigorous examination.
Now we have Islamic fundamentalism, either inside our own societies, or outside and pressing against us. The values of this fundamentalism, like most fundamentalisms, are antithetical to our own. It's a problem. But many, many people don't want to admit it's a problem, for a whole variety of reasons. What Jyllands-Posten did was cause an air-crash. It's nasty, but it certainly focuses attention on the problem in a way that no one can ignore any longer. Maybe one day we'll find a way of defusing these kinds of things more peacefully, but for now, finally, it seems that those who value freedom (many Muslims amongst them) are starting to wake up.
I've heard many opinions that it would be better if we could resolve these kinds of tensions without having to resort to obviously inflammatory, and probably offensive, acts like this. Maybe we could talk about it, start a dialogue, do some persuasion, etc.
Problem is, if you look across the length and breadth of human history, it almost never works. Modern western civilisation has reached the point that it has through much the same process as aircrash investigators have made airtravel safer. First a plane crashes, and then they figure out why. The crash is useful, because it identifies the problem, makes everyone realise that the problem exists, and encourages those responsible to do something about it.
It's absolutely tragic that people die when the airline crashes, and it'd be nice if we could solve the problem before the airline crashed... but you can just imagine how that'd go, can't you? The first person to raise a safety issue would be dismissed by the airline for scaremongering, by the manufacturer for defamation, by the governments and tourist-industries as costing jobs, etc. The only absolute proof that can't be denied is a smoking pile of wreckage and bodies. What's more, the process works -- airline travel has become enormously safer over the years. Modern western civilisation stands where it stands because we've seen the horrific, flaming wrecks of fascism, communism, militarism, etc, and we've said 'okay, that design is malfunctioning, let's try another one'. And liberal, capitalist democracy is the only system still standing after that rigorous examination.
Now we have Islamic fundamentalism, either inside our own societies, or outside and pressing against us. The values of this fundamentalism, like most fundamentalisms, are antithetical to our own. It's a problem. But many, many people don't want to admit it's a problem, for a whole variety of reasons. What Jyllands-Posten did was cause an air-crash. It's nasty, but it certainly focuses attention on the problem in a way that no one can ignore any longer. Maybe one day we'll find a way of defusing these kinds of things more peacefully, but for now, finally, it seems that those who value freedom (many Muslims amongst them) are starting to wake up.
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