NOTE: THIS IS AN UPDATED REPOST
Last year on Draw Mohammed Day, Staks wrote about why it is important to blaspheme when people of faith are using threats of force to squelch anti-religious expression, and I created a quick Storify to provide a small sample of the irreligious blasphemy that I witnessed in my Twitter timeline.
If you are not familiar with the history of Draw Mohammed Day then you might not be aware that began as a non-violent freedom-affirming response to threats of violence against a non-violent freedom-affirming response to threats of religious violence, ultimately tracing back to the threats of religious violence agains a number of Danish cartoonists.
If you want to know the full story behind what really happened with the Danish editorial cartoons, there is one book that you ought to check out: The Cartoons that Shook the World by Jytte Klausen. I’ve been reading it all week, and (as is usual in highly reported cases) there are many subtle nuances to this case that you might never suspect. Klausen’s major thesis is that this was not a spontaneous clash of cultures so much as a deliberate political manipulation of populist fear and loathing on both sides. I know that seems controversial on the face of it, but she makes a surprisingly strong case, and she is in a particularly good positon to know.
Here is a representative sample:
There are times when it seems to me that Klausen is somewhat too forgiving of Muslim threats and Western cowardice, but on the whole this is an excellent read. Go to it, and please let me know what you think.
