A VIEW FROM THE CHEAP SEATS
By Rich Trzupek
Cartoons? Be Serious
It�s been�how many weeks now?�and there are still hordes of crazies going nuts about cartoons? Seriously. Somebody has to slap me with a Monty-Python size fish so that I can be sure this isn�t some perverse dream that somehow managed to push visions of Jamie Lee out of the way.
People are so infuriated about a cartoon that they�re burning embassies � over a cartoon � and rioting, and killing and dying � over a frigging cartoon? If they get this upset over an exploding-turban, it�s good thing they�ve never been subjected to Marmaduke or�Allah forbid�Nancy.
This is a controversy? This is the subject of carefully-considered editorial decisions and diplomatic finesse? There is no issue here folks. None.
On the one side we have liberty and its life partner: freedom of expression. The other side of the �controversy�? Flaming, xenophobic, bigoted, medieval nutballs, which is another way of saying there�s no controversy at all. Can we please stop trying to be sensitive here and just call a looney a looney?
Don�t even try to say that this is different because Islam prohibits depictions of the prophet. The prophet has been depicted plenty over the centuries and the artists have been denounced in the proper forum�by Muslim religious authorities. That was always enough, for historically this was a matter of God�s jurisdiction, not man�s. If depicting Muhammad is indeed a sin in the Creator�s eyes, offenders will probably have hell to pay in the next life. That�s His call.
The riots and the embassy burnings and the killings, and all the rest aren�t about violating a religious edict, they are strictly about making fun of a particular religion. End of story.
And, from that perspective: join the club. Christians and Jews and many others have been the butt of irreverent, religious and sometimes downright blasphemous jokes, cartoons and propaganda for centuries.
Is it right? Of course not. Is it offensive? Sure. But does blasphemy in the Western World lead to death and destruction? Not since the 16th Century. It leads to angry phone calls, outraged letters and product boycotts. We fight tasteless�but free-expression, with free expression and free choice, not with bullets and bombs. That makes us, er, civilized is the word.
There�s probably no better example than a South Park episode that aired a few weeks ago. If you didn�t see it, I will be unable to describe it to you. I�ve been wracking my brains trying to figure out a subtle explanation that would sneak past my editor, but it�s beyond my skill to do so. Just imagine the most outrageous, disgusting portrayal
of the Virgin Mary possible�and then double it. It was so disreputable that even a not-very-good Catholic like your humble correspondent was offended.
As were many, many Christians across the nation. South Park�s network, Comedy Central, and the show�s creators took an awful lot of grief. The show, we are told, will never be run again, although one strongly suspects it will show up on DVD somewhere, sometime. But, for all of the outrage, nobody died.
Six hundred years ago, South Park masterminds Trey Parker and Matt Stone would have been hauled before an ecliastical court faster than you can say �nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.� Today? Today we�ll make our opinions known, but ultimately leave it for God to decide.
Could there be any example of what separates �them� and �us� more clear? �We� may or may not believe in a particular version of God, but we hold the God-given freedom of all people sacred�whatever their opinion. �They� believe they are God�s mighty sword, infallible and irrefutable. The liberty of man does not matter.
Yes there are millions of Muslims who aren�t fanatics, who actually believe in the tolerance and forgiveness that their religion holds dear. It is a shame that the have been swept up in this particular episode of fundamentalist insanity. It�s not about them. It�s about the lunatics.
Having said that, we should not let our historically-driven desire to practice gentle tolerance blind us to the sort of hateful intolerance that Hitler would have been proud of.
In our history, we have earnestly debated whether the First Amendment�s guarantee of freedom of expression allows a person to shout �fire� in a crowded theare. Hugo Black, one of our most respected jurists, argued that it does. Though we have long since concluded that Justice Black was wrong, his passionate defense of the First Amendment is something that Americans hold dear.
The idea that freedom of expression would not include the right to make fun of a religion would have made Black, or any justice no matter how liberal or conservative, positively sick.
And to those who say �that�s our standard, we shouldn�t impose it on the rest of the world,� I have only one reply. Everyone in the world�not just Americans�deserves a voice. If we don�t stand for that, we can�t stand for anything.