It’s been a couple of weeks since the Pope gave his speech. A few days ago I listened to an interview with Clinton (former US president, in case anyone has forgotten). His opinion on the Pope’s statements and the Danish caricature: they make it more difficult for moderate Muslims.

I thought about Clinton’s assessment (not someone I dismiss lightly). And my thought led me to remember what I had heard about the impact of the Danish cartoon on Danish Muslims. According to that report, the discussions sparked by the cartoon moved the Muslim community forward by at least three centuries, because before that, Muslim views were not challenged and until that happened, they could not be changed.

So did the Danish cartoons and the pope’s comments help or hurt moderate Muslims?

First, the cartoon and the comments are not the same.

The Danish cartoon (at least to these non-Muslim eyes) is a bland little portrait of a horrifying truth: the use of the Muslim prophet as a justification for bombings and other acts of violence against innocent civilians, including Muslims. The Pope’s comments are more forceful and directly conflicting: violence exercised in the name of religion goes against the nature of God. He was called a rottweiler long before he made these comments. His deliberately blunt, provocative comments reminded me of the image of a Rottweiler. big tooth A strong cock. You often have to be careful around Rottweilers.

That leads me to a question. Why did the Danish cartoon provoke more protest?

Well, a cartoonist is a more vulnerable target, he doesn’t have the authority of a big organized religion behind him. Also, the cartoon came first. Also, there is the question of whether anyone can make an image of the prophet. Masses of Muslims acted outraged that someone dared to make such an image and completely ignored the message of the cartoon. (The offended is ignoring that there are many other images of their prophet, against which they have not protested, and that violence in the name of the prophet creates a very vivid image in people’s minds).

But I still haven’t answered my own question. Make the Pope’s cartoon and comments hurt or help moderate Muslims.

My guess is that they have helped. Someone had to do this job. The Danish cartoonist and the Pope have greatly deflected the fire and anger of moderate Muslims. More of them may have had more courage to speak up. The moderates may have advanced their thinking further in response to the cartoon, the Pope’s comments, and all the discussion this has generated. In fact, another guess I have is that there are more moderate Muslims than before. (That remains to be seen.)

So far I have no proof, but I do know that Christians have become more and more moderate over time, as Christian fundamentalists have been challenged time and time again.

Of course, fundamentalists (Christians and Muslims) may be increasingly allergic to moderates. But at least in Canada, very conservative Christians are much more moderate than they were a generation ago. A similar change may take a couple of decades in the Muslim world, but that’s what I see happening.

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In the short term, what would I see?

“Hell has no fury like a scorned woman” – so said Shakespeare, or maybe it was some other famous British writer. I think the comment came to mind because people who are losing can get more and more upset. It doesn’t mean they will win, or that they should win. A rejected woman does not increase her chances of getting her lover back if she gets angry. On the contrary. And finally, many despised people learn.

I return to a central point. The more people around the world do to break the shell of Muslim self-righteousness, the better.

So at least for now, based on my own assessment and knowledge, I disagree with Clinton, even though our goal is the same: success for moderate Muslims.

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UNDERLYING IDEA:

“It is an easily recognized fact that, for humans, an idea is much more powerful than a fact.” I don’t know who said that, but I remember how those words struck me when I read them. An idea: just as ideas can close our mind, they can open it to new worlds and visions. Ideas unite things or keep them apart. They help us organize experiences, they help us make sense of things, or they prevent us from making sense of things. So I hope you have understood some of what I have written. Comments and additional thoughts welcome.

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To learn more about wrath of the just, how it works and how it can be countered, there’s a lot more on my site:

[http://www.elsas-word-story-image-idea-music-emporium.com/the-idea-emporium-1.html]

Affairs. Why so much Muslim anger at a Danish cartoon? Why so much anger in people in general? Narcissism. Hurry. Delusions. The Emporium of Ideas – facts, ideas, conclusions. More stupid opinions exposed, such as the opinion that all opinions are equal.

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