Religion

This will be a somewhat controversial post.

The violent reaction to the cartoons depicting Mohamed continues to escalate. The form and severity of this reaction is wrong for several reasons.

Firstly, Islam forbids the persecution of non-believers. That is people who just disagree with the teachings of Islam should not be punished or treated any less than a Muslim. Unlike the invasion of Iraq for instance, nobody (Muslim or otherwise) was actually hurt by the cartoons. They simply didn’t believe that drawing them was wrong. This represents a difference in beliefs and the cartoonists should not be punished (according to Islamic beliefs).

Secondly, Islam strongly upholds the sanctity of life. Killing an innocent person is said to be like killing the entire human race. The argument here is who is considered innocent? Well it isn’t really relevent since killing someone could only be condoned if that individual disregards others’ right to life. Essentially only murderers may be executed. Calls for the death of the cartoonists are fundamentally non-Islamic.