Cartoon Morality around the World

By Gary Morton at http://CitizensontheWeb.ca Feb.2006

    The current world-wide uproar over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad demonstrates something that should have been clear in the past but has escaped detection by the media and masses. 

    There has been much condemnation of George Bush’s war on the Muslims and of Muslim terrorists, and little notice that it isn’t really a holy war between Christians and Muslims at all. You could call it a war between corporate controlled Bush and Osama-style Muslims, but not a holy war because those involved have their own greedy interests and not God's at heart. 

   It is a clash between Islamic peoples and the goals of the international secular and corporate state. Islam and Free Trade/Freedom, two imposing and potent false deities are crossing swords … each incorrectly thinking it has the answers for the planet. 

    The hate and atrocities testify to that truth. In the Middle East Muslim insurgents and terrorist groups behead, bomb, kidnap and kill but there is little local outrage as it is seen as fighting either the occupation or the unholy Great Satan. 

    On the other side of the coin George Bush isn’t a holy figure and Pat Robertson is little more than a rogue masquerading as a Christian. Bush and company represent oil wealth, imperial power and the goals of the wealthy. Tony Blair is much the same. The two men have nothing to do with Jesus. 

   In the West there is indignation over Muslim atrocities and little recognition of the West’s own sponsored carnage. Shock and Awe and mass murder in Iraq and the tortures in Abu Ghraib drew very little moral outrage in the West. At the same time as the cartoon fury we see video of British soldiers beating youths and kicking corpses. Yet in Muslim nations there is more rage over soldiers urinating on the Qur'an than over torture and death. 

   In Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere people are directed to violence and war by Imams. Mass-murdering Saddam was actually an agent of the secular state as his control was based on a political party and not religion only. Unfortunately for him he angered his masters. 

   On both sides of this budding war a cartoon morality is practiced. It is little more than a shadow of the old morality. True Christians would shudder at George Bush and insurgents and any others who think that war crimes, mass murder and destruction can be justified. If God was about death we would all be sent to the grave in quick divine dispatch. We wouldn’t even have to blow ourselves and others to pieces first. 

   The cartoon debate brings into play two ideals attempting to play the almighty. On the Western side we are expected to believe that freedom of speech and the press is ultimate when the truth is that freedom is not an absolute power or ideal. Absolute freedom is not desirable nor is it a good thing, because it lacks discipline. In speech we are never talking alone, it is always a dialogue, and if we know that our portions of the dialogue will only create outrage we should also know we are wrong. 

   Cartoons depicting Muhammed as a terrorist are designed to provoke. Some of the same newspapers would not print caricatures of Jesus in the past, so their claims of freedom of the press as an ultimate power are false. Corporate media is in fact a big pusher of lies and screened and fabricated news. The US would probably not even be in Iraq if the large cable networks had told the truth instead of beating the war drums. 

   On the Muslim side the Imams are equally wrong. They simply can’t recognize the separation of church and state. The cartoons are not a good thing, but neither are they a reason to burn down Kentucky Fried Chicken and MacDonald’s outlets. Didn’t God say not to follow a mob to do evil? If so religious people shouldn’t follow Bush into wars or Imams into burning streets. 

   Muhammed in history is a merchant turned prophet turned caravan raider and warrior. He wasn’t a prince of peace, and history should speak for itself. There is no profit or honour in depicting him as a terrorist in a modern world he would not understand. 

  God gave us wisdom as the ultimate power in this discussion, and wisdom dictates that we avoid enraging others. The false holy men of Islam and of the secular state are filled with spirits of hate, and it shows. Counter it by speaking of peace and not fanning flames in the name of freedom and prophets.

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