Three days ago I put up a blog titled “Pamela Geller Responds”, which consisted of Ms. Geller\’s explanation of why she ran that “draw a cartoon of Muhammad” contest in Garland, Texas, and what she thought of the people who attacked her for doing so.
I did not comment on what Ms Geller said, I only asked that readers draw their own conclusions.
Now I\’m commenting.
Personally, I found the contest to be offensive. While not said in so many words, it was an invitation to, at the very least, trivialize someone Muslims around the world consider to be their most important prophet, with no restrictions at all about drawing negative and insulting caricatures of him.
I thought the contest was an exercise in taunting people of the Islamic faith that begged for a response – which, of course Ms. Geller got, as two ISIS followers went to the venue where it was being held ready to start killing participants – and wound up being the only fatalities.
However, I also thought the contest was well within the boundaries of freedom of speech. Actually, let me amend that; I know the contest was well within the boundaries of free speech.
I have written in the past that I consider burning the American flag to be extremely offensive and taunting….but acceptable as an issue of free speech. This, to me, falls under the same heading.
And mainstream media, which have almost universally condemned Ms. Geller for running the contest?
-Where were they when Andreas Serrano gave us an image of Jesus Christ immersed in urine and titled it “Piss Christ”? Did they rise up against Serrano, or did they rise up against those terrible people who condemned it as religious blasphemy?
-And where were they when Chris Ofili reated his “Holy Virgin Mary,” which depicted Mary – revered by Christians as the mother of Jesus – with cutouts of women\’s naked private parts and elephant dung as one of her breasts. Were they outraged at the depiction itself, or with the fact that Christians demanded the Brooklyn Museum of Art, which proudly displayed this image, take it down?
It seems evident that if you want to offend Christians, you can go right ahead. It is always open season. Ditto for Jews, as you can quickly find out, among other places, on college campuses around the country. But a Muhammad cartoon contest? That\’s offensive.
To sum up, my problem here is not that Pamela Geller had the contest – which, offensive as I find it, she had a right to do. My problem is with the astonishing double standard media have treated that contest with…a double standard which, to this moment, most of its members either don\’t recognize in themselves – even though it is right there, on the 50 yard line, for everyone to see – or just don\’t give a damn about.
I\’ll end with these words from Pamela Geller\’s response, which raise another important issue about her contest and media reaction to it:
They\’re saying: “Well, she provoked them! She got what she deserved!” They don\’t remember, or care to remember, that as the jihadis were killing the Muhammad cartoonists in Paris, their friend and accomplice was murdering Jews in a nearby kosher supermarket. Were the Jews asking for it? Did they “bait” the jihadis? Were they “provoking” them?
Are the Jews responsible for the Nazis? Are the Christians in the Middle East responsible for being persecuted by Muslims?
Drawing Muhammad offends Islamic jihadists? So does being Jewish. How much accommodation of any kind should we give to murderous savagery? To kowtow to violent intimidation will only encourage more of it.
This is a war.
That is a very, very well taken point.
Maybe there is a “teachable moment” in here for media…and everyone else as well.
