Movies for Muslims and the arrogance of Western thinking

Submitted by sara (United States), Sep 18, 2012 at 17:08

Sigmund,

You say: "...does not mean that there are no Muslims willing to discuss the potential for their religion and their society to interact more peacefully with other religion ... I think that a goodly number of Muslims are searching for ways to do this."

Really? Where are they? What is your evidence that multitudes of Muslims are searching for a way to act more peacefully? If you are saying that too much publicity is afforded these crazy burning mobs, with that I would agree. But if there are moderates, they are awfully quiet and not accessible, and that is what matters if you want any dialogue, Sigmund.

"it would not be easy to make a movie that offered criticism of Islam in a way that did not lead to violent outbursts."

LOL. You got that right.

"Similarly, if Mel Gibson thought that his religious movies would start a calm dialogue with Jews, he was quite mistaken"

Whatever Gibson thought or did not think, any reaction to his film was conducted in civilized and acceptable manner that honored freedom of speech/expression on both sides. There are certainly enough anti-semitic sentiments expressed artistically or otherwise around the world continuously, but there are no incidents of murder, mayhem or burning anything by Jews to protest. Remember the adage taught to children? Use words, not hands. Once you escalate it to physical, you lose the argument.

"Would the above provoke outrage and violent demonstrations? You bet"

So what is the point then? Just to soothe your civilized sensibilities that we are being fair and balanced? Do you think it matters how we perceive things or are you truly naive? Acknowledge that there are differences in culture, belief and mentalities. We are not all alike and the same, we are unique snowflakes (LOL).

"Perhaps I am unjustifiably optimistic, but I think the current lack of mutual understanding between Muslims, Christians, and Jews is neither total nor intractable. It is just difficult."

Unjustifiably optimistic is a beautiful way to sum up your argument, I agree.

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