Each to his own

Submitted by Abu Nudnik (Canada), Sep 19, 2006 at 21:13

In your country perhaps, freedom is limited to the tender feelings of others. Here too, my right to throw a punch ends at your nose. But in my country, Canada, we draw a distinction between assaults and insults. Certainly it makes sense not to insult those with whom one wants to cooperate but it also makes sense to fight attempts to control freedom that causes no real damage. You are responsible for the insides of your skull and I am responsible for mine.

You say that in Islam freedom is controlled by sensitivity to others' feelings. I hadn't noticed it in all the publications that insist on calling Jews the children of apes and pigs. In any case, I don't live in Islam, I live in Canada, a sovereign state which makes its own laws through its Parliamentary Democracy. Islam defines itself as an international or transnational entity, the West thinks of itself as boundaries within which national laws exist. So long as the two sides respect that the other has a different model, there can be peace. If you want to complain about a squiggle looking like "Allah" in your own country, fine, but Nike management is not Muslim, they had no intention of making "Air" look like "Allah:"

Many readers have asserted with the certainty only a paranoiac can muster, that Nike did this on purpose. What on earth could be the motive? What could they have to gain? Look again. Does it look like "air?" Of course it does. If Westerners were to stop doing everyting that insults or humiliates Muslims, we wouldn't be able to do anything since Muslims take offense so easily. Think of this: no one can humiliate a humble man. And it is because of Muslim arrogance and narcissism that it is constantly offended. Muslims behave like children: they exhibit no self-control, they act like the world revolves around them. What else could possibly explain this ludicrous protest over a design on a sneaker?

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