Wimps or Realists?
Posted by: Tom Keefe, in General, blogging, communications, faith, journalismCommunications pro Allan Jenkins, from his base in Hjelm Bay, Møn, Denmark, sends a tweet calling the Danish daily Politiken “complete wimps” for apologizing over the publication years ago of unflattering editorial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Was it cowardice, or common sense? If an axe-wielding extremist broke into your home because you posted a comment or cartoon that might be considered “offensive,” or continued to plot ways to kill you, would you be willing to die for freedom of speech? Really?
Why then, do I hear and watch so much “humor” and “editorial comment” knocking the Christian faith, but just about zero directed at Islam? Why do people think it is acceptable, even in the workplace, to use “Jesus Christ” as a swear word, but those same people wouldn’t think of substituting “Prophet Muhammad”?
Christians don’t blow up innocent groups of people, and they don’t grab an axe to attack people who disparage their Lord, Jesus Christ.
Should they? It seems to work for Islamic extremists, at least in Denmark. Allan might think his local journalists are wimps, but maybe they are realists. And maybe we are, too.
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February 26th, 2010 at 12:16 pm
Wonder where Allan’s sensibilities would lie should be get abducted, held hostage, hooded and tortured for a year or two in retribution.
Brave words uttered through Twitter are hardly brave at all.
The only shame is, those apologies seem to fall on deaf ears anyway because it doesn’t serve the insane cause. You will NOT hear the extremists posting and screaming in the streets that an apology was issued. Tyrants need an enemy to misdirect the masses’ anger.
How about this… Don’t walk up to the hornet’s nest and beat it with a stick. Avoid it. Cause there is no reasoning with hornets!
February 26th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Eric, I like your comment about avoiding hornet nests. Reminds me of the “killer bee” concern that hit North America some years ago. If news reports were to be believed, all life would end as the killer bees worked their way northward.
But we still have heavily populated countries south of the U.S. border. Yes, the answer there was to take precautions to avoid areas where killer bees were nesting, then send in the experts to wipe out the nests as much as possible.
Kind of like the strategy against terrorism that we’re employing in Afghanistan these days. We’ll never eliminate the whole lot, but we can knock down the population quite a bit.
Still, as you say, apologies don’t help when the intended recipients turn a deaf ear.