Outrage?

Ok, I'm tired of the comparisons between Christianity and Islam. Anyone who tells me there's no difference between Christianity and Islam is just plain ignorant.

Case in point: Danes Try to Calm Muslim Outrage. Outrage over what?

A cartoon. Uh huh. An editorial cartoon in a Danish newspaper depicting Mohammed as a terrorist. The picture above is one of the offending cartoons.

And because of this, "On Tuesday, an unidentified terrorist group from southern Iraq called for a fatwa (war) against Danish troops stationed in Iraq, while the offices of Jyllands-Posten in Copenhagen and Aarhus (a Danish company), north of Copenhagen, were evacuated after a bomb threat."

Over a cartoon. Over someone's opinion. Over someone believing something different.
This is the religion of tolerance and peace? Make no mistake, this is no offshoot, splinter group expressing this outrage. This is the general opinion of mainstream Islam in the Middle East.

How many silly, malicious editorial cartoons have we all seen depicting Jesus in the media? Jesus has been depicted as everything from a dope-smoking simpering idiot, to a stupid, maniacally insane martyr, a gay surfer, a wimp, and everything in between. These are examples from a simple search for the term "Jesus cartoon".

And, of course, who can forget South Park Jesus?



So Muslims are offended that someone disrespected Mohammed? So what?

What right do they, indeed does ANYONE have, to NOT be offended? It's the threat of violence and force that makes the Danes fearful, not the fear of Allah. It's the threat of middle-east oil being withheld, and the danger to their citizens and soldiers from a religious sect that threatens to kill them if they don't apologize and make amends in the name of their prophet and their god.

Peace and Love? Hogwash.

And don't quote me anything about the Crusades as examples of Christian vengeance. That's just plain wrong, because the Crusaders were not "Christian", and every historian knows it. The Crusades were an evil war of pure conquest. The leaders of the Crusades were misguided at best, and evil murderers at the worst. The leaders of the Catholic Church at the time were power hungry warlords (warrior-popes). They did not in any way represent the teachings of Jesus or Peter or Paul or any of Jesus' disciples (Jesus told Peter to put his sword away, after all). It took the Reformation, and the invention of the press to bring the writings of the Bible to the masses before people read The Book for themselves and realized they were being misled by power-hungry, evil people bent on using God's Word for their own means.

But not so for Islam. Anyone can read the Quran (or a fairly accurate translations of it), and see for themselves what it teaches. Read the Hadiths, which are the teachings of Mohammed and his insight on the Quran. You'll be shocked.

Mohammed killed, or had killed through war and slaughter, thousands.

Jesus killed no one. He saved and healed thousands. He's purported to have raised at least one from the dead.

I ramble, but to close, I'm all for treating all people with respect. I try not to denigrate (which is talking about someone in untruthful terms) anyone. But I'm tired of the comparisons between Islam and Christianity, placing them on equal terms. They are not.

They are nothing alike. If we are to survive as a culture, and as a nation, we must understand this.