Rampant Hypocrisy

The BBC reports that "In Islamabad, President Pervez Musharraf said newspapers that printed the cartoons [of the prophet] were "oblivious" to the consequences for peace and harmony in the world.

"I don't see how any civilised person can take the issue of freedom of press to hurt the feelings of such a large population of the world," he told visiting journalists.

"Whether an extremist or a moderate or an ultra-moderate, we will condemn it." "

Where were the vocal condemnations, the street protests, the uproar, when Islamic militants were beheading people in the middle east. When Al-Jazheera showed these horrific images on TV, when suicide bombers blew up the twin towers, or four lads from the north of England decided to simultaneously kill people on the tube and bus networks. The reactions are not equal or proportional. Much as muslims may hold the Prophet to be sacred, we hold life as sacred. Respect must run both ways, and the fact that it hasn't for the past 70 years has led to this current problem.

As Iain Banks' main protagonist in "Dead Air" sardonically points out on his radio show; western nations do not force visitors to wear mini skirts and boob tubes, yet middle eastern nations enforce female visitors to cover themselves up. Cultural respect cuts both ways - and yet, when it comes to the Arab/Muslim world, it doesn't.

This is not a hate post. Nor is it a diatribe against the Muslim faith. It is merely a post pointing out that:

"Why do you notice the sliver in your friend’s eye, but overlook the timber in your own? How can you say to your friend, "Let me get the sliver out of your eye, when there is that timber in your own? You phony, first take the timber out of your own eye and then you’ll see well enough to remove the sliver from your friends eye"

Matthew 7:3-5 (scholar's version)