Mary Ellen over at The Blue Voice has a thought-provocing article on fundamentalism, Christian and otherwise, and steps in where angels fear to tread (but rightwingers can't wait to stomp) and looks at the Muslim outrage over the anti-Muhammad cartoons (The Fundaments of Fundamentalism 12/07/06):
I am not excusing the events of the day with the above comment, there is no excuse for such damage and violence, I am saying that I have some understanding of the tinder these cartoons heaped on a fire that was waiting to be unleashed. Muslims have been held in suspicion and contempt universally throughout the Western world ever since the events of 9/11, and in some places even before. They are the unwanted immigrants of Europe, as our Latino immigrants are here, accepting menial jobs no one else wants - when, that is, they can find jobs at all. They live in those cities, but they are not of them. Through their own choice, but in all probability also through the choice of the Dutch, British, German, Belgian, Danish, citizens already in residence.
This is a clash of cultures that has been simmering for quite some time. I have no answers for this situation. I doubt that any of our commenters have the answers. None of the pundits have the answers. How do we solve a situation where people who see headscarves as an important expression of their faith (freedom of expression) but whose girl children have been denied the right to wear them to school, who now are outraged by the freedom of expression that publishes what to them is sacriligious art in a newspaper that last year refused to publish cartoons demeaning Jesus Christ for fear it would offend Christian leaders?
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