Kamangir (Archer)

Speaking Their Own Language

Kamangir | February 6, 2006 | Category Iran

She is not living in a filthy street in Karachi. Neither is she the third wife of an opium-addicted old man living in a small village close to Mashhad. I doubt those fat guys who own oil wells have more realistic ambitions than her. And she is not pursuing the idea of another crusade. She is feeling very disturbed about the cartoons, even though being a Canadian resident doing a Ph.D. on electrical engineering.
There have always been fights between them here and there in the last few decades. Muslims are always blamed for their nasty attitude towards women. Also, special matters about their treatment of freedom of individuals have always been debated. On the other hand, while many western people think that Islam is seriously outdated, Muslims believe they have the last words of God, at least many of them think so. For people assuming to have the last version of faith, I think, these days’ problems would be the best thing to look for.
To my understanding, it is very much like proclaiming their rights. So, Dane journalists demonstrate their “right” to draw a picture of anything, even Muslim’s prophet. On the other side, Muslim’s in Denmark and all over the world show how they will treat infidels who insult their precious religion. However, I have not seen the journalists asserting that from now on they will start drawing cartoons of God and the angels on the cover of their magazines; they are just saying “Hey! That’s our right” and obviously Muslims are sure that they have to stop them even at the cost of committing what many may assume to be criminal. So, it is all about defining the circle of rights.
“They drew Muslim’s prophet as a terrorist leader and they shouted yeah, so what?” Mike said. When I asked him about how he thinks about the affairs, he told me that he thinks it is ridiculous to hurt people intentionally, something I may not be completely agreed on. But we were both thinking “Muslims really overreacted”. Azadeh thinks almost similarly. Though, she is in the Muslim side and can not stand making fun of divine creatures. She got really mad becoming aware of the idea to post one of those cartoons here, even if censored. It seems that in the small circuit of my family and friends, everybody thinks that how Islamic world faced the cartoons was not proper at all. But, people are distracted on whether publishing the cartoons was bad or a right you may really not want to practice; like having sun bath in your backyard when you are totally naked.
The nature of cartoons is still controversial and the problem is escalating around the globe. But at least, there is one fact upon which everybody seems to agree; people are rigorously defending their rights. The disastrous part, though, is that everybody defines their own rights. To make the situation even worse, both sides are proving that they only know how to speak with their own language. As if we are living in a fantastic world, people assume that the final solution would be a civilized one. I think a more anticipated resolution would be as one side defeating the other one. Regretfully, we all know the consequences of these hostile takeovers.