Johnny Depp in a solid King film.

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In checking Prof. Juan Cole’s blog this morning, I noticed he had a post up from a couple of days ago about Draw Muhammad Day. Prof. Cole essentially concludes that the event was reckless (in that it repeats behavior that has in the past inspired violence) and rude, and ponders the extent to which anti-Islamic bias is masquerading as support for free speech.

The juvenile “draw Muhammad” day has generally been avoided by professional editorial cartoonists. One Islamophobic theme apparent in the writing on it is that Muslims are peculiar in their thin-skinned responses to such assaults on their religious sensibilities and that members of other religions never riot or protest. This assertion is not only bigoted but it is silly. So here are some other needlessly offensive cartoon-drawing days that could be adopted by the jerks bothering Muslims today, just to show that they are jerks toward other communities as well. All these subjects have produced vigorous protests or rioting and violence among members of other religious traditions. Me, I think when you know people have died in violence over some piece of thoughtlessness, it is the height of irresponsibility to repeat it for no good reason.

I don’t doubt for a moment that there are various Muslim-bashers who jumped on the bandwagon for DMD, but I think the necessity of engaging in such behavior is demonstrated by the same events that lead Prof. Cole to conclude it’s irresponsible; namely, that religious fanatics often respond to dissenting views with violence. Since these whackjobs seek to suppress the rights of others, they need to be opposed, period. There’s no other justification required. It’s further incumbent, I think, upon citizens of the world’s remaining superpower, an ostensibly secular state, to carry out peaceful protest and opposition to these violent idiots, since we can do so in relative safety.

If it’s become irresponsible to challenge backwards fanatics, haven’t they already won? Don’t we lose our rights when we refuse to exercise them out of fear of illegal, violent retaliation?

Professor Cole then outlines a list of other drawing-based protests he came up with to show that, as he put it, you can be a jerk to a wide variety of people, not just Muslims. I disagree with the contention that DMD was targeted at Muslims as a whole, but I’m perfectly willing to extend the idea to challenge other groups of zealots who’ve trampled on the right to free expression. That, for me, was the whole point of DMD.

Thus, I completed his challenge, with some minor variations and two omissions for cause:

Proposed Comics #9, 6, and 1 concern the same Ultra-Orthodox extremists in Jerusalem, hating on, respectively, secular government social services, gay people and parking lots being open on Saturday. I compressed this into one comic to save time.

Proposed Comic #7 is about reaction to the performance of a play which concerns, at least in part, rape and violence in a Sikh temple. I completely support the right of a theatrical company to present such a play, but rape is, morally and legally, an offensive act in and of itself, so I won’t risk trivializing it with stick figure art. Thus, the cartoon concerns a stick figure PERFORMANCE of the same play that inspired violence.

Proposed Comic #5 concerns the idea of depicting the violent murder of a Hindu teacher in India, an event that set off a firestorm of retaliatory violence on both sides of a mixed Christian-Hindu community in India. The actual, real life murder of a teacher and his students is not equivalent to the performance of play, or the drawing of a semi-mythological figure from religion. It’s a crime, and a brutal offense. People being upset by it is perfectly rational and understandable, and while violent response to violence is often unproductive, it can’t be condemned in the same way as violence over a cartoon or a doodle. If someone shot up your school, you too might take up arms and commit retaliatory violence. A cartoon on the other hand never killed anyone. For this reason, I’ve omitted #5 entirely; it’s false equivalence to compare these events to violently responding to a form of personal expression.

Proposed Comic #2 concerns a Burger King advertisement in Spain that I think is utterly hilarious. It was also found to be offensive by members of the global Hindu community, and they responded by complaining to the corporation, which pulled the ad. The article mentions no violence or threats of any kind, simply public condemnation. This is how things are SUPPOSED to work in a civilized society; dialogue and conversation with, or at, people who upset you, not oppression or violent censorship. I think this is another false equivalence; you have every right to be offended by speech. Just don’t throw a brick through a window or plant a bomb or set someone’s house on fire. I see no reason to poke fun at a religious community that apparently chose an honorable and reasonable, above all CIVIL response to something that they found offensive.

(Burger King also ran an add that offended Mexican governmental officials, and that was pulled without violence. They really should get a better handle on their PR campaigns.)

So, with two exceptions and some modifications, I’ve taken up the challenge Prof. Cole outlined. While I am a jerk, I hope this goes some way to demonstrating that I’m not specifically being a jerk to Muslims. Rather, I want to annoy anyone who’d threaten or employ violence to silence criticism or commentary on their various mythological beliefs. I think it was that way for many people participating in Draw Muhammad Day.

Without further adieu, here are the truly awful drawings in question, including the original for DMD.

Muhammad Riding a Dinosaur

Naked Hindu Goddesses Riding a Plesiosaur

Various Offensive Things for Ultra Orthodox Zealots with Pteranodon

Stick Figure Production of Play Bezhti (with T-Rex in Audience)

Pool Party with Bikini Girls and Buddha Statue (with Velociraptors)

Orangemen Parade in Northern Ireland (with Pachycephalosaurus)

Soccer Player Using Witchcraft During Game in Kinshasa, with Stegosaurus. (Note: This drawing does not indicate in any way that I believe actual witchcraft occurred)

The entire set can be viewed on a subset of my Flickr page.