On the 7th of January 2015 the world was stunned by the terrorist attack that gripped the city of Paris where satirist Charlie Hebdo and 11 other people were massacred by an Islamic fundamentalists for the depiction of the prophet Mohammad.
Two brothers and a teenager ( who was later arrested) were linked to the deadly terrorist attack and an Anti-terrorism officers hunting the terrorists issued photographs of the two brothers describing them as ‘armed and dangerous’.
An interesting comment was raised by a caller in one talk radio station where he said “There should be no holy cows for satirist. Everyone and everything must be fair game. If you will do a cartoon about Mohamed then do one about Jesus Christ.”
I am not sure that the depiction of Jesus God would start stimulate violent attacks like this… mainly because most of the churches, the Catholic one especially, has over centuries created images of Jesus to reinforce their pulpit rhetoric. Whether Jesus is depicted as a Scandinavian man or Mary/Maria as the virgin of Guadalupe, doesn’t really matter (or is a whole other discussion entirely), most Christian church leaders have no problem with depicting him, in fact, they actively encourage it. The khalifas/imams and other leaders of Islam, have expressly forbidden the depiction of their divinity. This is the problem. The press sees it as freedom of press, the radical fundamentalists see it as disrespect and heresy. so, not the same as seeing Jesus on south park.
In fact to most Muslims the depiction of their prophet is seen as sacrilege. And I personally feel they have a right to retaliate, however the violent nature of their retaliation makes me question freedom of speech, tolerance and most importantly peace in Islam.
bobbyshabangu 