Newspapers across Europe and now even in Jordan have published political cartoons mocking Mohammed as a suicide bomber (his turban is a bomb with a lit fuse). The Muslim "street" has responded with the usual vitriol of violent protests.
However, the cartoon is a legitimate criticism. No religion should be free from criticism. When we see Muslims beheading innocent people and blowing themselves and others up, it begs harsh criticism from the civilized world of all faiths and creeds, including from other Muslims. Just as Pat Robertson should be criticized for opening his mouth, we are right to criticize a religion that fosters this kind of uncontrollable hate. Mohammed himself called for violence and many of these mass murderers claim brotherhood with the Prophet. The rest of the world is left with three basic choices; either we submit to them, or kill them, or criticize them. Criticism is the only acceptable choice of a civilized world, and the criticism is as deserved as it is apposite. It would be easily argued that the cartoon is long overdue.
We criticize Pat Robertson when he orders the assassination of foreign leaders or prays for illnesses to befall Supreme Court justices. This is well-deserved criticism because Robertson’s public remarks are hypocritical. He says he’s a man of God, but acts outside of God’s will in His name. Now if someone does a cartoon with Jesus pointing his rifle at Hugo Chavez, it would be Pat Robertson’s fault, not the cartoonist's. Pat Robertson was mocking Jesus. The cartoonist was mocking Pat Robertson.
Likewise those people who kill in the name of the Prophet are at fault. They have disgraced Mohammed at the very least. That might explain why a Jordan newspaper, fresh from being suicide bombed by Al-Zarqawi’s gang, also published the cartoons. People have more reason to be angry with Mohammed than the Muslim street has to be angry at the cartoons.
The truth is that Muslims have a tendency to be insecure. Their religion thrives on decree and oppression, not free inquiry or free will. It is the only major religion that demands to be head of state and church alike. It has used the law of states, often brutal, to advance. Until Islam is reformed, if it is ever reformed, it will be an impossibly heavy house of cards. Heavy, but a house of cards nonetheless.
The problem with Islam goes back to its origins. Jesus Christ did not call on us to kill nonbelievers, but to love them. The Koran clearly calls on believers to kill nonbelievers (Koran 4:89) and even blurs the line itself between killing for Allah and killing by Allah Himself (Koran 8:17). Mohammed himself grew his faction by literally eviscerating the enemy. Also, there are obvious flaws in the Koran regarding Jesus, called "Isa the Messiah". Koran 5:116 states "And when Allah will say: O Isa son of Marium (Mary)! did you say to men, Take me and my mother for two gods besides Allah, he will say: Glory be to Thee, it did not befit me that I should say what I had no right to (say); if I had said it, Thou wouldst indeed have known it; Thou knowest what is in my mind, and I do not know what is in Thy mind, surely Thou art the great Knower of the unseen things."
It says here that Jesus was rebuked by God for inserting him and his mom into the Trinity. Therefore, according to Mohammed, Jesus preached that God was God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Mother. And Mohammed records Jesus’ apology. The only explanation for this is that Mohammed’s knowledge of Jesus and His ministry and indeed the whole Bible was not very good. Mohammed’s understanding of Jesus was based more on what he heard and saw than what he studied, if indeed he did study.
Furthermore, the Koran has a problem that it claims to be God-written, or sent down from Heaven, and yet it details current events in Mohammed’s time. Then there is the case of the "satanic verses", verses that Mohammed later questioned and removed. Did he edit God?
Muslims can be offended all they want, but offense is not an argument. Apologetics doesn’t begin with "I’m offended because " but "I am right because " I pray that wise Muslims will seek the truth and not just to defend their investment in Islam.
We will not make true friendships with Muslims by lying to them. You do not love someone by lying to them. Neither should we lie to Muslims. They call Jesus the Messiah; we need to tell them that that means He is our Savior. That means He is their Savior too. To do less would be to fall well short of loving them. God did not come into the world to destroy it, but to save it.
