taking offence
It offends me when people deny that God exists. It offends me when people deny the Trinity. It offends me when people deny that Jesus is the Son of God.
It offends me when people build up wrong impressions of God the Father, or God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit. It offends me when people draw pictures of a man and call it a picture of Jesus. It offends me when people sculpt statues of a man and call it a statue of Jesus. It offends me when people produce films where an actor pretends to be Jesus.
Furthermore, it offends me when people laugh at Jesus, make fun of the gospel, put symbols associated with Christianity in a context of obscenity, and use the names of God as swearwords.
Really, I suppose I wish I found these things even more offensive than I do. It might provide me with a bigger incentive to pray for the Saviour to be publicly respected, and for people who are now antagonistic towards him to be reconciled to him. It might make me more diligent about letting people know that God deserves better than this - that he is worthy of respect and praises, not scorn and mockery, because of who he is, and because of how he freely kindly saves sinners. It might also spur me into speaking out for him publicly using options like letter writing, church going, leaflet distributing, radio phone ins, or anything else that's available to me as a citizen of a democratic nation and a free society.
But the main issue of this post is this. In the current context, where some groups of people within Islam are offended because of perceived blasphemy, how much of a point do they have? It isn't unreasonable to want people to be polite towards you, and not ridicule a belief that you hold devoutly (no matter how ill founded that belief may be). But it isn't the case that in the West Islam is generally treated with contempt. In Britain, for example, if you want halal meat, well, there are exemptions from the animal welfare legislation that allows halal slaughtering. If you want your whole family to participate in religious festivals, your children are allowed to be absent from school. If you want to buy a house, there are mortgage deals available from mainstream banks which comply with sharia law. There are over a thousand mosques in the country, and the number of British converts to Islam is increasing, both among the white population and the black population. In addition, there are many non-Muslims who, just like many Muslims, don't approve of abortion, homosexuality, drunkenness, pornography, or gambling. So there is a wide variety of Islamic traditions and values which are either shared or else provided for, perfectly respectably, within contemporary British society.
The point here is that Western non-Muslims are running out of areas that can comfortably be conceded to Muslims (the Muslims whose traditions mean they want them), without having to give up things that are important rights and freedoms within our current partly secularised Judeo-Christian societies. As a non-Muslim, I can't conscientiously say "peace be upon him" after every mention of their prophet's name, for example. If that's regarded as blasphemous, it's regrettable that it's a point of conflict, but it's something that's non-negotiable. What's needed within Islam urgently is that moderate Muslims would help the extremists who claim to share their religion to recognise that if they expect Westerners not to treat their beliefs in a way that causes offence, the favour has to be returned: Muslims, even the most extreme ones, have to restrain themselves from giving offence to Westerners (Christians or atheists) too. At the very least, they need to stop resorting to bullying tactics in an attempt to force everyone else to concede them whatever respect they believe they deserve.
It offends me when people build up wrong impressions of God the Father, or God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit. It offends me when people draw pictures of a man and call it a picture of Jesus. It offends me when people sculpt statues of a man and call it a statue of Jesus. It offends me when people produce films where an actor pretends to be Jesus.
Furthermore, it offends me when people laugh at Jesus, make fun of the gospel, put symbols associated with Christianity in a context of obscenity, and use the names of God as swearwords.
Really, I suppose I wish I found these things even more offensive than I do. It might provide me with a bigger incentive to pray for the Saviour to be publicly respected, and for people who are now antagonistic towards him to be reconciled to him. It might make me more diligent about letting people know that God deserves better than this - that he is worthy of respect and praises, not scorn and mockery, because of who he is, and because of how he freely kindly saves sinners. It might also spur me into speaking out for him publicly using options like letter writing, church going, leaflet distributing, radio phone ins, or anything else that's available to me as a citizen of a democratic nation and a free society.
But the main issue of this post is this. In the current context, where some groups of people within Islam are offended because of perceived blasphemy, how much of a point do they have? It isn't unreasonable to want people to be polite towards you, and not ridicule a belief that you hold devoutly (no matter how ill founded that belief may be). But it isn't the case that in the West Islam is generally treated with contempt. In Britain, for example, if you want halal meat, well, there are exemptions from the animal welfare legislation that allows halal slaughtering. If you want your whole family to participate in religious festivals, your children are allowed to be absent from school. If you want to buy a house, there are mortgage deals available from mainstream banks which comply with sharia law. There are over a thousand mosques in the country, and the number of British converts to Islam is increasing, both among the white population and the black population. In addition, there are many non-Muslims who, just like many Muslims, don't approve of abortion, homosexuality, drunkenness, pornography, or gambling. So there is a wide variety of Islamic traditions and values which are either shared or else provided for, perfectly respectably, within contemporary British society.
The point here is that Western non-Muslims are running out of areas that can comfortably be conceded to Muslims (the Muslims whose traditions mean they want them), without having to give up things that are important rights and freedoms within our current partly secularised Judeo-Christian societies. As a non-Muslim, I can't conscientiously say "peace be upon him" after every mention of their prophet's name, for example. If that's regarded as blasphemous, it's regrettable that it's a point of conflict, but it's something that's non-negotiable. What's needed within Islam urgently is that moderate Muslims would help the extremists who claim to share their religion to recognise that if they expect Westerners not to treat their beliefs in a way that causes offence, the favour has to be returned: Muslims, even the most extreme ones, have to restrain themselves from giving offence to Westerners (Christians or atheists) too. At the very least, they need to stop resorting to bullying tactics in an attempt to force everyone else to concede them whatever respect they believe they deserve.
posted by cath at
9:07 pm
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