Monday, September 18, 2006

The War of Cartoons

Since the Mahommad Cartoon saga, a lot of ink has been spilled around the world trying to understand what are the limits to the 'right to ridicule.'

In the last year we have seen cartoons about the holocaust and cartoons against the christian faith.

The last in time is the Ratzinger cartoon, following the recent debates surrounding the pope's speech in Regensburg. You can view the cartoon here.

Even if the taste of the cartoon is arguably open to disagreement to say the least, there is no reason to ban it or to stop circulation.

Most importantly, this idea should be understood in the framework of reciprocity. Different faiths owe to each other mutual respect. If the condition of mutuality is respected, then dialogue will be possible. Without mutual respect, no dialogue is feasible. This is what ratzinger was trying to say, but some people wanted to misunderstand the message.

1 comment:

Srdjan Cvijic said...

I know that the following reasoning will seem superficial, but let my try, often it is hard to distinguish in a conflict who is right and who is wrong, and seldom one can really do this. Taking this as a strating point let us still indulge into this operation and if we do this, always, almost always you can recognize the side that is less in the right by the awful humour...this cartoon is funny...but only to retards...excuse me for my political incorectness and arogance, but if you have IQ more than 50, this can hardly make you laugh, in this way you recognize populism, and who has to resort to populism, either has it wrong (in this case is exaggerating), or is politically weak...I read the lecture of the head of the Roman Catholic church and it is a test case of bad (mistken9 diplomacy, nothing more nothing less..