“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments,” Exodus 20:3-6

The relationship between art and religion is, like a tempestuous marriage, rarely a harmonious one. This is especially true of Islam. All three religions take their cue from this second commandment of the Decalogue cited above. It might be said to be the commandment with the history of the most controversy and the broadest range of interpretations.

While I believe graven images or realistic portrayals of men and beasts have not been universally prohibited by Islam, the modern militant variant is pretty universally prone to iconoclasm. They are especially sensitive to art produced in service of other creeds (remember the Taliban’s destruction of the colossal Buddhist sculptures?) and especially graphic or literary portrayals that might show the Prophet in anything other than an attitude of complete devotion.

I must confess to a certain admixture of conflicting attitudes and emotions concerning this latest flap over the rendering of the image of Mohamed in the Danish press. Of the twelve cartoons initially published, I have seen only two in a resolution and a translation that allowed me to frame an opinion. Let’s start with my first impression upon seeing these two most popular (infamous?) pictures.

I admit to immediately disliking the first cartoon I saw. I felt that the portrayal of the Prophet with a burning fused bomb under his turban was insulting to moderate Muslims – the very people who suffer the most from the reaction to the excesses of their fundamentalist brethren. I felt that the cartoon of the prophet as an incendiary was in bad taste, rather like showing Jesus with a Thompson sub machine gun clearing liberals out of the temple of Congress.

In spite of my feelings that the fundamentalist Muslims may represent a more authentic expression of the religion, I still feel we should do all things possible to cultivate the liberal, mainstream, tolerant members of Islam. Like their counterparts in the other monotheistic creeds, we need to try to dis-enthrall them form the more militant, irrational and megalomania-cal attributes of their respective faiths. This is, after all, the only way to a peaceful world.

Would that I could just wave a magic wand and free humanity of the plague of organized, monotheistic religion forever. John Lennon was so right!

The second cartoon made me laugh. It showed the prophet in paradise coming forth to confront charred, newly arriving suicide bombers with the exclamation, “You’ve got to stop coming. We’re running out of virgins!” I admit that the second cartoon appealed to my own bias about the absurdities of many of the ego-driven rewards gullible Christians and Muslims are promised in the afterlife. I’m sorry, but if your religion proclaims to the world a belief that the afterlife is composed largely of an eternity of sexual pleasure, then I think you deserve to have it satirized.

In a similar vein, the Christian image of the rapture is equally deserving of ridicule. I’m surprised that more humorists and cartoonists have not taken up this theme. I guess the fact that nearly a third of all Americans are clinically insane enough to actually believe in this absurdity may be the source of their inhibition. I do not know how many peace-loving, moderate Muslims believe in the concept of a heavenly, everlasting, orgasmic reward for martyrdom. I hope not many.

If you’ve ever accidentally happened upon a Christian stand-up comic on a religious cable network, you probably already know that fundamentalists have no sense of humor. I also doubt that there is any equivalent of the Borscht-belt comic network within al-Qaeda. I have no idea if these guys get their yucks over anything less hilarious than watching large capitalist buildings come crashing to the ground.

The reason that I think the concept of genuine humor is inimical to many fundamentalists goes back again to the fallacy of misplace concreteness. In order to find something funny, you have to be able to understand and tolerate a basic level of ambiguity and incongruity.

You have to be open to contradiction and a knowledge that an exaggeration is often a willful way of testing and laughing at our own credulity. Much humor deals precisely with this all too human quality of mistaking our idea of the world with actual reality. This quality is pretty much nonexistent among religious zealots.

Now lets step over and see what would be considered the other side of this debate concerning these cartoons. What would you call it - the argument for the rioters? - the argument for intolerance? Europe is considerably more secular than America.

Unlike our virtual political theocracy, a candidate in many EU countries who made their belief in God a big campaign issue would probably be defeated at the polls and shortly thereafter be placed under psychiatric examination. Compare this unpopularity of religion with the existence of growing numbers of orthodox Muslims in their midst. Add to that fact, the reality that many of these Muslims are also economically and culturally disadvantaged and feel oppressed by the secular culture, and you have a recipe for conflict and resentment.

Such a tinderbox does not take much to set it off. That is why the riots and destruction are so widespread and violent. In the Muslim’s minds, these cartoons represent not just a defilement of their religion but also the confirmation of their oppression and the indignities that they are being subjected to daily. Even though intolerance of free speech and an over reaction to a stupid provocation may be wrong, it is also wrong (although not illegal) to deliberately inflame the sensibilities of the oppressed, the literal-minded and the intolerant.

Certainly there is freedom of the press over there as well as here (unless as before mentioned you are a Holocaust denier.), yet let me ask you if any newspaper in this country would feel free to publish a similar cartoon critical of Christianity? And the Christians are not even a particularly oppressed group in spite of what Pat Robertson might say.

On top of all this, there is ample evidence that militant influences and some governments within the Muslim world community are taking advantage of this situation to fan the flames. This, of course, can only help with the agendas that many reprobate Muslims desire: propping up corrupt regimes and terrorist recruitment …and so the viscous cycle rolls on.

In summary, all these words are my attempt to analyze and resolve what may be an insoluble situation. How does one balance the requirements of a free, secular, diverse society with the needs and sensibilities of the minorities in their midst?

In our own history, oppressed ethnic groups that were not slaves or the object of outright genocide had at least a generation or two to move from ghetto to a trade to politics. The modern world moves too fast for such outmoded means of societal reformation.

Of course social and economic justice is always a good start. In my final analysis, I must reluctantly come down on the side of freedom of expression even if it includes the right to yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater. We must not give in to the blood lust of this hysterical, manipulated mob.

Like all fundamentalist monotheists, the true Muslim will not be satisfied until the whole world is oppressed by his stunted, narrow-minded and undemocratic belief system. And don’t you dare quote me out of the context of my preceding qualifications of this characterization!

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