Here's a tough one to think about.

I'm reading a news story a few days ago about the Swedish cartoonist who drew a picture of Allah as a dog and created all the firestorm and controversy that came afterwards from Muslims, who decided that this man needed to have a price on his head, and a higher price if someone actually slit his throat. All this because the purveyors of Islam believe that it's a sin and an insult to try to draw any images of Allah.

The gut check reaction from most of us is that the cartoon shouldn't have been drawn, and what was this guy thinking. Then, the American way of thinking pops in, which says that cartoonists and everyone else have taken pop shots at all sorts of religious icons and the religions themselves, so why should one religion expect to get a free pass just because they say so, since everyone else has been the victim of such things themselves.

It's an even more interesting question when we look at our own history and see that there have been movies, newspaper columns, cartoons, etc, that have touched upon themes that hit on everyone, based on religion, race, sex, etc. Just asking, but how many folks have seen those nasty racist cartoons against blacks and Latinos/Hispanics that, not only the Klan and skinheads publish, but actual news organizations in other countries, who haven't quite caught on that, in America, we don't do those types of caricatures anymore? Heck, forget the news; who remembers seeing Darkie Toothpaste from a few years ago, from Japan, or the stamps from Mexico, which I highlighted here a couple of years ago?

As one last follow up on the main issue, the guy who create and produce the South Park cartoon tried to do a parody of the cartoonists plight, and Cartoon Network, which has supported some of the most outrageous topics of that show, capitulated to pressure and forced these guys to back down in the end when they were going to have their own image of Allah; that was the first time the two creators actually lost one.

I'm not quite sure where I stand on this, since I see both sides. My normal stance is "don't start none, won't be none", but that's not the way the entire world works. Some people do things to provoke others, or at least to get a reaction. That's what this cartoonist did, and he got a reaction, in spades. Thing is, my mind still says a cartoon isn't worth a death sentence, and the group that's put the death sentence on the table is already asking the world why people are scared of those who proclaim Islam as a religion of peace, when such an action doesn't seem peaceful at all.

Unfortunately, there's just no easy answers; doesn't mean we shouldn't think about it, and possibly talk about it, though.