Peace Be Upon Him
Happy Everybody Draw Muhammed Day! Reason had a contest for the best Muhammed drawings, which I entered but did not win. You can check out the results and a whole long explanation of the purpose here. I’ve read a whole lot of words on the subject in the last few days; the debate has been pretty interesting. On the one hand you have people saying that it’s important to show solidarity with the victims of violent repression; on the other hand are two-wrongs-don’t-make-a-right people saying we shouldn’t risk offending non-insane muslims for the dubious benefit of pissing off some of the crazy ones. I can see where both sides are coming from.
I’m coming from a third direction entirely. This picture might help explain what I mean, assuming you’re one of the four or so people in the world who know what’s going on in it. I’m stubborn and willful, and I do not appreciate being told that I can’t do something, or told that I’m not good enough for it, or threatened with force or violence in retaliation. In all of those cases, I’ll just be given even more reason to do the thing in the first place. In a way, yes, I can appreciate showing solidarity for others, but moreover I’m just standing up for myself. I’ll not be cowed into silence by a bunch of thugs any more than I’ll be told how I can and cannot play a video game by a bunch of asshole teenagers.
For the other angle — the possibly offending the good muslims angle — well, if any of you happen to be good muslims, and you’re offended, then I apologise. I’m fairly sure none of the Muslims I’ve known would be offended by this; they were all pretty cool, normal people who don’t really take internet memes and goofy cartoons altogether that seriously. But if you are offended, well, I’m sorry.
That said, it’s time for the picturin’. Since my picture wasn’t published by Reason (since, quite frankly, I was outgunned), I figure I need to publish it myself if I hope to get a piece of this sweet getting-murdered-by-religious-zealots action. Since I’m a terrible artist, I’m just repurposing a sprite from my game — I used the same repurposed sprite in the political joke from the other day, but I actually created it for this. I also used a repurposed Richard Pryor joke. And now, without further ado:
