Molly Norris disappears

(Zapiro)

Molly Norris, who created that "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" on May 20th this year, has been forced  into hiding:

The gifted artist is alive and well, thankfully. But on the insistence of top security specialists at the FBI, she is, as they put it, "going ghost": moving, changing her name, and essentially wiping away her identity. She will no longer be publishing cartoons in our paper or in City Arts magazine, where she has been a regular contributor. She is, in effect, being put into a witness-protection program—except, as she notes, without the government picking up the tab. It's all because of the appalling fatwa issued against her this summer, following her infamous "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" cartoon.

Norris views the situation with her customary sense of the world's complexity, and absurdity. When FBI agents, on a recent visit, instructed her to always keep watch for anyone following her, she joked, "Well, at least it'll keep me from being so self-involved!" It was, she says, the first time the agents managed a smile. She likens the situation to cancer—it might basically be nothing, it might be urgent and serious, it might go away and never return, or it might pop up again when she least expects it.

We're hoping the religious bigots go into full and immediate remission, and we wish her the best.

Disgusting, isn't it? When you can't persuade everyone else that your lunatic views are true, you just threaten anyone who disagrees with you. Oh, yeah, that will convince them, won't it?

What do you think, that if your opinion is the only one everyone else gets to hear, that you might be able to persuade people then? Yeah, you must really have a rational idea there...

The funny thing about this prohibition on drawing Mohammed is that it was meant to keep Muslims from worshiping him, instead of Allah. It's like the "no graven images" command in Exodus (which Christians generally ignore). Believers start to venerate the artwork, the icon, rather than the idea behind it.

But obviously, this is not a concern for people who aren't Muslim. I'm certainly not going to start worshiping Mohammed now, am I? Nor are Christians, or anyone else who isn't Muslim. (And even for people who are Muslim, of course, this should be their own business and no one else's.)

Ironically, these lunatics who threaten cartoonists have started worshiping Mohammed. It's kind of funny, isn't it? They're doing the precise thing that Mohammed was afraid would happen, worshiping him instead of Allah. You can't draw or paint Mohammed, you can't criticize him, you can't do anything that even hints of disrespect, because Mohammed himself has become their god. These extremists have completely turned around Mohammed's teachings.

Well, that's my opinion, but I'm far from an expert on any of this. When it comes to Mohammed's teachings, I don't know and I don't (particularly) care. Muslims have no more evidence than anyone else that the supernatural even exists, let alone their own particular brand of it. Like religions everywhere, they can't even agree among themselves. Like Christianity, like any other religion, it's almost always a matter of how you were raised, what you were taught to believe as a child.

I disagree with them, but they have the right to believe whatever they want. (And I have the right to criticize it.) What they can't do is force their own religious beliefs - whatever they are - on anyone else. Well, they can't do it if we don't let them, anyway. If we're cowardly enough to let this happen, it's our own fault.

You have the right to your own religious beliefs (or disbelief), period. You have a right to express those beliefs. You have a right to gather with people who believe as you do - to worship, if you wish, to debate, or just to socialize. You have a right to teach your children what you believe.

But you do not have the right to tell others what they must believe (although you can try to convince them to your way of thinking, if there's no coercion at all). You do not have the right not to hear contrary views yourself. You do not have the right not to have your feelings hurt. No one else has to respect your beliefs. No matter how sacred they are to you, some people will find them ridiculous - and have the right to say so, just as you can express yourself in return.

And you do not have the right to threaten violence or commit violent acts. Other people have the same rights you do. If you wish to keep your own rights, defend theirs as well.

Well, most of these Islamic extremists have had no experience living in a diverse democracy. For centuries, their own people have lived in autocracies, forced to believe what the rulers believed. That's how they've grown up, so that's how they behave. When the Iranians threw off the autocratic rule of the Shah, they just replaced him with another autocracy. The result has been merely a change in leaders, which is pretty much no change at all.

For those of us in the West, Islam is not the threat. After all, Christianity used to be just like this. Of course, I consider all faith-based thinking to be a threat to civilization, in a sense. I certainly argue against it. But your own belief is still your business, not mine. You're free to disagree with me. (Most people do.) Whether you want to believe in Christianity, in Islam, in New Age inanity, or anything else, you have that right, and I'll defend it.

The real threat is the same as it's always been, the threat of autocrats who want to force their own beliefs on everyone else. This threat can - and has - come from extremists of any persuasion. Muslim suicide bombers are Christian murderers of abortion doctors are Communist gulag commandants. It's all basically the same thing. Liberals are those people who let others decide for themselves, whatever our own beliefs.

Freedom is a good thing, it really is. At least, we haven't discovered anything that works better. People must be free to make their own mistakes. It's the only way.