If Jesus Was Caricatured the Same Way Prophet Muhammad Was, Would We View this as Freedom of Speech?

On Sunday, Garland, TX was the most recent scene of violence due to an event built around anti-Islamic views. At the Curtis Culwell Center, a Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest was held. The idea was to have people submit a drawing of the Prophet Muhammad for a $10,000 cash prize. The problem is that the depiction of the Prophet is seen as blasphemous by many Muslims. There should be no illustrations of the Prophet Muhammad and when there has been, the results have been deadly.

This time around, a security guard at the front door was shot and is expected to make a full recovery. Police shot and killed the two gunmen who got out of their car and began shooting. No one else was injured.

Since this already seen as highly controversial, security was already on high alert, waiting on any similar incidents.

This brings us to the question: is depicting the Prophet Muhammad guaranteed by freed of speech or is it unnecessarily igniting provocation and hostility?

It seems as if there should be some line drawn at decency and respect. While freedom of speech is an ideal that most of us hold dearly, shouldn’t there be times when we exercise our right to keep our opinion to ourselves? What’s the point of freely making a point when it adds nothing to the public debate or advance critical thinking? Should inflammatory remarks warrant the same kind of protection?

How would a reasonable person feel if Jesus was caricatured in a negative light to scorn or ridicule Him? How would a Buddhist feel if Buddha was caricatured?

It seems that Muslims and Islam are increasingly becoming targets of hatred and too many people seem to be okay with this. After all, all Muslims were involved in 9/11, all Muslims are terrorists, all Muslims’ number one goal is to destroy Western life, including Christianity as we know it.

This kind of thinking is becoming dangerous and is going to continue to have lethal consequence until we all understand this: saying a terrorist is a true Muslim is like saying a KKK member is a true Christian. Neither is a representation of their religion, just an extremist who wants to hide beneath religion.