A life without religion is a life of an animal

Religious conflict is again at its height these days all because of a series of cartoons that were first published in a Danish newspaper. Muslims were outraged when their Prophet Mohammed was satirically depicted in a comic strip. I didn't know that their god isn't allowed to be illustrated in any type of art form – or maybe because I simply didn't know anything at all about other religions.

The Muslims are screaming blood; but is it really justifiable? I know that what the cartoonist did may be sacrilege to their religion, but why must the government suffer for the ignorance of its one or a handful of citizens? Can the Muslim community force one country, which gives freedom to the press, to penalize one person who did not commit any criminal act under their country's law? It was like Singapore asking the Philippine government to penalize Juan who had chewed boxes of gum in a public area in Manila.

What we need is religious tolerance and respect, and also a little respect to those people who can be quite uninformed. When the movie The Last Temptation of Christ came out, the Christian community were likewise furious. Christ was depicted in that movie in a humanized way, such as having carnal thoughts and desires, yet I never heard of news of Christians asking for the head of Martin Scorsese - ban the movie probably, but nothing radical as killing all Americans. The type of reaction from some of the people in the Muslim community that's being shown in the press is what's painting their religion in a bad light. Is it rooted in fanaticism or is that what's in their doctrine? And their outright cry (fatwa) for capital punishment is what making other people think that their religious dogma preaches savagery.

In the depth of all religions there flows the general, unifying truth: let Persians bear their taovids, Jews wear their caps, Christians bear their cross, Muslims bear their sickle - moon, but we have to remember that all these are only outer signs and the general essence of all religions is to love your neighbour, and that this is requested by Manuf, Zoroaster, Buddha, Moses, Socrates, Jesus, St. Paul, and Mohammed. - Morris Flugel