https://lemmy.world/post/18442816

  • WorkingClassCorpse [comrade/them, any]
    hexagon
    ·
    5 months ago

    Depends on what you're asking, honestly.

    If youre asking why its heretical in Islam to produce an image of Muhammad, there's a deep history of iconoclasm in all of the Abrahamic religions and have each decided on how to deal with religious imagery in their own practice. Islam has the strictest interpretation, but they all have writings dealing with it.

    If you're asking why the meme is offensive, it's because the implication that Muslims are 'a fanatic fan base that will murder you for as little as producing an image of Muhammad'. It's definitionally islamophobic.

    • TechnoUnionTypeBeat [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      5 months ago

      It doesn't help that the "image of Muhammad" that these chuds want to produce is almost always the most vile and racist caricature you could possibly imagine, not far off from the Happy Merchant antisemitic one

      • FunkyStuff [he/him]
        ·
        5 months ago

        It's a good example of selection bias. Everyone who respects Muslims won't draw the prophet, then the ones who don't are gonna make some egregiously racist art.

    • Please_Do_Not@lemm.ee
      ·
      edit-2
      5 months ago

      I am asking why it's more offensive to say "Mohammed has an annoying fan base" than it is to say "Jesus has an annoying fan base," which the original photo does. I get that both are offensive, it just seems like they are on par for a meme, and both are in there.

      • Infamousblt [any]
        ·
        5 months ago

        Because one side says Jesus's fans are annoying and the other says Muhammad's fans are fanatical murderers. They are not being called the same thing. Being called annoying is whatever. Being called a fanatical murderer is completely different.

        • Please_Do_Not@lemm.ee
          ·
          5 months ago

          That makes a lot of sense. I think I read the caption differently in the second image, seeing the word "fanatical" as identifying a group within the group rather than describing the whole. Like "an average Muslim won't kill you for it, but the fanatical ones will, so best not to show an image." Maybe wishfu/optimistic interpretation.

      • WorkingClassCorpse [comrade/them, any]
        hexagon
        ·
        5 months ago

        Honestly, if the meme was revised to just the left panel, plus an empty frame with Muhammad's name, it would be a far better and less offensive meme. I may have even chuckled at it.

        But the right panel isn't just calling Muslims an annoying fanbase - it's portraying them as fanatical murderers, which is a part of the way the west commonly portrays Muslims as 'barbaric' and dangerous. It isn't just 'offensive', it's islamophobic

        • Please_Do_Not@lemm.ee
          ·
          edit-2
          5 months ago

          That makes a lot of sense. I think I read the caption differently in the second image, seeing the word "fanatical" as identifying a group within the group rather than describing the whole. Like "an average Muslim won't kill you for it, but the fanatical ones will, so best not to show an image." Maybe wishfu/optimistic interpretation.