(09-16-2010, 10:14 PM)Twin-Skies Wrote: And I think that a religion that does nothing about - if not outright supports - death threats from its constituents against anybody they don't like is atrocious and should be criticized for its draconic policies, regardless of where one is from.
From an argumentative standpoint, you're making the mistake of lumping all Muslims into the terrorist stereotype, which is exactly what makes so many hate America. Muslims make up 1/5 of the world's population. You seem to be arguing that 1/5 of the global population are closet terrorists. I know you're not doing it on purpose and it should seem obvious to people, but to most, it won't. This distinction is important.
What the cartoonist woman did just added up to the daily bias and misconceptions Muslims get about their faith. Even the most moderate people have their boiling points, and actions like this do nothing to help it. If anything, it only preaches to the crowd and gives fuel to actual terrorists to initiate the less educated into their brand of Islam. I get your line of reasoning, I see it repeated by mass media pundits on a daily basis and to date, no one's ever given a clear plan towards how to actually resolve this issue with the Muslim world.
On free speech, try to see it as a normative structure, separate from very human and real world considerations. All ideas seem noble at first but turn ugly when put into practice. It's quite easy for someone sitting behind a keyboard to argue on the importance of the principle of free speech, but in practice it's extremely difficult to draw workable guidelines without offending anyone because occasionally, there are idiots like this woman that abuse the principle and then hide behind the law as if she did nothing wrong. To put it in a more extreme context; the Muslims who called for her death could argue in court that they were simply exercising their right to free speech as well, at least until someone actually kills her.
You need to see the bigger picture and realize that some people will never be able to think the same as you, and make considerations for that. Intellectual criticism/Logically destroying their arguments might make you satisfied for a little while but it won't change the way they think. It's simply not the best way to engage others.
