On religious symbols, respect, and offence.

[sparkindarkness]

To begin with, before even starting this, I have to say that I do not have an amicable relationship with organised religion. I have seen over and over that organised religion is dedicated to making the life of me and mine sheer hell – not just occasionally, not odd individuals, but largely, in general and by far in the majority. I am not a friend of organised religion – because organised religion pretty much hates me.

In the past people have been angered and outraged by the fact I won’t treat organised religion with the respect they feel it deserves. I have not, do not and WILL not pretend that organised religion – and even religion itself – is somehow separate from the things done and supported by organised religion. I have been told that my refusal to give organised religion a pass or refusing to diminish its role in causing, supporting, encouraging homophobic bigotry is entirely due to my “hating religion.”

So before even beginning this, it has to be clear that I’m not organised religion’s biggest fan or supporter.

Now on religious rules, laws etc I generally have a dim view. I have an especially dim view on people externalising their faith. I do not respect religious rules, norms, requirements or judgements. I will not accept them and if any of these are ever applied to me I will be angry, outraged and offended. Religious rules, standards, symbols are not things I respect.

But I respect people. And while that means I have zero respect for their faith, I do respect people with faith and that that faith is important to them. That means I do not respect the symbols of any faith, but I respect that to some people they are important enough that I’ll generally leave them alone. I do not respect the customs or principles of  many faiths, but I do respect people that that believe they are important so will not appropriate, abuse or play with them UNLESS they are disrespectful to others, their rights and their beings.

I respect people. And because of that, I generally won’t attack religions or religious elements unless they themselves are disrespectful to people. I am not sure how concrete that will remain, especially since I’ve been putting some thought into the fact at very least some factions of organised religion are so utterly committed to opposing everything I am and have that it’s an act of sheer foolishness not to push back against the organisation whenever I see it. But at present this is where I stand.

Now, from that stand point I look at the recent campaign about drawing Mohammad.

Well, firstly 2 people who have drawn Mohammad have explained why they have in eloquent terms that I find highly
persuasive.

I did not draw Mohammad and I do not intend to. Not out of respect for Islam because, I’ll be frank here, I don’t have any respect for Islam as organised religion or particularly as a code, philosophy or ethic either. Much the same as I don’t have any respect for Christianity in those manners either. Nor is it because I have absolutely no artistic skills whatsoever.

But I will not draw it because I respect the people for whom images of Mohammad are important. I will not draw it because I have no reason or inclination to do so EXCEPT to engage with people who would find my actions disrespectful. That is not limiting my actions to fit someone else’s religious prohibition – that is deliberately doing something that I have absolutely zero inclination to do for the sole purpose of violating their religious positions. It would, I feel, be akin to pointedly eating pigs trotters outside a mosque even though I don’t actually like pigs trotters. Sure I have a right to do so and I’d be rather irritated if anyone told me that I should adhere to someone’s religious demand that I not consume pork products, but my sole reason for eating porky-feet would be to annoy people.

And sometimes that’s not a bad thing. Sometimes we annoy people to draw attention to how their positions are harmful, that what they are doing or saying is objectionable and how demanding we conform to their religious rules is oppressive and wrong – after all, this is PART (but only part) of the reason behind so many GBLT kiss-ins that are held. However, I also can’t decide on the action in question – after all, gays kissing is something that we wish to do anyway as a normal part of our lives and we’re protesting because a simple act of love is deemed offensive. Drawing Mohammad isn’t really an incidental activity.

I also think that the situation is complicated by the fact that western society has severe issues with rising xenophobia and islamaphobia and many participants will be doing this less because of a reasoned and considered response to a disproportionate and violent threat imposing religious rules on non-believers and more just because it will piss off muslims. I think it may

So I have not drawn Mohammad, and I do think many of those who have are doing so for problematic reasons. But nor am I saying that I inherently disagree with all those that did or that all those that did did so for bad reasons.  I think many had points to make, important points about the externalisation of faith, of the danger of raising faith above criticism and rejection of violence and I think that their drawings. I support that and agree with that. But I think there may be too much baggage attached to the act for me to wish to make my own doodle.