How many people have either heard, or told, a religious joke? They come in many forms and many varying degrees of offensiveness, depending on the audience. Even some of the most offensive ones we may shake our heads at the teller of the joke, commenting about crossing a line.
What makes these jokes funny or in bad taste? To me, it's all about the intentions of the joke teller. I've always appreciated someone who is able to poke fun at themselves or their beliefs and I expect the same from most of my friends. The intent of the message is more important than the message itself and how it's presented.
In our culture, it's usually deemed acceptable to dress up like the man pictured, and even poke a little fun at our own beliefs in good fun. It encourages debate and conversation, leading to learning more about each others views and religions.Some people create propaganda that is a barely veiled look at their own hatred or racist views, and try to pass it off as "just a joke" if it gets taken the wrong way, or as ":free speech" if it really creates an uproar. There are many examples of this in the past few years. There was the Danish editorial cartoonists, who drew pictures of the prophet Muhammad in a series of cartoons, or the video this year, "Innocence of the Muslims". Both were deemed offensive, but had very different intentions. The funny thing is, the "movie" that has sparked riots and deaths in many middle east countries, doesn't even seem to exist, except for a sequence of scenes with bad acting and terrible production values (Hollywood Reporter, Sept.28 ,2012). Nobody has been able to even verify the existence of a full length movie, but just the rumor of it was enough of an excuse for extremists to rise to action.
I think that if people choose to interpret the intentions of the message, rather than find the worst possible way to take it, there would be increased acceptance and tolerance among religions, rather than perpetuating stereotypes about certain beliefs and assuming everyone from that culture shares those views.
It seems to me that people tend to take small things way too seriously, especially when it comes to matters such as religion, and politics. The comic was clearly created in light-hearted fun, like many other comics, not to poke fun particularly at Muhammad of the Muslim religion, the cartoon also pictured the God's of Christianity and Buhdisim, and people following those religions didn't get offend. However it is worth noting of course that displaying the image of Muhammad is forbidden, but how would non-Muslim danish men even know that? They obviously did not intend the disrespect that was portrayed and deffinatley did not deserve to have their lives threatened, as well as hundreds of other innocent Europeans.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that people tend to take small things way too seriously, especially when it comes to matters such as religion, and politics. The comic was clearly created in light-hearted fun, like many other comics, not to poke fun particularly at Muhammad of the Muslim religion, the cartoon also pictured the God's of Christianity and Buhdisim, and people following those religions didn't get offend. However it is worth noting of course that displaying the image of Muhammad is forbidden, but how would non-Muslim danish men even know that? They obviously did not intend the disrespect that was portrayed and deffinatley did not deserve to have their lives threatened, as well as hundreds of other innocent Europeans.
ReplyDelete