The Washington Post: "We Don't Joke about Islam"

Posted September 3, 2007

Berkeley Breathed writes the often funny and sometimes touching "Opus" comic strip featuring a bewildered penguin, an all-American chauvinist named Steve Dallas, and Lola Granola, whose search for enlightenment has led her recently to embrace the Prophet and don the Burqua. Click below to see Sunday’s strip.

Like most comics, Opus pokes fun at the human condition. We see ourselves and we laugh. Besides, it’s America, and we make fun of anything we want to around here. In fact, I’m pretty sure that right to tasteless humor is enshrined somewhere in the Constitution.

Well, the WaPo Writers Group, which syndicates the column, decided that this strip was way too hot to handle. They sent out an alert and 25 papers, including the Washington Post, dropped the strip as a result.

It seems that some things, you just can’t make fun of. Actually –
only one thing. You absolutely cannot joke about Islam. It is SO off
limits. Seriously.

Notice that the WaPo is not worried that men will be offended by Mr. Dallas’ boorish behavior, which he commends heartily to his wide-eyed son. They plainly have no concerns that women might be offended by
a man whose sense of entitlement is so well developed that he orders
women into bikinis. They fear no PETA protesters screaming that animals
were insulted in the making of a cartoon strip. The syndicators don’t
worry about these groups because they don’t throw bombs or start riots
when their sensibilities are offended.

But Muslim groups can get quite excited about cartoons, books,
movies, music — and a lot of other things. And many Islamic groups
have trouble expressing their concerns using their indoor voices.

Recall that in 2005, Denmark’s tiny newspaper, Jyllands-Posten published cartoons of Muhammad. Muslims rioted the world over, set fire to the Norwegian and Danish Embassies in Syria, and stormed European buildings in
Gaza City. More than 100 people died in cartoon-related violence, nearly all of them Muslim.
A number of Muslim leaders called for protesters to
remain peaceful but others, including Mahmoud al-Zahar of Hamas, issued
death threats. Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen described
the controversy as "Denmark’s worst international crisis since World
War II", which in retrospect it probably was.

Obviously what we need here are more cartoons, not fewer. We need to start with Burquini and move on to stronger stuff. It is vital that these cartoons offend evenhandedly – this no time for bigotry.
Plenty of Jews and Christians need a bit of humor about their beliefs
too (I am picturing Christ on a cross complaining that this is a lousy
way for a Jewish kid to spend Easter…..bada bing).

Political and religious groups want to tell us how to live — often
with a sanctimony that would make Steve Dallas blush. The cure is humor
– fostered if need be by cartoons. Only when they laugh at themselves should we take religious or political groups seriously.