Bringing Moral Clarity to Blasphemy

In Why are we afraid of Islam, I referred to the cowardly leftists who constantly mock Christianity but are afraid to mock Islam.

I asked:
where are our bold blasphemers of Islam? Were is DeDe LaRue’s image of Mohammad as a dog? Where is Serrano’s picture “Piss Islam?” Where are the images of Mohammad using elephant dung as the medium? I’ll tell you: they are hiding under their beds. The desperate little cowards are in deadly fear of offending a religion that takes blasphemy seriously.

In church last Sunday I was struck by the fact that I was arguing for the wrong end-result. Those who mock and blaspheme any religion are juvenile. If DeDe LaRue says "People don’t like their religion made fun of--so that’s why I do it." She is expressing a belief that is truly infantile.

Religion is an intensely personal and profound part of many people’s emotional and intellectual life. It is not a fit object for ridicule or blasphemy.

While it is true that moral horrors are being committed in the name of Islam. That is no reason to ridicule Moslems or to insult their religion.

It is perfectly true that those creatures who feel free to mock Christianity are afraid to mock Islam. The objective of our scorn is not to create a whole new category of artists who mock Islam; it is to shame those who mock Christianity into the realization that they are not brave, bold vanguards of humanity, but cringing cowards.

Perhaps the death of Theo Van Gogh will bring a little moral clarity to all the posturing we have seen.

UPDATE:
There is an old story about two poor Russian peasants. Each one had a cow.

One of the cows died and that night, a genie appeared to the peasant who had lost his cow and said: “I’ll grant you one wish.”

The peasant replied: “Kill my neighbor’s cow.”

That is the all-too-human reaction when we are injured. We must think about what is the right thing to do, not what will make the situation worse.