Cartoons

There is a current hubbub over a Danish cartoon, which depicted Prophet Mohammed with a bomb on his head. Muslims worldwide are apparently horrified and enraged. Rage seems to come more easily to them than horror, from where I sit. As someone who has studied world religions, I think these followers of The Prophet protest too much. Islam is a religious movement which is rooted in bloody conversions and conquests in the name of Allah. The newly advertised softer and kinder version of Muslim thought is a rather recent ( perhaps late 19th Century phenomenon) based in politics in the dying Ottoman Empire. Islam carved its way to the East and slaughtered Buddhists for centuries just for being Buddhists. Muslim hordes destroyed monasteries and burned libraries and slaughtered whole communities of monks, men of meditation, devoted to the pursuit of peaceful Enlightenment and compassion. Over the years, I have often cartooned myself and shared these goofy images of myself with friends. Now, in light of this recent furor over The Prophet's image, I feel quite happy to have made cartooning myself part of my practice.