‘You wouldn’t see anyone disrespecting Islam like this, would you?’

Among all the predictable reactions to the “satanic” Grantleigh art exhibit was the kind of annoying comment that always seems to crop up whenever anyone is perceived to be satirising, mocking or otherwise disrespecting the Christian religion – and that’s when Christians and their sympathisers reach longingly for what they perceive to be the wrath of Islam.

“You wouldn’t see anyone disrespecting Islam like this, would you? You wouldn’t see anyone dare to mock the Prophet Muhammad! And yet they think it’s okay to mock Jesus!”

Along with this refrain, we hear about all the supposed double standards of the media and modern culture.

It’s not even a standard or double standard though, it’s just good old-fashioned fear and bullying. Because, sure, while Islam expressly forbids any visual depiction of their prophet, that’s not the reason most of us respect this rule. It’s because there are too many murderous lunatics out there who deludedly think they’re good Muslims and who are willing to blow you to bits if you disrespect a rule that should only apply to Muslims alone.

There’s nothing desirable or admirable about that, and anyone suggesting this is the path Christianity needs to follow if it wants “respect” should remember it’s only too easy to confuse fear with respect, but they are never the same thing.

We only have to recall the appalling fate of the editorial staff at Charlie Hebdo in 2015 for a reminder of just how bloody things can get if you try your luck with mocking Islam.

But as a Christian, why would you even begin to long for the same kind of fearful, grudging “respect” that Islamic fundamentalism – the most extreme and controversial version of this religion, if it can even be considered a part of Islam at all – has come to impose on billions?

It’s a bit like if someone gives you a look in a bar that you don’t like and, instead of saying: “What are you looking at? Do you want to get f**ked up?” you say, “Hey, you’re lucky I’m not that guy over there. Because if you gave him that look you just gave me … man, he would f**k you up.”

Really? Your reference point is some psycho who isn’t you?

Other religions likewise ban “graven images”, including Judaism. But no one is terrified that a Jewish person is likely to come and suicide bomb them if they paint a picture of the Hebrew God, because that’s what Christians do all the time. You just have to look at the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling for evidence of the most famous example, The Creation of Adam, which was among the Renaissance’s most famous works and which the Grantleigh artist used as a satirical reference.

As Prof Pierre de Vos wrote this week, many Christians and even the African Christian Democratic Party are confused about this respect thing, because they believe the constitution guarantees them the right to “have their faith respected”, but there’s no such thing. Our laws promote religious tolerance and diversity, with a guarantee that you have the right to keep whatever faith you choose. But you also have to accept that the next person has just as much of a right to disrespect whatever it is you may believe.

I have the right to be an atheist, and you have the right to mock me or otherwise criticise me for it if you want to. You have no business demanding I should respect what it is you think simply because you’ve told yourself it is worthy of some special treatment.

Christianity is, according to its own precepts, a religion that’s meant to be about stoically accepting earthly suffering and turning the other cheek, among many other things, and in return you get to go to heaven, supposedly.

For century after century, the Catholic Church enforced exactly the opposite view, and would either burn you at the stake or brutally torture and murder you in various other ways you if you so much as smelt of heresy. Fortunately we’ve moved beyond that, but it seems there are still some among us who have a bit of nostalgia for the Spanish Inquisition.

The world we live in today in which we are free to express individualism, creativity, unique ideas and yes, our jokes at the expense of any god you choose to point at, is thanks to the progressive strides we have made in the past 400 years.

In that time, we can thank rational thinking and the science that informs it for creating greater general prosperity, health, security, education, democracy, freedom and longevity than this world has ever known, and which we’re often quite ungrateful for. Most of us don’t even realise how much better life is, on average, today than it was just 100 years ago, never mind 500 or 1,000 years ago.

There’s nothing to admire or long for in any religion in the 21st century that still has a tendency to make you dead if you make fun of it. The great irony, of course, is that most Islamic leaders and scholars do not condone the violence meted out by Islamic fundamentalists. They point out that terrorism and religion shouldn’t be conflated and confused, and they’re right.

And they don’t, publicly at least, opine that the Charlie Hebdo attack was cool. Islam is, for the most part, marketed as a religion of peace, and it’s obvious that for most of the 1.8 billion Muslims in this world, it is.

I once found myself in an editorial news meeting after a decision was made by an editor, with the support of most of the newsdesk, to pull a satirical column because it was perceived to be making too much fun of Christianity. When I was asked for my opinion, I said I didn’t agree.

I was told: “Ja, but you wouldn’t have let us run a cartoon of Muhammmad, would you? You wouldn’t make fun of Islam.”

Well, yes, I wouldn’t have, because I’m not insane.

But why did anyone feel the need to even force that connection? It felt like we were ceding our commitment to freedom of expression to a needless extension of a fear of something completely different.

In the end, Islam was probably invoked as an added rationalisation and excuse to avoid getting a few angry letters from Christians about that column. It was also no doubt done to avoid being boycotted by Christians, and I guess newspapers have to worry about selling every copy they can.

Hopefully it wasn’t really done as a way of extending our treatment of and terror at Islamic fundamentalism to every other religion.

Because the “you-wouldn’t-disrespect-Islam-like-this” argument has got to go.

Citizen digital editor Charles Cilliers

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