We can defuse this tension between competing conceptions of the sacred
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1728649,00.html
The Muslim view that the west has double standards has been entrenched,
and reconciliation postponed
Karen Armstrong
Saturday March 11, 2006
The Guardian
The crisis occasioned by the Danish cartoons, which depicted the
prophet Muhammad as a terrorist, has become a microcosm of the wider
conflict between Islam and the western world. It also represents a
clash between two competing conceptions of the sacred. The sacred, of
course, does not necessarily imply an external deity. Some faith
traditions, especially those originating in the east, have no
conception of the supernatural and are not theistic in the western
sense. The sacred symbolises that which is inviolable, nonnegotiable,
and so central to our identity that, when it is injured in any way, it
seems to vitiate the deepest self. For the Muslim protesters, the
figure of the prophet is sacred in this way; for the supporters of the
cartoons, free speech is the sacred value.
.
|
