The issue surrounding The Insurgent exposes bigotry on all sides. On one hand, we have The Insurgent trying to fight oppression by scribbling penises on Jesus. Although I’m not Christian, I do find their lumping of all Christians into the “oppressor” category ridiculous, as if the Catholics in Ireland haven’t faced oppression; as if progressive Christians have no right to be offended when they’re lumped together with bigots and homophobes. Mocking a mainstream religion like Christianity appears, on the shallow surface, to be radical, but realistically The Insurgent ends up (in practice) as nothing more than the mirror-opposite of the very cartoonists who mocked Muhammad in the first place. I would hope that we can find something more intelligent (and more respectful to the queer community, by the way) to say than “Jesus sucks cock, LOL!”
On the other hand, not only do we have people unrealistically suspecting an anti-Christian conspiracy, but we also have people like Benjamin Mortier ridiculously implying that the non-violent reactions to these cartoons indicates that Christianity is a superior faith to that of the “Fascist Muslims” (“Christians react maturely to childish acts of Insurgent,” ODE, May 24). Has he never heard of Matthew Sheppard? The Phineas Priests? The Crusades? Does he think it kind, mature and Christian to vilify Muslims as “abhorrent murderers”?
Almost every world religion has its good, bad and gray areas, and people on all sides have some nerve claiming any objective hierarchy among them.
Brendan Coffin
University student