Comparing Apples to Oranges

For the RCL assignment, I chose to write about an opinion page from the New York Times. Titled “Fighting Over God’s Image” by Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey, it concerns the recent protests and deaths of American citizens in the Middle East due to the visual depiction of Muhammad in an online video. It discusses how modern day Americans do not understand the Islamic backlash to something that they find tame. It also discusses how early colonial settlers had very similar opinions on depicting Jesus as those Muslims who are rioting for the depictions of Muhammad. While reading the article, I began to think “Hey, this guy has an interesting point, if we look back in history, early Americans did the same thing”. However, after finishing the article and pondering about the arguments presented in it I thought “Actually, no, this guy is very wrong”. Sure, the first settlers to America were radical Protestants, who were very conservative in the way they lived, and their religious beliefs. They also were vehemently opposed to any visual depiction of Christ and believed Catholics (who pray to images and statues of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and a plethora of saints) were idol worshippers. However, the difference lies with how these two groups of people reacted to these situations. The early Protestants didn’t burn flags, overturn cars, or riot in the streets. They also didn’t KILL people. For the authors of this opinion article to say that Americans don’t understand the reactions of these Muslims because they are ignorant of their own history is ridiculous. Maybe if there where instances of Catholics or “idol worshippers” being burned at the stake in pre 1700s Massachusetts I’d agree with them, but the fact remains that no such thing happened. There is no comparison between these two groups. The riots and murders that have occurred in the Middle East due to an image of Muhammed in film are totally unjustified and absolutely wrong.