Cartoons and Hatred

So, I read today about this web site: www.memritv.com

It is the Iranian News Network with English Subtitles. And on there, they had a couple of storys that I found a bit of interest in - namely the one about how Disney is a Zionist Company and a report about the Holocaust cartoon contest that was held in response to the Danish Cartoons depicting Mohammad as violent.

The cartoon story was especially interesting and chilling as they denied the Holocaust ever happened, among other things.

All this made me curious about the cartoons, so I found them at: http://www.irancartoon.ir/gallery/album48/Galym_BoranbayevKAZAKHSTAN5

Along with the cartoons - which are very disturbing, but insightful when considering how the Middle East considers the West - I found the commentary posts on each picture to be fasinating. In truth, the entire "contest", if you could call it that, was intended as retaliation towards the Danish cartoonist and the Jewish world. The contest was a, "you hit me, I'll hit you back" kind of event.

But, overall, I found two things interesting about the both sites. First, the posts that accompanied the pictures. They are angry and hate-filled as both Jews and Muslims took shots at each other, firing off one hateful post after another. Second, the amount of oppression the Arab world believes it and the Palistenians have endured is huge. Clearly the Arab world feels overlooked, miligned and forgotten - that the Holocaust has happened all over again, but this time with the approval of the USA and the UK.

And, if I were to close my eyes for a minute, and put myself in their shoes.... if I were to imagine that I was on the outside looking in... I could see myself putting aside the facts and embracing the fiction of intentional and systemic oppression. Sure, it's not true, it's not real, but that's not the point, is it? The point is that I believe it and because I beleive it, it is true.

And, for me, this is where it gets a bit real. Isn't that what I do with lots of stuff. Isn't that the very nature of faith? To believe with the heart and not the mind?

I feel tension. Not that I am justifying Islam. Never. I am absolutely convinced that it is the faith of the Enemy. The faith that Satan, in his craftiness, is propigating.

However, in these cartoons, I can see the faith of those who haven't encountered the grace of Jesus. I can see what happens when unholy seeds come to bear fruit. I can see what a life without Jesus leads to.

Fear.

Confusion.

Anger.

To these things Jesus answers with love and compassion. And also I hear Jesus' words, "The harvest is full, but the laborers few."

JDF