It’s Everybody Draw Mohammed Day, and I can’t draw.

Well, I can’t.

Everybody Draw Mohammed Day: a response to the threats of violence aimed at anyone – or so it seems – who dares exercise free speech by creating an image of Mohammed. From the Facebook page:

…show the extremists that threaten to harm people because of their Mohammed depictions, that we’re not afraid of them. That they can’t take away our right to freedom of speech by trying to scare us to silence.

Ann Althouse doesn’t like the idea:

I have endless contempt for the threats/warnings against various cartoonists who draw Muhammad (or a man in a bear suit who might be Muhammad, but is actually Santa Claus). But depictions of Muhammad offend millions of Muslims who are no part of the violent threats. In pushing back some people, you also hurt a lot of people who aren’t doing anything…

I don’t like the in-your-face message that we don’t care about what other people hold sacred.

I’m down with that, although it’s not that “we” don’t care what “other people” hold sacred. We do. But when “other people” show such radically intense disrespect of our beliefs, then we stop caring.

The target here (metaphorically speaking) is a subset of Muslims. Muslims who aren’t part of that subset may also be hurt, and, well, I’m sorry for that. But we – Western, liberal (classic sense) civilization – cannot allow our society to be cowed by threats of violence. And it seems like that’s what’s happening.

That’s why my illustration of Mohammed was going to be a respectful drawing of a wise-looking bearded man reading from a book, possibly surrounded by other bearded men. See, I’m portraying Mohammed, but respectfully.

Something like this, maybe:

Got that at Malkin’s place. The caption:

13th Century Persian depiction of Mohammed, artist unknown, via Mohammed Image Archive

But I can’t draw, so forget it. Let it suffice that I wanted to draw that.

More at:

Memeorandum;
HotAir;
Gateway Pundit

UPDATE – Mind Numbed Robot has what’s got to be the best Mohammed pic of the day.

And: I hereby declare a Trogwa on Tilting Suds. He wanted a Fatwa, but I haven’t got any of those.