Aswad
Posts: 6618
Joined: 4/4/2007
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Tal,
A certain Danish person, until recently unknown and unimportant to the world outside a small part of Denmark, caused a bit of a stir some time back, at least over here, on account of his charicatures of the prophet Muhammad (ﷺ). This was obviously offensive to some people, and lauded by others. Supposedly, the motive was to support freedom of expression on a theory that the media were being polite out of a fear of violent reprisals, with some attendant rhetoric whose subject and credibility isn't really the topic here.
When one makes a living pissing on the proverbial flag of one of the largest groups around, there is bound to be a bit of fallout, of course. This was apparently expected, as the man built a shelter in which to hide in case of an attack. Seeing as Denmark has gun control, it may be worthwhile to point out that it would be illegal (or tons of paperwork) to have a firearm on hand. In any case, a Somali with an axe eventually did turn up, a mentally disturbed individual at that. And so fear of Islam, rather than a fear of lunatics with axes, is the predictable and widespread response, of course.
Playing with fire isn't supposed to risk burns, after all. 
I can't say it gave rise to any fears about any group in my home, nor of lunatics with axes, but it did give rise to another thought or three. See, the more interesting thing is how the attack played out. The man with the axe shows up, and the artist flees to his shelter to hide until the cops arrive. Meanwhile, he has abandoned his 5 year old granddaughter in the room with the mentally unstable, axe wielding attacker. A little girl with a broken leg from an accident gets left, in most regards immobile and defenseless, while this proud defender of freedom of expression¹ turns tail, runs, hides and waits for the police to take minutes to get there.
Could be that I'm old fashioned, but I'm inclined to think the police should've picked up the little girl and locked the two others in the house to sort out their differences. It might not be a crime for men to cower in a shelter when the expected consequences of their actions arrive, or even to leave immobile children in their care with deranged, armed people with a grudge. But perhaps it should be. He knew what he was doing would cause a lot of anger. He probably knew that a few miles due west of his location, it was a capital crime (until recently) to do the same to that country's figureheads. A lot of what he said indicated he even overestimated the risk. Yet, he's comfortable taking responsibility for a little girl at a point in time where he feels the need to have a shelter in case of attack, and equally comfortable dropping that on the floor when the shit hits the fan.
Now, the attacker didn't kill the girl, for whatever reason. Maybe he was more discriminating of who he went for than his intended target was, or maybe he just wasn't in the habit of killing children. How quaint, right? In any case, one man who certainly knew nothing of the reason, and had every reason to assume a different outcome, was the artist charged with her care. It was forwarded in a book that, despite its numerous flaws, I still enjoy, that intent and deed are the same. I would say commitment and deed are the same, being undecided on whether intent suffices. It seems clear, though, that in this case, it was decided by a coward that he should live and his charge be consigned to what to him would be probable death, a decision by which I am inclined to say his guilt is what might have happened, not what did.
The kicker is this... the artist is still lauded as a hero.
How does that come to pass for manhood, let alone heroism?
Upshot: if anyone found the real tomb of Torvald, they'd be a dynamo short of electrocuting all the PKs... [:****]
Health,
al-Aswad.
¹ Sarcasm! Get your sarcasm here! Only $1.99 a can!
_____________________________
"If God saw what any of us did that night, he didn't seem to mind.
From then on I knew: God doesn't make the world this way.
We do." -- Rorschack, Watchmen.
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On cowering behind little girls to escape consequences ... - 
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