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Inter-religious relation is just like inter-personal friendship. You gotta maintain a take-and-give balancing act in order to make sustainable friendship. In personal friendship, either side should try to maintain give-more-and-take-less principle, not the other way round. The more you implement this principle, the more friends you’ll have.
Take-and-give principle certainly not only limited to material things. The significance thing in this concept is it symbolizes the spirit of making your friend happy first, and he/she’ll make you happy too sooner or later. In other words, never try or make him/her unhappy intentionally or unintentionally. Once it happens, the breaking up is underway, especially if you offend him/her in a big way, on a sensitive matter to him/her.
I think all readers must’ve known and read the Dale Cornegie’s How to Win Friend and Influence People which is a very good manual book for dummy-friend winner.
It should be made clear here, that inter-personal and inter-religious relations are very much different with that of people-government relation. Both the former are very personal while the latter is stock-holder-and-manager kind of partnership. In case of the former, (a) you are obliged to follow certain social unwritten rule or otherwise you’ll get alienated; (b) you’re encouraged to be diplomatic i.e. appreciate the plus value of your friends and keep quiet on the minus one. On the latter, you are free and even encouraged to criticise the government because it’s your right to do so and because they’re doing things on your behalf. Hence the term of freedom of expression emerges as one package in democratic culture and values.
Denmark Prophet Cartoon Controversy
Inter-religious relation between Muslims in the East and Christians represented by the West again is undergoing a rough patch nowadays sparked by the Danish cartoon controversy in which the cartoonist depicts Prophet Muhammad in a very bad images which sparks a furore in the Muslim world which so far effect multi-dimension liabilities to the Danish and Denmark in particular and could be to Europe as far as trade relation go.
I’m glad, however, that American media behave more emphatically and responsibly by not showing the image. The Whasington Post editor said yesterday that his paper would’nt show the image, so is CNN and others.
Offending certain religion and its sensitivities certainly will bring no good to either side and it’s very much nothing to do with freedom of expression as mentioned above.
Last but not the least, I’m glad to tell you that it’s unknown for any Muslim in its 1500-year history to depict, insult and offend any other religious revered figures. Muslim believes that Jesus and Moses are the Chosen ones and deserve the highest regards from ordinary and sinful human like us.***
Postscript:
In case you dont follow this tragic news, see it in CNN.