i’ve been trying to get some work done but we keep arguing at work about the danish cartoons and the response to them. i guess we are not alone in reflecting on the freedom of speech | blasphemy | deliberate provocation | embarassment to muslims | legitimate outrage (pick your angle). tom has some posts on the subject and the comments are building up. richard has also posted some thoughts which i appreciated. yesterday’s leader in the gaurdian had some pretty strong opinions. but my favourite thought so far has been kester’s with this stunning quote from brueggemann:

We are all created in the image of some God. And there is no more
important theological investigation than to find out in whose image we
are making ourselves.

yesterday’s guardian also had a very interesting long feature worlds apart looking at the parallels between apartheid in south africa and israel’s system of control over the arab people it governs. (the same thought occurred to me when i was there and inspired a couple of the songs on backbone.)