Satirizing Muhammad - Funny or just disrespectful?

As most of you probably already know, there has been a lot of controversy over satirical cartoons drawn of Muhammad, the most important prophet of Islam, over the past few years (it all started in Denmark with a Danish newspaper having a competition of who could draw the best Muhammad cartoon). Islam strongly prohibits depicting Muhammad and its adherents (the Muslim community) has therefore, to say the least, not seen lightly on satirical cartoons depicting him. This goes for most Muslims, who have been hurt and angered by the pictures, and not just those who we are used to seeing in media (the ones retorting to extreme measures, bombing newspaper offices and setting fire to flags). I remember when the Danish cartoons of Muhammad started to appear here in Sweden; a Muslim girl in my class, the sweetest girl you could ever imagine and one of my closest friends, became extremely sad when seeing them. She told me that she wished that people could just respect her religion and depict something else if they really felt the need to satirize it.

There are those who claim that one must have the right to satirize Muhammad if one's country is to be considered democratic. Perhaps this is the case. However, I think that if you satirize Muhammad solely to anger people, there is no real point in the satire. Satire's aim should be to improve society; not to increase divides between different religions and ethnicities and thereby create distrust and misunderstanding. Recently, I have seen some satirical images of Muhammad with his face blurred. I would say that this is okay, since it shows some level of respect. I also think that it is more effective, since it will probably make Muslims more interested in understanding the message of the satire. The whole point of satirizing Islam must be to change the religion, right? To point out things that are outdated or unequal in the religion? Well, if you satirize Islam without any degree of respect, what is the chance of anyone listening to your message? And, more importantly, as I have discussed earlier, if you do not have true knowledge of what you are satirizing (i.e. if you don't know the basics of the people believing in what you're satirizing or their beliefs) then it is impossible for you to satirize it in a clever way. In order to make a change you cannot simply attack people. Satire's greatest weapon is humor: Use it!