Prophet Muhammad Cartoon Day

My personal submission for "Draw A Cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad Day". I genuinely hope it's lost in a sea of submissions in support of this day.

I want people to know I didn't draw this cartoon to send a message to Islamic extremists. I don't expect them to change or reform or learn anything. They will react exactly the way I expect them to.

My message really is to other artists. Don't ever let people dictate standards into you. What you choose to say and how you express yourself is the smallest risk you will ever take in your life. What you choose to give up because you're worried about irrational bullying is the greatest risk you will ever take in your life.

What is sacred is wholly up to the individual and not to be dictated by someone else. To me freedom of speech is sacred, to demand to take that from me just because someone else regards an image as sacred is offensive to me. So if my cartoons are offensive, tough. There's no apology and it's not going anywhere. This is my stand, this is my religion. If you don't like it there's an infinite world of images you could be looking at besides this one, move along.

I chose not to put an ideologically sensitive warning in this because there's nothing offensive happening in this cartoon that would get it censored other than the presence of the prophet Muhammad. Since that has never been grounds for applying warnings to other cartoons I have made of other deities (such as Jesus Christ) I don't believe it applies to this one, it's a fair even ground no matter who makes threats or demands. If DeviantArt disagrees and believes it should have a warning, then I will change it to have a warning (it's their submission standards and I will support that), but right now I personally don't see it as an issue.