Hmmm... The thing is that I don't view Islamists as benign. What they hold sacred is often hateful. So no, i think if a person holds hateful ideas as sacred, mockery is a fine weapon.
I disagree. Mockery is no weapon at all against that sort of fanaticism. It's like giving someone the finger in a pitch black room. And if, by chance, the persons you're mocking hear or see your mockery, it effectively ends any reasonable discourse.
I think we're talking apples and oranges. The men who are the leaders of ISIS are not just average people with strongly held convictions. They are sick individuals with a pathology, a lot of weaponry and probably testosterone poisoning. But, as you said, above, it's not the Islamists you're concerned about, but rank and file Muslims who may have convictions you don't share or understand. You're afraid, for reasons I've yet to grasp, that the number of Muslims who believe their communities should be conducted by a form of Sharia law that you and I might question or even abhor is a threat to the billions of other people in the world (including Muslims) who wish to conduct their affairs by different systems.
And that is a shade of diversity you've yet to acknowledge. There are Muslims who would like the principles of Sharia to apply to them and only to them and a much smaller number who are willing and/or able to force their beliefs on others. So, in a sense, we're back to that small number of radicals again. The Muslims living down the street from me may wish to be free to make use of Sharia family 'courts' (essentially arbitration by their community) and may even consent to having non-Muslims make use of those institutions on request, but they have no interest in making their non-Muslim neighbors make use of them.
There is also a difference between having a reasoned disagreement with the particulars of someone's beliefs and trashing their faith, their Prophet, and their relationship with God wholesale. A lot of the mockery that I've seen directed at Muslims and others does the latter. And to no good effect.It does not disabuse the believer of their belief and in fact, has been shown to drive them even further into blind faith. All it ultimately does is make the people doing the mocking feel superior and sets up a dichotomy between people who consider themselves the "brights" while those poor benighted religionists are cast as the "dims."
Humor can be used to make a point, and sometimes irony can be pretty damned enlightening, but mean-spirited name-calling and mockery does not propel people toward a common truth; it's more likely to drive them away.
What I'm suggesting is that you ask after the purpose of your mockery. What do you want it to achieve? Do you really intend to change the heart of the other person? Sway people watching from the sidelines? Rally those who share your beliefs? Bolster your own confidence and sense of identity? Once you've settled on a goal, look deeply at whether it is actually attaining that goal. If it's not, then perhaps a different behavior is called for.
Here's what I know: Taunting someone will not result in their enlightenment or a less hostile environment. Treating them with enough respect to listen and remain open to understanding them (even if you don't agree with them) can result in both. More than that, it can result in you gaining friends whose world-views may be different, but whose friendship is nonetheless precious.
