Crazy About Mohammed
Seems like the world has gone crazy about Mohammed. Even in my little corner of the world, it seems people are just falling over themselves going ape-shit over the once-holy prophet. In Toronto, some "Muslim" stores now bear signs saying, "We no longer carry any product from Denmark," on empty shelves. Word on the street has it that some Muslims, even more confused than the radicals, are even avoiding danishes -- reducing the risks of finding one of Saddam's lost WMD in their crib.
It seems once quiet Muslims -- quick to point out that they are not radicals -- have suddenly found their religion. Mehmet Solmaz, owner of Tahsin Market on Danforth Avenue is quoted in the Toronto Star as saying, "I am not a fanatic and the issue here is not money. It's about the respect of one's beliefs." This kind of thinking is even getting backing from some of the most credible and expert organizations on the Islamic faith -- like the US State Department, which said via spokesman Kurtis Cooper, that, "These cartoons are indeed offensive to the belief of Muslims. We all fully recognize and respect freedom of the press and expression but it must be coupled with press responsibility. Inciting religious or ethnic hatreds in this manner is not acceptable."
I have to laugh-my-ass-off at this whole situation -- because it seems the world has indeed gone fucking insane. When the US State Department comes out on side with the rampaging-hate of Muslims who want to chop heads off and blow shit up -- you know it's time to move to the country and build yourself a bomb shelter inside the ground.
For Solmaz and his ilk -- those freshly minted Muslims taking offense -- I've got to wonder. Where the fuck are you people when suicide bombers are blowing up innocents on the streets around the world in the name of Mohammed? You choose to take offense over a cartoon, yet when the blood of innocents -- including Iraqi children -- soak the dusty streets of the world, you keep your chicken-shit voices to a murmur. It's OK to go threatening a bunch of journalists -- but to disagree with the devil in your mosques, you hold your tongue. You people are nothing but sheep -- and the ignorant flocking is dangerous. The cartoons don't incite hatred and racism. Imams who issue fatawa for violence against a wide swath of people do. Yet, when the pronouncements from the mosques from the Middle East are made, you're strangely silent -- even a bit embarrassed.
In the Gaza Strip, a preacher told his flock, "We will not accept less than severing the heads of those responsible." In Lebanon, Palestinian refugees call for Osama bin Laden to defend the faith. Sheikh Abu Sharif of Osbet al-Ansar declared that "We will not be satisfied with protests. The solution is the slaughter of those who harmed Islam and the Prophet." In England, protesters took to the street chanting, "Kill, kill Denmark!"
The Muslim faith has been taken over by hate, racism and violence. At every problem, Muslims preach violence, then blow stuff up and kill people. It's not a religion anymore -- it's a movement by a group of people who live off pass glories as they embrace a future of darkness. There isn't much the world can do to save them. They are not looking for love or understanding. They need none. They've fooled themselves into believing there is a promise land, where all women are virgins and everlasting happiness awaits. If you are Muslim, this is what's left for you. The faith of your religion has been in the making for sometime now -- the signs were all there -- you did nothing about it -- and continue to do nothing about it. This latest episode is just a sign that even those without a fanatical bent, are being swayed to darkness. Somewhere up in heaven, Mohammed is abandoning the whole lot of you -- just as you're being marginalized and abandoned here.
Update Feb. 8, 2006
Overboard: Cox & Forkum.
Update Feb. 19, 2006
- The BBC has some video clips online covering some of the protests in Europe.
- The cartoons -- here's what the fuss is all about. [They can be found here too.]
- Danish Muslim leaders and imams on a tour of the Islamic world, were handing out copies of the offending 12 cartoons, plus 3 additional false images. The three false images portrayed Mohammed as a pedophile; in an act of bestiality; and with a pigsnout for a nose. And that's how things really got escalated. Apparently the original 12 were not sufficient to incite an angry response.
- Iran has decided to retaliate. The Hamshari daily will be running cartoons satirizing the Holocaust. Should the Jews just ignore it? Yes. Are the Iranians justified? Nope. Will the Jews react the same way as hardline Muslims? Nope.
- I posted about a 2002 article in the Economist that reports on the United Nations Development Programme's Arab Human Development Report 2002.
- I also posted of the publication of the cartoons in question in Egypt a few days after they were published in Denmark, back in October 2005. There wasn't a violent reaction to the publication in Egypt as there was when European newspapers republished the cartoons.
- Meanwhile in the US, like here in Canada, there has only been cowardice in the press. Few have shown the intestinal fortitude that the press in Europe has shown, in standing together with the Danish newspapers.
- Al-Jazeera reports in 2003 on the educational crisis in the Arab world as found in the UN's Arab Human Development Report 2003. Rich, uneducated, with hardly a potential for a future -- this from a people that were at the forefront of scientific thinking in the Middle Ages.
- Cox & Forkum as two excellent posts on this topic, heralded by two excellent cartoons. Check them out: A Right to Blasphemy and Undeniable.
- Muslims' Fury Rages Unabated Over Cartoons -- a Washington Post article on more protests. Protests have raged in the following countries: Kenya, Iran, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, Egypt, Israel and Jordan. If nothing, it has been demonstrated that Muslims can unite -- in hate. In Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia, thousands of protesters at the Danish embassy shouted, "Destroy Denmark! Destroy Israel! Destroy George Bush! Destroy America!" Context for this stupidity can be found here: Turmoil Over Cartoons Began Quietly Among Danes.
- Not to be out done, a European Islamic group has published a cartoon of Hitler in bed with Anne Frank. They did it to support freedom of expression. Surprisingly, there has been no call for boycotts -- or better yet, not one has issued threats of beheading; committing acts of terrorism; burning embassies; attacking people. Hmm ... I'm sure I'm trying to make a point here.
- Cartoons -- a Jewish perspective. Regardless of it being the Danes that published the cartoons of Mohammed, fanatical Arabs seem to have a perpetual hard-on for the Jews. It all seems to come back to some conspiracy led by the Jews, or benefiting the Jews. So, publishing a few lame caricatures of Mohammed equals denying the Holocaust to the fanatics.
- So, the Prophet Mohammed walks into a bar … a well written opinion piece by Michael Kinsley in Slate.
- I posted a short blurb about fighting hate with intolerance today.
Overboard: Cox & Forkum.- God Doesn't Exist -- Iran is now openly sponsoring terrorism. Targets are US, Israel and those who say nasty things about Muhammad.
- Sign O' The Times -- leadership failure in the Muslim world is the biggest hindrance to them coexisting with the rest of the world.
- Why I Published Those Cartoons -- Flemming Rose, editor of Jyllands-Posten, speaks out in the Washington Post, to answer his critics on why he decided to publish the cartoons of Muhammad.
I commissioned the cartoons in response to several incidents of self-censorship in Europe caused by widening fears and feelings of intimidation in dealing with issues related to Islam. And I still believe that this is a topic that we Europeans must confront, challenging moderate Muslims to speak out. The idea wasn't to provoke gratuitously -- and we certainly didn't intend to trigger violent demonstrations throughout the Muslim world. Our goal was simply to push back self-imposed limits on expression that seemed to be closing in tighter.
- CNN's Despicable Double Standard -- Gateway Pundit reports on the MSM media's hypocrisy. In this example, CNN refuses to show the cartoons of Muhammad, yet on Feb 9, 2006, shows anti-Semitic cartoons on air. Why? CNN isn't afraid of a bunch of Jews. You can find a similar post at the National Review Online.
- 40% of Muslims in Britain want Sharia Law -- a recent poll in the UK reveal some startling results. Conclusion: Muslims continue to drift from the mainstream. Do they even want to join the mainstream? If not, why the hell did they leave their backwards countries to come to the west? You don't like western society? Go home.
- Toonophobia
- Anatomy of the Cartoon Protest Movement -- a summary of cartoon protests past.
- In Nigeria, Muslims took to the street, in protest -- no, in hate -- and up to 15 Christians were murdered. Rioters threw a tire around one man, pour gasoline over him, and set him ablaze. Three children were among those murdered.
- Imams hit road to beat extremism -- and some good news. Not all Muslims are nuts. But, will the cooler heads prevail?
- Offensive Cartoons and Need for Standards of Decency -- an opinion piece by Mirza A. Beg, which I don't entirely agree with. She claims the reprinting of the cartoons is nothing but bigotry. I disagree. Freedom of speech is freedom of speech. While we have laws to temper the activities of holocaust deniers for instance -- freedom of speech allow those individuals to continue to preach their brand of hatred. While I disagree with their beliefs and actions, they have the right to have and express those views. Those "freedoms" are widely practiced in most Middle Eastern nations, where cartoons offensive to Jews are published on a regular basis.
- Christians Attack Muslims in Nigeria
In an apparent show of brotherhood for the Christians in Nigeria's north, attacked by Muslims pissed over cartoons, Christians in the south of Nigeria went on a rampage, attacking and killing Muslims. In this AP photograph, corpses burn under tires set ablaze. What the fuck is wrong with these people?!
Source: BBC.
- Muslims Attack Muslims in Iraq -- meanwhile, in Iraq, the Sunnis and the Shias go at it. It seems quite clear now that Iraq will fall into a bloody civil war soon as the Americans leave and there are no more foreigners to kill. This has nothing to do with the cartoon protests, but a whole lot with how violent religious people are.
- Europe vs. Radical Islam -- Alarmist Americans have mostly bad advice for Europeans, by Francis Fukuyama, Slate.
- Hate: defined by this video of Muslim protest rally outside of the Danish embassy in London, Feb. 3, 2006.
- A Muslim Lawyer's Defense of Publishing the Muhammad Cartoons: "I am as offended by the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad as other Muslims, but I must fight for First Amendment rights."
- Censorship taken too far: Cape Breton University's president cancels a debate on the cartoon because they don't want to offend. Even discussing the topic is now off limits? When will the madness end? Apparently not anytime soon, as was demonstrated in a forum that descended into chaos at the University of California.
- Muslims split on cartoons dialogue: some want dialogue, some don't.
- The Cartoons Conspiracy -- is there really a conspiracy by Muslim countries to "criminalize insults of Islam and its prophet." The Village Voice has an interesting background story on the controversy.
- Meet Sabina Begum -- who fought for, and lost, the right to wear a jilbab to school in England, and lost. Her story demonstrates the problems in the western countries with immigrant Muslim populations. If only they would integrate into the societies they're coming to ...
Image from Headscarf.net.
Jeremy over at eeore's Missing Tale has an excellent, well written and well researched opinion piece on this topic. Check it out for greater context and links to some of the images in question.
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