Islam

In 2005 there was much sound a fury about a series of Danish Cartoons portraying the prophet Mohammed. The bottom line was that several Danish cartoonists drew cartoons including the prophet as part of a newspaper's publicity stunt. Two of the cartoons were making fun of the newspaper's publicity stunt itself. Two were, arguably, based on racial stereotypes. At least one specifically addressed Western stereotypes of Muslims. In other words, the cartoons were a mixed bag of attitudes towards Islam and the West's attitudes towards Islam.

The overwhelming reaction in the Muslim world was of outrage, often with no real knowledge of the actual cartoons.

This controversy has come back. One of the cartoonists, Kurt Westergaard, was targeted for death by Muslim terrorists. This plot was stopped by the Danish police. In response to the terrorist threat 11 Danish newspapers reprinted Kurt Westergaard's original cartoon...further pissing off Muslim nations.

Again...much sound and fury, signifying nothing.

In response to this new controversy, I want to show all 12 of the original Danish cartoons followed by my public response to the cartoons and the controversy. Folks, there are major issues of tolerance, freedom of expression, and basic human decency involved here. When someone insults you (which MOST of the cartoons were NOT doing) you don't kill them or threaten them with death. If you do, you are essentially a psychopath. You can insult them back, boycott them, sue them...whatever. But to kill someone or threaten someone with death over a cartoon is insane. So, here are the cartoons and my original comments:

I just received an email alert saying that Benazir Bhutto, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, was assassinated today. Bhutto had returned to Pakistan after eight years of a self-imposed exile in Dubai, with the hope to becoming Prime Minister for a third time and with the election, restore democracy in Pakistan.

Bhutto was killed after a suicide bomber opened fire and then blew himself up at a rally. This was the second suicide bombing attack on Bhutto since her return to the country of her birth.

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated Thursday outside a large gathering of her supporters where a suicide bomber also killed at least 14, doctors and a spokesman for her party said.

While Bhutto appeared to have died from bullet wounds, it was not immediately clear if she was shot or if her wounds were caused by bomb shrapnel.

President Pervez Musharraf held an emergency meeting in the hours after the death, according to state media.

Police warned citizens to stay home as they expected rioting to break out in city streets in reaction to the death.

During the 1980s I had a roommate whose boyfriend at the time was a "renegade" of the Pakistani elite. It was incredibly interesting and enlightening to talk about Pakistani politics with my roommates boyfriend because it gave me a "real life" insight to the folly that was even then Pakistani politics.

Awhile back I wrote about an anti-Semtitic incident in Indiana where a Republican politician told a group of Jews that they didn't count because they only made up 2% of the Indiana population. I called this the Republican "2% solution." This is how the incident appeared to the Jewish group:

[In Feb. 2006], the Indianapolis JCRC’s Jewish Lobby Day was held. Around 40 Jews from around the State of Indiana came to Indianapolis to lobby our state senators and representatives on a number of issues.

The day ended with a private meeting with Speaker of the House Bosma meeting our group in the beautiful House chambers. We asked questions about full day kindergarten, about the clinics, and a young member of the delegation asked about providing sexuality education in public schools that is more than abstinence based. He responded to everything we asked. Sometimes we liked what he said and sometimes we didn’t. Speaker Bosma wondered why we hadn’t discussed the controversy surrounding the issue of prayer in House chambers. He told us his version of what happened and what he believes, and a passionate exchange took place. The end of this exchange left us, the Jewish delegation, in shock. Speaker Bosma, defending the prayer issue, asked, “How many Jews are there in Indiana? About 2%? There are at least 80% Christians in Indiana."

Even mass murdering lunatics can feel insecure about their looks --and use the Q'ran to hit the Grecian Formula. Yet what counter-terrorism" "experts" are reading into Osama's metrosexual attempt to hide his graying hair reads like a Seinfeld parody of the H.A.T.M or hot ass terrorist mess :

Bin Laden appears in the video with a trimmed beard that is apparently dyed black, hiding the streaks of gray seen in previous footage, and wears a beige cloak over a white robe.

According to Azzam Tamimi, head of the London-based Institute of Islamic Political Thought, the beard dye is a "sign of war."

The rigorous Salafi Islamic school to which bin Laden belongs "condones this dye only in preparation for war," he said.

A US intelligence official speaking on condition of anonymity said agencies believe the video is authentic and was produced as recently as August because of a reference to the 62nd anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima on August 6.

Down to the snickering of Bin Laden's metrosexual ... ahem ... impotence.

The Manolo, the vast right wing's conspiracy answer to the pinko commy Blackwell, doesn't think Osama is rocking the aging metrosexual look at all. Meanwhile, others think he looks like he is not only dyeing, but dying as well; while the rest of us find a reason to die laughing.

I have been discussing for more than a year now how Bush's horrible foreign policy is enabling the rise of a Fundamentalist Islamic Caliphate, uniting fundamentalist Sunnis against us world wide.

I discussed this regarding Somalia and its neighbors (which got me invited onto BBC Radio twice, though I only went on once,

I discussed this regarding Pakistan, our supposed ally which Barack Obama is right not to trust (remember, the elite forces of the Pakistani army put the Taliban in place in Afghanistan and are probably sheltering them now),

And even regarding such normally stable nations like Morocco, Bahrain, and

What a difference perspective makes! Pew released a poll recently that, depending on your perspective, indicates that American Muslims are either hard-working, well-integrated believers in the American Dream or are rabid terrorists that threaten our way of life. Same poll...different spin.

Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com has an excellent analysis of how this Pew poll has driven right wing American nuts into a frenzied hysteria about the Islamic threat from within. Seen through the eyes of those who already feel that Islam is evil, the Pew poll "confirms" their prejudices. Focusing on things like 26% of American Muslims under 30 believe suicide bombings are sometimes justified, the right wing fools on some sites cry out "Holy Shit" and are trying to portray American Muslims as deserving of the prejudice and illegal detentions that some are subject to. Right wing America is SCARED SHITLESS of the Muslims among us.

But the odd thing is, taken from a different perspective, American Muslims appear far more comfortably integrated into American society than Muslims are in any European nation. Looking at the Pew poll of American Muslims from a British perspective, the headline reads: "Muslims 'well integrated' in US." Here are some excerpts from the poll that right wingers in America call "hair-raising" and use to justify their own bigotry: (quotes from the BBC article)

Death and Desecration of Koran in Nigeria

Leo Igwe

Any one who says that Islam stands for peace should take a critical look at the recent killing of a schoolteacher by muslim pupils in Northern Nigeria
On March 21 Mrs. Oluwatoyin Oluwaseesin was attacked and murdered in cold blood by students of Government Day Secondary School Gandu in Gombe State for allegedly desecrating the Koran.

On this fateful day, Mrs Oluwaseesin was assigned to invigilate students writing an examination on Islamic Religious Studies. But in the course of that, she noticed that one of the students came into the Hall with her school bag. She took it from her and put it away. Some reports said she dumped the bag on the floor. Whatever the case, the teacher’s action was followed by chanting of Allah Akbar-God is Great-by the students who said the bag contained a Koran. They accused her of desecrating it.

First of all they set her car ablaze. And later they seized her, stripped her naked, stabbed her to death and burnt her corpse. They later dumped the remains at the back of her burning car.

The students went on to raze down three classes, the school’s administrative block, library, and the clinic. They also attacked and injured the school principal who tried to shield the woman during the rampage. As often the case whenever there is a religious uprising in Northern Nigeria, the state government has set up a panel of inquiry to look into the matter. And Mrs. Oluwaseesin has since been buried in her hometown- Abeokuta.

There's a splendid rant curently on Kos' Rec list, titled Islamic Countries can Suck Jesus' Chocolate-covered C***.

Go read it. Come back when you're done.

Unsurprisingly, the title and content have sparked outrage. Thing is, once you strip off the hyperbole, there's some profoundly disturbing stuff, as detailed here on HuffPost.

Islamic countries pushed through a resolution at the U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday urging a global prohibition on the public defamation of religion - a response largely to the furor last year over caricatures published in a Danish newspaper of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad...

The resolution, which was opposed by a number of other non-Muslim countries, "expresses deep concern at attempts to identify Islam with terrorism, violence and human rights violations."

Yeah. How'd that happen?

The resolution was adopted by a 24-14 vote with nine abstentions. Canada, Japan and South Korea joined European countries in opposition, primarily citing its excessive focus on Islam and incompatibility with fundamental rights such as the freedoms of speech and thought...

There are 17 Muslim countries in the 47-nation human rights council. Their alliance with China, Cuba, Russia and most of the African members means they can almost always achieve a majority.

Human Rights Watch said the resolution could endanger the basic rights of individuals.

The problem with Bush's crusade on all Islam, as his policies seem to be, is that innocent Americans get their rights trampled both by the government and by other citizens who have been stirred into a frenzy of paranoia by Bush's fear mongering.

Salon.com reports the latest in nearly 5 years of innocent Muslim-Americans (and, occasionally, Sikhs mistaken for Muslims) being hassled and profiled as terrorists.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Six Muslim imams were removed from a US Airways flight at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Monday and questioned by police for several hours before being released, a leader of the group said.

The six were among passengers who boarded Flight 300, bound for Phoenix, around 6:30 p.m., airport spokesman Pat Hogan said.

A passenger initially raised concerns about the group through a note passed to a flight attendant, according to Andrea Rader, a spokeswoman for US Airways. She said police were called after the captain and airport security workers asked the men to leave the plane and the men refused.

"They took us off the plane, humiliated us in a very disrespectful way," said Omar Shahin, of Phoenix.

The six Muslim scholars were returning from a conference in Minneapolis of the North American Imams Federation, said Shahin, president of the group. Five of them were from the Phoenix-Tempe area, while one was from Bakersfield, Calif., he said.

Awhile back I wrote a couple of articles on the Pope's speech that seemed to be insulting to Islam, quoting a Byzantine Emperor's statement that Islam was wrong to use violence in the name of religion. This generated some discussion regarding what the Pope's intent was and whether Muslims should be angry or not. All agreed that the violence that the Pope's statement inspired among some Muslims was uncalled for and, quite honestly, a bit crazy. But I maintain that the Pope should have made it much clearer that he did not agree with the Byzantine Emperor's statement after he had quoted that Emperor.

However, we are finally coming to what we all knew would happen: Muslim newspapers around the world are blaming Jews for the Pope's statement. Yes... even though many Jews around the world condemned the Pope's statement as being anti-Islam and inflamatory, Muslims are blaming it on Jews. Even though my source for the controversy was a conservative Israeli news source that was critical of the Pope, clearly it is all the fault of the Jews.

From the Anti-Defamation League

Arab/Muslim Media Allege Jewish Conspiracy Behind Pope' Comments
New York, NY, September 19, 2006 (new cartoon added 9/22/06) -- Cartoons and editorials published in newspapers in the Arab/Muslim world falsely portray Jews as the manipulators behind Pope Benedict XVI and his speech at a German university on the theological need for faith and reason, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)...