02.06.06

waiting for saladin

Posted in ...ism schisms, View points at 7:05 am by daMan

damn — if i were a Muslim,  i’d start to feel like a conspiracy theorist:

there are riots in Denmark… outraged Muslims have taken to the streets, reacting to "a cartoon of the prophet mohammed" — this is how the Western press is portraying it: in lockstep, karlrovian, terms of disinformation…

notice that no description of the cartoons in question is mentioned — as if to imply "those crazy f—in’ muslims: there they go again"… even if we ignore the fact that this full page of cartoons portray the single most important (human) person in the Islamic faith in a variety of, well… extremely disparaging ways¹

unless you’re completely ignorant of the tenets of the Islamic faith, you would realize that the basis for this outrage is the blasphemous nature of any graphic representation of "The Prophet"…  you yourself may eat pork and shellfish, but if you invited an Orthodox Jew over for dinner, would you offer these dishes as sign of your hospitality?

this "cartoon controversy" is being portrayed as an issue of freedom of speech vs. fanatical intolerance — with Hamas elected in Palestine, the Muslim Brotherhood outlawed yet still emerging as the dominant opposition party in Egypt, Iran being set up to dance the Iraq two-step, and cries for the U.S. to leave Pakistan — is this really the time for the West to fan the flames, and pretend not to see the fire spreading?

Israel talks of withholding the… taxes they withhold "on behalf of " the Palestinian people unless… wait a damned minute: unless what, dammit?

like Hamas or don’t… hold fast to the belief that "once a terrorist, always a terrorist"… whatever you feel, the moneys in question belong to the Palestinian people… is this really the way to convince a group sworn to destroy Israel to change its mind? and to damn the entire Palestinian people…  even due to an understandable fear of Hamas’ potential… is to stereotype them all as terrorists….

are all whites racist?  are all jews rich?  are all blacks criminals?  everyone would admit that these statements are the grossest of stereotypes… but somehow… its okay to not only portray all Muslims as terrorist – but to therefore regard them as deserving of our violent, "pre-emptive" responses — and to feel free to disrespect their religion, and blaspheme their prophet….

which part of this doesn’t look like a crusade?

1. would you publish cartoons of Moses eating pork chops, while receiving the Ten Commandments? Jews bodysurfing across the waters of the parted Red Sea? caricatures of happy holocaust victims smoking meat in gas ovens alongside the corpses of their beloved? not could you — would you??? this is an approximation of how offensive the "cartoon" in questions would be, to someone of Islamic faith… [back]

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