Editorial about the "Cartoon" violence

#1

CALVIN AND HOBBES -- AND MUHAMMAD By Ann Coulter
Wed Feb 8, 8:16 PM ET

As my regular readers know, I've long been skeptical of the "Religion of Peace" moniker for Muslims -- for at least 3,000 reasons right off the top of my head. I think the evidence is going my way this week.

The culture editor of a newspaper in Denmark suspected writers and cartoonists were engaging in self-censorship when it came to the Religion of Peace. It was subtle things, like a Danish comedian's statement, paraphrased by The New York Times, "that he had no problem urinating on the Bible but that he would not dare do the same to the Quran."

So, after verifying that his life insurance premiums were paid up, the editor expressly requested cartoons of Muhammad from every cartoonist with a Danish cartoon syndicate. Out of 40 cartoonists, only 10 accepted the invitation, most of them submitting utterly neutral drawings with no political content whatsoever.

But three cartoons made political points.

One showed Muhammad turning away suicide bombers from the gates of heaven, saying "Stop, stop -- we ran out of virgins!" -- which I believe was a commentary on Muslims' predilection for violence. Another was a cartoon of Muhammad with horns, which I believe was a commentary on Muslims' predilection for violence. The third showed Muhammad with a turban in the shape of a bomb, which I believe was an expression of post-industrial ennui in a secular -- oops, no, wait: It was more of a commentary on Muslims' predilection for violence.

In order to express their displeasure with the idea that Muslims are violent, thousands of Muslims around the world engaged in rioting, arson, mob savagery, flag-burning, murder and mayhem, among other peaceful acts of nonviolence.

Muslims are the only people who make feminists seem laid-back.

The little darlings brandish placards with typical Religion of Peace slogans, such as: "Behead Those Who Insult Islam," "Europe, you will pay, extermination is on the way" and "Butcher those who mock Islam." They warn Europe of their own impending 9/11 with signs that say: "Europe: Your 9/11 will come" -- which is ironic, because they almost had me convinced the Jews were behind the 9/11 attack.

The rioting Muslims claim they are upset because Islam prohibits any depictions of Muhammad -- though the text is ambiguous on beheadings, suicide bombings and flying planes into skyscrapers.

The belief that Islam forbids portrayals of Muhammad is recently acquired. Back when Muslims created things, rather than blowing them up, they made paintings, frescoes, miniatures and prints of Muhammad.

But apparently the Quran is like the Constitution: It's a "living document," capable of sprouting all-new provisions at will. Muslims ought to start claiming the Quran also prohibits indoor plumbing, to explain their lack of it.

Other interpretations of the Quran forbid images of humans or animals, which makes even a child's coloring book blasphemous. That's why the Taliban blew up those priceless Buddhist statues, bless their innocent, peace-loving little hearts.

Largely unnoticed in this spectacle is the blinding fact that one nation is missing from the long list of Muslim countries (by which I mean France and England) with hundreds of crazy Muslims experiencing bipolar rage over some cartoons: Iraq. Hey -- maybe this democracy thing does work! The barbaric behavior of Europe's Muslims suggests that the European welfare state may not be attracting your top-notch Muslims.

Making the rash assumption for purposes of discussion that Islam is a religion and not a car-burning cult, even a real religion can't go bossing around other people like this.

Catholics aren't short on rules, but they couldn't care less if non-Catholics use birth control. Conservative Jews have no interest in forbidding other people from mixing meat and dairy. Protestants don't make a peep about other people eating food off one another's plates. (Just stay away from our plates -- that's disgusting.)

But Muslims think they can issue decrees about what images can appear in newspaper cartoons. Who do they think they are, liberals?

Bot · #2

"In order to express their displeasure with the idea that Muslims are violent, thousands of Muslims around the world engaged in rioting, arson, mob savagery, flag-burning, murder and mayhem, among other peaceful acts of nonviolence."

Couldn't have said it better myself!!!

"But apparently the Quran is like the Constitution: It's a "living document," capable of sprouting all-new provisions at will. Muslims ought to start claiming the Quran also prohibits indoor plumbing, to explain their lack of it."

"Making the rash assumption for purposes of discussion that Islam is a religion and not a car-burning cult, even a real religion can't go bossing around other people like this."

LMMFAO!!!!!!!!

#3

I think my sentiments are with what raum said in the shoubox earlier...Man I'm hating the news today...

#4

In a fight between Cartoons and Islam, Google Agrees:

Cartoons win!

Bot · #5

I just finished reading this article at Politics Canada. It's by Rob McGowan, creator of the website. I found the last paragraph particularly interesting.

I'd like to think that someday people will stop viewing the Muslims as victims. NO ONE is innocent in this situation. No one.

"Muslim demonstration in Toronto
13/02/2006

This weekend a Muslim group peacefully demonstrated in front of the Danish consulate office in Toronto.

They held up signs and denounced the actions of a cartoonist and the newspaper that chose to feature its satire because it was disrespectful of the Muslim religion. This is their right of free expression in this country.

What the group ignored is the obvious contradiction presented when exercising their right of free expression to condemn a cartoonist†™ ¢‚¬„¢¢‚¬Å¡‚¢†™‚¢‚¢¢¢‚¬Å¡‚¬¦‚¡¢‚¬Å¡‚¬†™‚¢‚¢¢¢‚¬Å¡‚¬¦‚¾¢‚¬Å¡‚¢s who also holds an equal right to create satire.

Canadian freedoms protect all religions; permitting us to celebrate them, practise them, praise them, sometimes criticize them, and occasionally make fun of them.

Demanding that satire should not trespass on religion diminishes the rights and freedoms of all and is wholly inconsistent with the values we cherish and defend.

It is noteworthy that the group did not demonstrate against the Muslim regime that destroyed two of the World's tallest Buddha Statues characterizing them as non-Islamic and therefore deemed subject to wholesale destruction."

Article written and posted by Rob McGowan
Creator of Politics Canada

#6

My favorite is when the Danish cartoonist had his cartoons reprinted in a French newspaper, and the Muslim clerics denounce America and bomb an embassy in their own country that never even saw the images, and forbade them in the building, out of respect for the religious offense not intended.

Can someone get these people a geography textbook?

Personally, I find the whole thing hypocritical. You do not have 60%+ of your male populace named after the prophet, directly or through epithets, and then say iconography is forbidden. By naming yourself after him, you are essentially making yourself the image of him. You are idolizing him in everyway he forbade, and then forcing the rest of the world to adhere to nonsensical commandment of "Thou shalt not draw." What is the difference between drawing a picture of Mohammed the Prophet, and Mohammed who works at the gas station? If I were the Dane who drew the pictures, I would have said "Actually, this is Mohammed the taxi cab driver who left your hell on earth and succombed to the temptations of the Western world, like soap."

vertical,
raum

Bot · #7

I've come to the conclusion that nothing the Muslims do makes any sense at all.

Someone was telling me that he thinks the Western World has a fear of anything Muslim... I think that's a crock of shit. The Western World is afraid of upsetting Muslims. Why? Because every time something upsets Muslims, this shit happens. And who always eventually gets the blame? The Western World.

Hell just today it was announced that rioters burned American flags, and destroyed Pizza Hut, KFC and McDonald's restaurants.

#8

Yep. In Pakistan where American companies are now outsourcing Help Desk and Customer Care jobs causing thousands of Americans to lose their jobs! Doesn't make sense does it?

#9

Cleric: $1 Million to Kill Cartoonist

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - A Pakistani cleric announced Friday a $1 million bounty for killing a cartoonist who drew Prophet Muhammad, as thousands joined street protests and Denmark temporarily closed its embassy and advised its citizens to leave the country.

Police confined the former leader of an Islamic militant group to his home to prevent him from addressing supporters over the cartoons, amid fears he could incite violence, after riots this week killed five people.

[spoil:06f8ed968e]Security forces were out in strength, particularly around government offices and Western businesses, as Muslims streamed onto the streets after Friday prayers. More than 200 people were detained, but most gatherings were peaceful.

In neighboring India, police used batons and tear gas to disperse thousands of angry worshippers who rioted in the southern city of Hyderabad. They burned Danish flags, pelted police with stones, and looted shops. Hundreds more protested in Bangladesh.

In the northwestern Pakistan city of Peshawar, prayer leader Mohammed Yousaf Qureshi announced the bounty for killing a cartoonist to about 1,000 people outside the Mohabat Khan mosque.

Qureshi said the mosque and his religious school would give $25,000 and a car, while a local jewelers' association would give another $1 million. No representative of the association was available to confirm it had made the offer.

"This is a unanimous decision by all imams (prayer leaders) of Islam that whoever insults the prophet deserves to be killed and whoever will take this insulting man to his end, will get this prize," Qureshi said.

Qureshi did not name any cartoonist in his announcement. He did not appear aware that 12 different people had drawn the pictures.

A Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, first printed the prophet pictures by 12 cartoonists in September. The newspaper has since apologized to Muslims for the cartoons, one of them showing Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban with an ignited fuse. Other Western newspapers, mostly in Europe, have reprinted the pictures, asserting their news value and the right to freedom of expression.

In Islamabad, former U.S. President Bill Clinton criticized the cartoons but said Muslims wasted an opportunity to build better ties with the West by holding violent protests.

"I can tell you, most people in the United States deeply respect Islam ... and most people in Europe do," he said on a visit to sign an HIV- AIDS project by his foundation.

Denmark announced it had temporarily closed its embassy in Pakistan. It also advised against all travel to Pakistan and urged Danes still in the country to leave.

"We have decided to do so because of the general security situation in the country," Foreign Ministry spokesman Lars Thuesen said.

Denmark has already temporarily closed its embassies in Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Indonesia after anti-Danish protests and threats against staff.

Pakistan, meanwhile, recalled its ambassador to Denmark for "consultations" about the cartoons, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said.

Unrest over the cartoons has spiraled in Pakistan, even as it has ebbed in the rest of Asia and in the Middle East. Big riots in Lahore and Peshawar this week caused millions of dollars in damage, as hundreds of vehicles were burned and protesters targeted numerous U.S. and other foreign-brand businesses, including KFC, McDonald's, Citibank, Holiday Inn and Norwegian cell phone company Telenor.

Intelligence officials have said scores of members of radical and militant Islamic groups, such as Jamaat al-Dawat, joined the unruly protests in Lahore on Tuesday and had incited violence in a bid to undermine President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's government.

On Friday, police confined Jamaat al-Dawat's leader, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, to his home in Lahore to stop him from addressing supporters in the city of Faisalabad, about 75 miles away, his spokesman Yahya Mujahid said.

Saeed used to lead Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, a militant group closely associated with Jamaat al-Dawat and banned by Musharraf four years ago.

A senior police official in Lahore who confirmed Saeed's detention said the government had ordered police to restrict the movement of all religious leaders who might address rallies and to round up religious activists "who could be any threat to law and order."

The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he wasn't authorized to discuss the matter with media because of its sensitivity.

Police used tear gas and batons in isolated incidents at Friday's protests, but generally they were free of violence. About 7,000 protested in Rawalpindi, 5,000 in the southwestern city of Quetta and 5,000 in Karachi.[/spoil:06f8ed968e]

I say let's kill the clerics who call for this kind of shit.

Bot · #10

"Police confined the former leader of an Islamic militant group to his home to prevent him from addressing supporters over the cartoons, amid fears he could incite violence."

What? You mean like torching embassies and rushing U.S. military bases? lol

I think this guy should get a high rollers weekend at Gitmo. /tongue.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":P" border="0" alt="tongue.gif" />