Okay… one more observation about this nonsense and then I’ll give it a rest. A certain set of thin-skinned muslims took such offense at a Danish newspaper’s publication of a few insensitive and offensive editorial cartoons that they, the thin-skinned muslims, burned foreign embassies and called for a boycott of Danish goods. Fine. Syria is their country and they have a right to disobey its laws I guess.
But to the extent that I am intolerant of oppressive christians who preach Intelligent Design and would deny a woman her right to choose, christians who support war as an answer to an unasked question, to the extent that I am intolerant of Israel’s oppression of Palestine, to that extent I remain committed to oppose extremism from muslims that results in the burning of embassies, oppression of women under sharia law, fatwas against writers like Salman Rushdie.
Here is a link to an article pointing out that antisemitic cartooning is ironically alive and well in the arab world. And I’m wondering why it’s okay to poke fun at jews ("fun" like drawing a swastika on a star of David) while it’s not okay to print a picture of suicide bombers being turned back at the gates of paradise because they ran out of virgins.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I, for one, am not accusing you of anything reprehensible. I’m also aware of the extent of the sea of hypocrisy in which the current outrage floats. I do question the timing of the cartoons when surely any half awake observer knows that militant wingnuts on both “sides” of a cultural divide are spoiling for another fight, on one hand, and revenge for real slights — unrelated to the cartoons themselves — on the other. The whole thing stinks, independently of the hatred as usual.
agreed. sauce goes great on roosting chickens, too. and yeah, what alva said.
Thanks guys. It’s hard to wade in raw sewage and not get any on you.
There’s a tyranny to hot topics, Frank. I’m no better than anyone else at avoiding them, but I’m always grateful when I manage to wait a few days or weeks before wading in. Part of it is from the paranoid conviction that much of the news and newslike events are staged to bring on desired reactions, or sometimes numbness. They’re like the spiel of the shell game dealer.
It’s Bob Marley’s 61st birth anniversary today–peace & love.
Jah Rastafari!
LYRICS TO RNM’s song: ‘WAR” (based on HaileSellassie’s speech to the UN)
Until …the philosophy …which holds one race
Superior and another inferior
Is finally, and permanently, discredited and abandoned
Everywhere is war, me say war
That until there is no longer first class
And second class citizens of any nation
Until the colour of a man’s skin
Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes
Me say war
That until the basic human rights are equally
Guaranteed to all, without regard to race
Dis a war
That until that day
The dream of lasting peace, world citizenship
Rule of international morality
Will remain in but a fleeting illusion
To be pursued, but never attained
Now everywhere is war, war
And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes
That hold our brothers in Angola, in Mozambique,
South Africa sub-human bondage
Have been toppled, utterly destroyed
Well, everywhere is war, me say war
War in the east, war in the west
War up north, war down south
War, war, rumours of war
And until that day, the African continent
Will not know peace, we Africans will fight
We find it necessary and we know we shall win
As we are confident in the victory
Of good over evil, good over evil, good over evil
Good over evil, good over evil, good over evil