Getting Enough Iron[y]

[digitaldiscipline]

Let me see if I have this straight...

Muslims are objecting to cartoons depicting Mohammed and insinuating that they are violent by blowing up and destroying stuff?

Is that the gist of it? "You're saying we're violent assholes! Eat Molotov cocktail, heretic!"

There's no room in my spiritual approach for any god or religious figure who can't take a joke, much less a poorly-drawn French one. If any deity is such a wuss that a cartoon gets them bent out of shape, I'm going to be changing brands to something a little more robust. In the grand scheme of holy wars ("My god can beat up your god"), if my guy gets bent because he's sketched poorly, and the other guy can take a straight left to the jaw and laugh. . . I'm thinking the other guy has a real advantage.

If your faith wasn't so goddamned fragile, this sort of thing wouldn't bug you. If you're so fucking sure you're right, you'd be sitting back and laughing smugly, serene and secure in the knowledge that your "enemies" would burn in your version of hell for their transgressions. You wouldn't need to mete out divine vandalism like a Detroit street gang.

You never see any Lovecraftians throwing squid at the promulgators of "Hello, Cthulhu."

[eta: http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/264938.html?thread=4151274#t4151274]
[also eta: http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/02/06/cartoon.protests/index.html?section=cnn_latest]

Comments

[etcet.livejournal.com]

no, it's true.

people from detroit are mollusk-hating idiots.

[kendra-manycats.livejournal.com]

Ahem, from detroit and and squids are pseudopods I believe.

NYAH!

[etcet.livejournal.com]

no, snails/slugs are pseudopods ["fake foot"]. squid/octopi are cephalopods ["head foot"].

but you're not from detroit -now-, are you? ;-p

[kendra-manycats.livejournal.com]

I knew it was a 'pod' of some sort.

No now I live in Milwaukee, but only my house feels like home. The city is too conservative for me. And we are the 2nd most liberal city in the state.

ooooo

[maelstromsl.livejournal.com]

careful there, they might get fatwah on your ass for just MENTIONING it!!!

Re: ooooo

[etcet.livejournal.com]

jihadelic!

[theonebob.livejournal.com]

Remember the big problem they had with Salmon Rushdie?

[etcet.livejournal.com]

and remember what a good job they did hunting him down?

sullivan, for all his failings, did point that out, as well as the dutch folks the islamists -did- whack for speaking ill of their main homie.

[kendra-manycats.livejournal.com]

It seems like they have to one-up each other as to how devout they are. One speaks out, another protests, another burns effigies, and another burns consulates.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

using that tactic, how soon do we get to self-immolation?

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

I suspect it's not entirely a faith issue, but more of a rudeness issue. There wasn't much noise about it the first time the cartoon was published, the paper apparently apologized for depicting the prophet. Then the whole mess was dragged out *again*, showing that European papers don't read each other or follow up stories any better than US ones do.

Now, see, *I* know and a lot of other people know that when the Prophet Mohammad is depicted in something, the way that it's conventionally handle is that he's got a blank face without any features. And it's easy and simple to do that to the cartoons and note that the original didn't have a blanked face. And I doubt that the Saudis would have been able to stir that up into fires, because that's not a repetition of the offense and shows that publishers gave a shit about what Muslims thought of them.

I guess the US isn't the bad guy this week... At least, we've learned that "freedom of expression" doesn't mean "free of consequence" and the laws about freedom of expression apply restrictions to what GOVERNMENT can repress.

[marchenland.livejournal.com]

Thank you. This is very close to what I think about this matter.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

My problem is primarily the general buttheadedness of the "thou shalt not dis me or you will taste my wrath" mentality, which, if the muslim leaders are paying more than lip service to disabusing, is one of the biggest perception issues facing islam. middle eastern men have a group reputation for being violent hotheads - the current brouhaha isn't doing much to disabuse the world of that notion.

we're not guiltless in america, but at least we -can- ask hard questions about, say, the domestic spying program or the halliburton no-bid cost-plus contracts, in public, without some spiritually aggreived asshole pitching rocks at us.

fungus grows in the dank, dark corners, not in the sunlight and fresh air. exposing hypocrisy is the first step towards curing it.

shame works as a social motivator.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

when the Prophet Mohammad is depicted in something, the way that it's conventionally handle is that he's got a blank face without any features. And it's easy and simple to do that to the cartoons and note that the original didn't have a blanked face.

yes, but when has good sense and taste bolstered circulation and garnered publicity?

this would have been doomed from both sides - the papers wouldn't have gotten the boost, and the injured parties wouldn't have had fuel for their fire.

sometimes, people just look for an excuse to break shit. have there been riots in pittsburgh overnight? *shrug and sigh*

[xany.livejournal.com]

You never see any Lovecraftians throwing squid at the promulgators of "Hello, Cthulhu."

no, but that's because we know that those bastards will suffer and be eaten last when Great Cthulhu rises from R'Lyeh.

[dogsbody01.livejournal.com]

There's no room in my spiritual approach for any god or religious figure who can't take a joke, much less a poorly-drawn French one. If any deity is such a wuss that a cartoon gets them bent out of shape, I'm going to be changing brands to something a little more robust. Do Muslims have no humor?

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I've seen the cartoons. They're not particularly funny.

[dogsbody01.livejournal.com]

How distasteful are we talking here?

[dogsbody01.livejournal.com]

How distasteful are we talking here?Wait a bomb shaped like a turban?I think that I can see why they would be P'Od.

[fenixinthedark.livejournal.com]

You never see any Lovecraftians throwing squid at the promulgators of "Hello, Cthulhu."

LMFAO!!!!