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Seeing Is Believing—Whether It's Hoot Gibson of Muhammad 


By Denis Schulz

maxflackreport.com

2006/02/28

 “We are a very tolerant and peaceful people. We go about our business and don’t ask much. Yet our Prophet PBUH is being blasphemed. CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) and the Muslim Public Affairs Council are greatly offended. All of Islam is offended. We are a religion of peace and tolerance. It says in Tabari VIII: 104 “Peace to whoever follows the right guidance! To proceed; Submit yourself, and you shall be safe.” What could be more clear? But Islam is not safe. The Prophet PBUH is being blasphemed. It is one thing to portray George W. Bush as a Nazi and Ariel Sharon as devouring Palestinian children for breakfast — aside from the essence of truth in those depictions — but to draw pictures of Mohammed PBUH puts a strain on Islamic tolerance. We will not be patient forever.”…Anonymous. 

Associated Press: GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip—Masked gunmen today briefly took over a European Union office to protest a Danish newspaper’s publication of cartoons deemed insulting to Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, the latest in a wave of violent denunciations of the caricatures across the Islamic world. 

The Arab League has already taken steps to put an end to this gross example of Danish intolerance. “Consultations are currently taking place at the highest level between Arab countries and the OIC (Organization of the Islamic Conference) in order to ask the UN to adopt a binding resolution banning contempt for religious beliefs and providing for sanctions to be imposed on contravening countries or institutions,” announced Ahmad Ben Helli, assistant secretary-general of the Arab League. 

Binding resolution? Banning contempt for religious beliefs? Sanctions? Is  Michael Newdow aware of this? That rascal could be in big trouble! He’s been more blasphemous of Christianity than Salmon Rushdie ever was of Islam! Removing ‘under God’ from the pledge of allegiance and ‘in God we trust’ from nickels and dimes is a thousand times worse than drawing cheap penny postcard pictures of Mohammed. Gosh! That rascal has been dead for 1,400 years! What does he care? If this resolution is passed Kofi Annan could actually send Interpol after Newdow! He could declare a UN fatwa

What? The resolution is not intended for Newdow? It’s only to protect Islam? So Newdow has nothing to worry about unless he starts thrashing Islam? And Ted Turner and Larry Flynt don’t need to go into hiding? That is correct. 

Then why do they need a resolution? The European Community is caving in like a ten-story house of cards in a game of Calvin ball. Jim Bakker didn’t make nearly as many mea maxima culpas on his way to the jailhouse as Europe’s cringing dhimmis have made to Islam in the last ten days! 

Norway’s Foreign Minister, Jonas Gohr Store went down on his knees. “I am sorry that the publication of a few cartoons in the Norwegian paper, Magazinet, has caused unrest among Muslims…Your faith has the right to be respected by us…The cartoons…are not constructive in building the bridges which are necessary between people with different religious and ethnic backgrounds. Instead they contribute to suspicion and unnecessary conflict…Freedom of expression is one of the pillars of Norwegian society. This includes tolerance for opinions that not everyone shares. At the same time our laws and our international obligations enforce restrictions for incitement to hatred and hateful expressions.”                                             

Freedom of Expression—now you see it, now you don’t. Fay Wray showed more courage and did less cringing atop the Empire State Building playing hide-and-seek with King Kong.

and these guys got really mad.

Store was not alone in his cowardice. Brussels, always the perfect dhimmi, was right behind, if not out in front. 

Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen was shocked. “I am speechless,” he said, “that those people, whom we have given the right to live in Denmark and where they have freely chosen to stay, are now touring Arab countries and inciting antipathy towards Denmark and the Danish people.” The Prime Minister reaffirmed his commitment to freedom of expression. 

The European Union, the Council of Europe and the UN have all criticized Denmark over the cartoons. 

The editor of Jyllands-Posten, Carsten Juste, repeated what he said a week ago, “We will not apologize, because we live in Denmark under Danish law, and we have freedom of speech in this country. It we apologized, we would betray the generations who have fought for this right, and the moderate Muslims who are democratically minded.” 

That was yesterday—a Buzz Lightyear in the Danish timeline. The generations are weeping. It’s lonely up on the ledge with Fay Wray and that overgrown ape. 

A couple of cyber attacks on the Jyllands-Posten online website and a sudden boycott of Danish products in the Middle East and editor Juste apologized. That’s right! He apologized! Honorable Fellow Citizens of the Muslim World ran the headline in Jyllands-Posten.

Whoa! Back up there a bit! Muslim World? Fellow Citizens? What is this? An apology? Or was it surrender? Did somebody toss Juste off the top of the Empire State Building? He seems disoriented. Did he land on his head? He’s still in Denmark, isn’t he, and Denmark is still in Europe, isn’t it? This is scary! Why would anyone want to be a citizen of a world hostile to his own existence? 

The sad story: “In our opinion,” wrote Juste, “the 12 drawings were sober. They were not intended to be offensive, nor were they at variance with Danish law, but they have indisputably offended many Muslims for which we apologize.” So much for Danish law; so much for freedom of expression; so much for moderate Muslims that are democratically minded—a rare breed, indeed. Of course, Denmark’s existence as a non-Muslim country also offends Islam. Juste may want to work on that one for a while. 

But the picture flap brought the world no closer to discovering what Mohammed looked like. And, in the absence of a Shroud of Turin, inquiring minds will insist on knowing and there will be no stopping them. Get out the paints and the easel, Rembrandt. What did Mohammed look like? Could he have been mistaken for Wallace Beery after a night on the town; for Jesus Christ staggering through the 10th Station of the Cross, for Abu Hamza; for Osama bin Laden? Was he tall? Short? Ugly? Bald? Rotund? Cross-eyed?  Did he wear a bomb for a hat? Seeing is believing. Take Al Capp, add Thomas Nast and Toy Story, jumble them together and one could possibly have Mohammed. Maybe Ted Rall and Gary Trudeau should try their hand at Mohammed. It would be interesting—and maybe life threatening. It’s a puzzle. But remember—Granny Clampett would never have believed in Hoot Gibson if she had not seen him with her own eyes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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