you have the right to yell "FIRE" in a crowded movie theater
The Cartoons in this post are courtesy of the anti-Semitic radioislam.org just to show that I can take it. What you see here is pretty mild, though. They are not on a par with the innocuous Mohammed, Peace be upon Him, Cartoons.
Imran Anwar's In My Humble Opinion left me a comment regarding Catholicism (although I think he was pointing at all of Christianity): "It is an evil religion, raping children, protecting pedophiles, even promoting them..... is this how Jesus imagines Christianity?"
Well, I agree that 10% of Christianity is still barbaric and uncivilized. The Catholic Church would prefer that a person suffer the torture of excruciating, unmitigated pain even if terminally ill, without hope of cure, and without ability to ameliorate the agony all in the name of "sanctity of life." I agree it is a hypocritical and unmerciful religion. And yes the Church could have done more about priests playing with little boys. But these evils are only 10% of the religion.
On the other hand, Islam is 90% evil with all its barbarities listed in my post Converting to Islam is not enough.
Now I wouldn't care if 90% of Christianity was evil; I would take it anytime over Islam because at least with our own extremists, who some call the Christian Taliban, they try to take over the world by pamphlets, prayers, and petitions and not with violence and beheadings. Of course we have the violent anti-abortion crowd but they are an anomaly. Their problem is the same as Islam's - they take the Bible the same way Muslims take the Qur'an. Both are mentally ill because of it and those that take a Holy Book as if it were truly the word of God and want to force that view on me should be destroyed.
Now personally, I do not believe in Capital Punishment. I do however believe in killing my enemy, so I am not opposed to our being in Iraq - just to get that out of the way.
But let me get to all the things that bother Imran.
Imran: I have quietly watched this mindless and unnecessary controversy stirred up by a dumb, controversy-seeking, "edge-testing" Jyllan-Posten Denmark Editor and some cartoonists. They are all now giving the explanation of "free speech" related to "current events" to cover their hateful speech so clearly created to inflame and hurt people - while they seek police protection. Nice going Mr. Editor. Try yelling "Fire" in a crowded theatre next time. It's free speech, after all.
I have read this stupid comment about yelling fire too many times in regard to the cartoon affair. Let me straighten everyone out: It is not wrong to yell "FIRE!!!" in a crowded theater - if in fact the theater is on fire. It would be craven evil to sneak out without warning any one at all.
What the Danish paper was properly pointing out was that Muslim intimidation was too repressive on a society that valued a free press. In this regard they were eminently successful. If, before, the world did not clearly see the repressive and intolerant nature of Islam to a free society, they do now.
That Jyllands-Posten yelling "INTOLERANCE!!!" in a crowded Muslim world is precisely what Europe and America needed to hear. And as in the case of the movie theater owner - he may dislike, in fact be very upset to hear anything bad said about his movie theater - it must be said. So too with Muslims.
Sophocles as far back as 442 B.C. said, and I'll translate into modern English: "Don't shoot the messenger." For almost 2500 years the world has railed against those who ignore the message and want to shoot the messenger. The Danish cartoons are a message to you. You have to get a life. Take yourself seriously if you want but leave the rest of civilized society alone. And stop putting bounties on the messenger!
Imran: Muslim extremists, and many otherwise peaceful Muslims, predictable as they are, are playing right into what Islam-bashers say about their being intolerant, close-minded people - not "suited for democracy" or modern life. Nice going, Muslims.
There are no otherwise peaceful Muslims. If you truly believe in the Qur'an, you are a ticking time-bomb -- with an apology to all future martyrs out there. And if you are not completely faithful to the words therein, you are an apostate to your faith and condemned to death by your very own religion. Explain to me how one can then be a moderate Muslim?
Imran: The truly dumb analogy even intelligent people supporting the cartoonist deliberately make is that Arabs print cartoons about ugly, miserly, Jews - so they should not be upset at these cartoons of Prophet Muhammad. Sorry, totally wrong analogy. Arab cartoonists caricature Jews no more than Jewish and American cartoonists make ugly fun of Arabs/Muslims. Arabs ridicule Jews even less compared especially to how Jewish producers of Hollywood comedies and action flicks ridicule Arabs and Muslims. Idiotic Muslim terrorists, stupid Sheiks, ugly Arabs are all often shown as stereotypical characters in Hollywood movies. But, for now, we can call both sides even on that score of ridiculing each other.
Not quite even. Being shown as an idiot, or stupid or ugly is not to be equated with Jews shown as killers, organ-harvesters of little children, rapists, plunderers, etc. And these I mention are the mild "caricatures" of Jews by Muslims. You scale is not evenly tared.
Imran: Would all these "fair and balanced" media and publications, from Denmark to France to the USA, publish cartoons (in the name of free speech if not on merit) showing Prophet Jesus Christ as a nasty, pedophile, Homosexual telling his homosexual apostles and followers to become Christian priests and rape little boys in Churches?
If Christians were to engage in intimidation of the press in regard to what it could print then the MSM would be free to ridicule Jesus all they want. In fact it's already open season on Christians because the press knows there will be no violent payback. If you bother to look on the net - it is replete with priest/choirboy jokes. Cable tv has no shortage of pedophile priest humor.
I ridicule priests in jokes to Christians all the time. Almost 99% of the Catholics laugh when I tell a priest joke. They say I'm naughty and they give me a wink because they know the Church has problems but my house in not on fire the next day nor is my wife hanging from the rafters. You pose an empty and hollow challenge, In America we piss on Christ with impunity.
Imran: To be fair to the major religions, can we also have a cartoon of Prophet Moses teaching Jews to make miracles like "Jewish lightning" (when a failing Jewish owned business "accidentally" catches fire and the Jew gets insurance money)?
This is perhaps the most often told joke from Jews to other Jews:
Hershel meets Moshe in Florida.
Hershel says, "I haven't seen you in 10 years - How you doin?"
Moshe replies, "Eh - my business went on fire and I retired on the insurance."
Hershel responds, "Ach! Almost the same thing happened to me. My business got flooded and I retired on the insurance."
Moshe thinks for a moment and then says, "So.... how do you start a flood?"
Jews obviously can laugh at their own stereotypes - so your challenge has been met decades ago in vaudeville. You're 70 years late and out of touch.
Imran: Ironically, Muslims would dislike these cartoons as well, because we revere these same Prophets of God, and would consider all of these cartoons to be blasphemy. So much so that even though the Virgin Mary is NOT a prophet, no Muslim would accept a cartoonist showing her to be some sleazy prostitute who got pregnant and claimed God made her pregnant despite being a virgin. Would any paper that published the anti-Muhammad cartoons print this one? No, I didn't think so.
It seems an insincere remark: where were these "protective" Muslims when prominent Tasmanian artist Shaun McGowan displayed a SEXUALLY explicit artwork depicting a gay Jesus with homosexuals having sex all around him at the Red Wall Gallery in Tasmania? Where were they to protect the Holy Virgin when elephant dung was thrown on her and displayed at the Brooklyn Art Museum almost 10 years ago. I don't recall any Muslims speaking out against the artist. Where were they when Larry Flynt ridiculed Jesus Christ in Hustler Magazine?
What Muslim in America complained about the virulently racist, anti-Semitic Radio Islam?......... Silence.
You're not accurate when you say Muslims stand up for other religions. They don't do it now - never did. Nothing personal.
Let's admit that Jews and Christians may not like to see anything religious desecrated and certainly a few hundred years ago you might have been burnt at the stake for blasphemy. But this is 2006. For Muslims it is still 633 AD.
