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Blasphemy, Dhimmitude and the Mohammed Cartoon Wars
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Comments
1
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Ted Belman
said:
Well said Jerry. I really enjoyed reading this and felt you made some important points.
Posted by: Ted Belman on January 31, 2006 11:12 PM
2
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Danielle Grijalva
said:
Dear Editor:
We would like to share our growing concern for foreign exchange students who are sadly raped, molested and faced with every type of extortion imaginable.
Please visit the following link entitled, "Foreign exchange students are being victimised in the US and around the world."
Here you will read that "the Committee for Safety of Foreign Exchange Students based in the US, are calling for exchange agencies to review their protocols concerning safeguards for foreign exchange students."
http://www.blackbritain.co.uk/news/details.aspx?i=1922&c=us&h=Foreign+exchange+students+are+being+victimised+in+the+US+and+around+the+world
Within weeks, a female German exchange student will return to Texas to testify. She was raped by her 29-year-old host father, Timothy Jordan, who was arrested on November 8, 2005. The student exchange organization: AYUSA, headquarters in San Francisco, California.
In February, 2006, three male German exchange students will return to Arkansas to testify. These boys were raped by their 35-year-old male ERDT/Share, Area Representative, Doyle Meyer. ERDT/Share is a California-based student exchange organization.
In August 2005, The Grand Rapids Press headlines read, "Foreign exchange host sentenced for videotaping teen" by John Tunison and John Agar. A man who hosted three foreign exchange students in recent years disgraced the program by secretly videotaping a German teen in her bedroom, a judge said.
Police accused Dale Edward LaCoss, 46, of hiding a video camera in a dollhouse of the 16-year-old female German exchange student's bedroom, with the lens pointed out an upper window. LaCoss's wife, Susan LaCoss Kahler, 52, pleaded no contest to interfering with a police investigation after detectives said she tried to hide an incriminating note left for her husband at their home.
Note: The student exchange organization is: Youth for Understanding. Mark Nicholas Meier, 54, the YFU representative, was fined $250 after pleading no contest to failure to report abuse. Meier, who police said didn't immediately report the videotaping when the German teen told him, also is a Plainwell attorney who teaches law enforcement classes at Kalamazoo Valley Community College.
In February, 2005, Peter Ruzzo, 35, pleaded guilty to molesting a 15-year-old female German exchange student. Deputy District Attorney Kelly Hansen said, "The defendant once told the victim that when he saw her foreign-exchange photo that he considered it a challenge, even before she got here, to have sex with her." The student exchange organization: AFS (American Field Service.)
In December 2004, in Rockville, Maryland, biology teacher Andrew Powers, 27, was arrested on charges of sexually abusing a 17-year-old German exchange student. Powers allegedly went into her bedroom and engaged in what police call inappropriate sexual contact. Police also say he had a habit of walking around naked in the house and touching the girl's buttocks. The student exchange organization: AYUSA, headquarters in San Francisco, California.
In October, 2003, in Naples, Florida, the Naples Daily News reads, "Ex-Naples priest faces new sex abuse suit" by Alan Scher Zagier. When reports of William Romero's troubles as a priest surfaced, the California-based exchange program, Pacific Intercultural Exchange (PIE) removed two high school students from Romero's home. Two, male German exchange students told attorney Jason Weisser that they, too, were abused by Romero while living with him in Moore Haven.
At present, a female Japanese exchange student is living in the home of a convicted felon, John Gallups, in Saint Augustine, Florida. F.A.C.E. is the student exchange organization located in Gainesville, Florida.
We are now receiving a growing number of calls from concerned parents in the United States for the safety and welfare of their child who is studying abroad. Given the fact that these students are not provided with any Child Protection Guidelines only adds to our concern.
We welcome any and all questions you may have and invite you to visit our website: www.csfes.org. Thank you.
Respectfully,
Danielle Grijalva, Director
Committee for Safety of Foreign Exchange Students
P.O. Box 6496 / Oceanside, CA 92052
website: www.csfes.org / phone: 760-414-1314
Posted by: Danielle Grijalva on February 1, 2006 12:12 AM
3
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Salomon Benzimra
said:
Jerry is right on target. I would add the following comments:
In countries where there are no "hate-speech laws" (as in Canada), freedom of expression should not be muzzled, as long as anyone offended or displeased has the right of response. This is what happened recently when "The Dubliner" published a demented anti-Zionist rant by an Irish ex-Minister: the publication got swamped with 2,000 emails and the Editor published a sample of them in their next issue.
In the case of "Der Sturmer", anyone voicing criticism of its Nazi, anti-Jewish cartoons and articles would have been immediately sent to Dachau. In like fashion, any Westerner voicing critical views about Islam, like Salman Rushdie or the Danish cartoonists, would get a fatwa and his life will be threatened.
Posted by: Salomon Benzimra on February 1, 2006 06:46 AM
4
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Jerusalem Posts
said:
Islamists all over the world are protesting at these cartoons, yet they themselves are guilty of publishing the most hateful cartoons.
They want to stop freedom of expression in the western world and impose their vile Sharia on all of us.
The protests in Muslim countries against these cartoons is just outrageous and we shouldn't be held to ransom because of such a small minority. If they don't like our way of life, they can go to any sharia state they wish, but they can't have it both ways.
We'll keep our freedom and they can keep their heads firmly up their own backsides!
Posted by: Jerusalem Posts on February 1, 2006 07:42 AM
5
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Bill Narvey
said:
This is to correct the statement by Salomon Benzimra that Canada has no hate speech laws.
Canada does have such laws in its Criminal Code. As that law currently is, convictions are difficult to come by. Given that and the supremacy of Canada's enshrined principles of freedom of speech, there are relatively few hate crime charges laid.
It seems that in Canada, such hate crime charges will only be laid in the most blatant and egregious cases.
Posted by: Bill Narvey on February 1, 2006 08:10 AM
6
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rh
said:
While I agree with you about the points in printing offensive cartoons, I don't know if you can equate a cartoon about a politician with a cartoon about a religious figure whose followers strictly believe against any type of depiction. I think we all need to be tolerant yes, but respecting someone's relgious beliefs is of paramount of importance.
Posted by: rh on February 1, 2006 12:53 PM
7
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Salomon Benzimra
said:
Bill, you are right. This was my error in syntax. Of course, I meant "in countries where there ano 'hate-speech laws' (as THEY EXIST in Canada)..."
Thanks for your note.
Posted by: Salomon Benzimra on February 1, 2006 10:52 PM
8
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Catherine
said:
Thank you RH!!!! my point exactley!!! I don't think people seem to make the difference that cartoons about sharon are NOT i repeat NOT in the goal of being anti-semitism but are depicting POLITICS people...POLITICS...
Sharon killing palestinian children is a symbol of saying what a lot of people believe that palestinian lands are occupied and its people are being killed and slaughtered. Not everything is anti-semetic for christ's sake!!!
Mel Gibson's passion of the christ which tells the story of the cruxifiction of Jesus as we christians know it, you called it anti- semetic...Spielberg's munich is called anti-semetic while most of you probably don't know that the actors playing the palestinians were arab actors who came and huged the son of one of the actual athletes (who was playing his father in the film) and told him im so sorry...
Spielberg was only trying to say that both parties have their reasons for fighting but that peace is the only solution...
I mean you have to understand, even palestinians are not happy about suicide bombings even suicide bombers themselves but they are so desperate that the only way they see to bring freedom is by sacrificing their own life...
as twisted as this may sound to some of you who have never lived in opression just take a look at the iraqi civilians(children, mothers, fathers)being killed by americans...The canadian hostage that was taken last year was my mother's friend's son and he told us the atrocities done there by americans are unbearable and are absolutley not shown in the american media.
shalom
Posted by: Catherine on February 2, 2006 12:03 PM
9
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Don Cox
said:
"I think we all need to be tolerant yes, but respecting someone's religious beliefs is of paramount of importance."
I think you should respect the person, and be as kind to them as possible, but there is no reason to respect ideas or beliefs if you think they are false. For example, I see no reason to respect the belief in an afterlife: there is no evidence at all for such a thing. But if a person needs to believe in this particular myth in order to avoid depression, it would be unkind to mount an all-out attack on his symptoms. However, a strong dialogue with the priests and clerics who push the myth for their own ends is not only permissible but desirable.
Does anyone here really respect the beliefs of the Scientologists, for instance? Should they?
Posted by: Don Cox on February 3, 2006 06:30 AM
10
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Lex
said:
I think that the cartoon raises a serious point, because if Paradise has run out of virgins to supply to suicide bombers, Islam may be in breach of the Trades Description Act!
Posted by: Lex on February 3, 2006 10:23 AM
11
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Alex
said:
The remarks here just show the vitriol and discrespect for Islam you have. Why offend and hurt others? Does it give you a buzz? Does it make you feel good? 50 years ago the Jews, today the Muslims. Sad.
Posted by: Alex on February 3, 2006 04:27 PM
12
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charles
said:
I thought Mohammed was a cartoon! Wasn't he Johnny Quests' sidekick?
I thought after a failed stint as a cartoon hero, he wound up creating a phony religion and dying in obscurity,
Just like L. Ron Hubbard. I saw it on VH1 - Face the Muslim.
Posted by: charles on February 4, 2006 01:20 PM
13
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Cavid
said:
The ones who drew Hz Muhammed's cartoons will be punished by GOD! The Christian world showed how jaleous they are drawing such a degrading thing about our prophet... Moses and Jesus and the ones before them are our prophets too.. You just cannot understan this: Your GOD is "DEAD" - you have lost your belief in GOD - you wouldn't do this... and remember... this harms only you - and all the Christian world... This is the end of all...
Now wait for misfortunes from GOD and from us - the muslims!
Posted by: Cavid on February 4, 2006 05:29 PM
Blasphemy, Dhimmitude and the Mohammed Cartoon Wars
by Jerry Gordon, former US military intelligence officer and Middle East Analyst for American Congress for Truth
Those of us who have followed the evolving story on my buddy Bob Spencer's weblog, Jihad watch, about the eruption of Muslim "blasphemy" angst around the world against the courageous Danish press in the midst of the continuing fracas over the Mohammed Cartoon kerfuffle were appalled yesterday when former President Bill Clinton strode to the podium at an "economics" conference in Doha the capital of Qatar and uttered Dhimmi apologetics.
Witness these comments from Clinton:
“Clinton described as "appalling" the 12 cartoons published in a Danish newspaper in September depicting Prophet Mohammed and causing uproar in the Muslim world.
"None of us are totally free of stereotypes about people of different races, different ethnic groups, and different religions ... there was this appalling example in northern Europe, in Denmark ... these totally outrageous cartoons against Islam," he said.”
I can remember in 2003 when an award winning cartoon in the annual British Political Cartoon Society’s competition got first prize for something patently anti-Israeli and seemingly anti-Semitic. It showed a naked Prime Minister Sharon biting off the head of a Palestinian child against the backdrop of a burning city with hovering Apache gunships emblazoned with “vote for Likkud. ” The Independent that published it claimed that it was “inspired by a Goya painting.”
In the cartoon, Sharon says: "What's wrong? Have you never seen a politician kissing a baby?" In his acceptance speech, Dick Brown, who won first prize in the cartoon competition “thanked the Israeli Embassy for its angry reaction to the cartoon, which he said had contributed greatly to its publicity.”
Besides the Israeli Embassy in London, a number of us complained at the time to The Independent how despicable the Brown cartoon was. But we were told in so many words it was "free speech."
We have many such unfortunate episodes of anti-Semitic editorial cartoons such as the horrendous ones from the Nazi-era German propaganda daily Der Sturmer depicting those bearded, yarmulke covered, obese, hook nosed Jews emblazoned with ‘Stars of David’ lusting after blonde aryan women and piling up bags of gelt while supporting Soviet Communism signified by the hammer and sickle.
Last Thursday, Dr. Michael Oren, who is spending the semester at Yale teaching on US Middle East policy-the subject of a book that he's finishing- gave a talk sponsored by the Institute of Global Antisemitism Policy on Arab Antisemitism. Oren made specific mention of these lurid blood dripping depictions of Israelis and Jews that had emblazoned editorial cartoons in major Egyptian, Syrian and Saudi publications in the run up to the Six Days of War , that he chronicled in the book by the same title.
Those Nazi era derived lurid cartoons of Israelis and all Jews Oren noted flood periodicals throughout the Islamic world to this very day.
In 2001, The American Jewish Committee (AJC) released a report entitled “Muslim Antisemitism, A Clear and Present Danger” by Dr. Robert Wistrich , Neuberger Professor of Modern European European and Jewish history at Hebrew University. Professor Wistrich in his report had cited the Koranic and Hadithic origins of Muslim Antisemitism, as well as Nazi infections in the 20th Century. His text showed several of those now classic Arabic anti-Semitic editorial cartoons cited by Dr. Oren in his talk at Yale.
In his comments at a press conference called by the AJC to launch his work, Professor Wistrich he criticized Arabs and Muslims by drawing parallels between “Islamic Fascism” and Nazism, and said they are similar because of their “common search for world domination and their ruthlessness in its pursuit.”
The reactions by European diplomats and Muslim apologists, such as the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and other Arab advocates in the US at the time were illustrative of the inability to take “critcism.”
“This is exactly what I’ve been warning my foreign ministry about for over a year,” said a European deputy chief of mission after reading the AJC releases. “This maliciousness is no longer limited to extremist Jewish groups on the East Coast, this mentality of hatred is now permeating the midlands of America. This is very disconcerting,” said the diplomat, who asked not to be identified.
“You don’t fight bigotry with bigotry. You don’t fight sweeping generalizations, stereotypes and prejudices with sweeping generalizations, stereotypes and prejudices,” Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman at the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR, told Arab News.
So, if editorial cartoons in the West can have free speech rights, then why can't Muslims take criticism for their ultimate supercessionist beliefs of “perfection?”
Looks to this observer that they are simply intimidating the world's press and "statesmen" like Clinton and Bush who back peddle every time criticism is lodged against the "perfection of Islam."
After this verbal misstep by Clinton in Doha, many of us think that you should immediately call the Danish embassy and consulates and praise their Prime Minister for his courageous defense of free speech. Then you ought to hustle down to your local supermarket and specialty stores and grab those packets of Gevalia Coffee, tins of Plumrose Hams and then visit your favorite audio store to feast your eyes, listen to and possibly purchase the latest Bang and Olufsen gear.
According to news reports , angered Islamic ruler states are threatening withdrawal of Ambassadors to Denmark, the Arab League-bless'em-is caterwauling about an economic boycott of Danish products-can't eat that non "halal" Plumrose Hams, can they. In retaliation the EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson threatens to take the Danish boycott matter to the World Trade Organization. Meanwhile, employees of Danish company Alra Foods are beaten up in Saudi Arabia and the company is threatened with expulsion from Middle East countries, Danish Red Cross workers are jostled in Gaza and Danish troops in Iraq are targeted with infamous IED blasts.
The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten sparked this eruption of Islamic hate last fall with those 12 cartoons depicting the great turbaned Prophet and messenger of Allah in various bomb-like poses and comments. The Jyllands-Posten editor caved yesterday to the onslaught of Muslim "blasphemy" diatribes about graphic depiction of the holy ineffable visage of mass murderer of Jews, Christians and pagans, Mohammed, the illiterate caravansary operator.
Carsten Joste, Jyllands-Posten editor said that the cartoons didn’t violate Danish law were “sober and not meant to be offensive to Muslims.”
So, yesterday, our former President, William Jefferson Clinton speaking at an economics conference in Qatar-now that's a Sharia oxymoron if I heard one-drew rave notices when he said that the cartoons represented the replacement of anti-Semitism with anti-Islamic "hatred."
Sort of a variation on the Islamic Jihadi canard of "first the Saturday people, then the Sunday people."
But Clinton has been on the Saudi pad for donkey's years-good Dhimmi transport that. After all his Georgetown Foreign Service School fellow alum -who never graduated-is none other than Prince Al Turki, current Saudi Ambassador to the US in Washington, DC.
As a favor to his college “chum,” Clinton created the "easy visa" system so that tens of thousands of Saudi youngsters could come to this great land of opportunity and pursue "higher" education, possibly create "sleeper cells" and as Imams export Wahhabism to those Mosques that Osama's relatives built here and around the globe.
Then there's the $10 Million gift by the Saudi Royal family to the University of Arkansas to found the King Fahd Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies on the campus in Little Rock.
So Clinton goes off to Qatar-one of those precious human rights failed states on the Persian, opps, Iranian Gulf-and doubtless picks up a megabuck honorarium. In the process he sucks up to those “peace loving” Muslim adherents who can't abide by Danish cartoonists sticking it to the original mass murderer of Jews, Mohammed.
Whether it's former President Clinton or current President George Herbert Walker Bush, Secretary of State Condi Rice or Vice President Dick Cheney, when it comes to Islam they are all-what’s the title of Aldous Huxley's book I read in undergraduate days - Eyeless in Gaza.
Posted by Jerry Gordon at January 31, 2006 03:26 PM