Sorry that this is late, I was side-tracked. This is a long post, more after the fold…
Today is Everybody Draw Mohammad Day.
Here is my contribution:
Yeah, cheesy, I know, but I can’t draw people worth crap. This was first brought to my attention by Miguel, and I decided to get in on the act. Other good depictions of Mo come from DirtCrashr, Alan, Breda, Chris Muir and Miguel. Lissa shares my artistic challenge and re-posts our government’s EDMD entry, and Rustmeister isn’t participating due to a jihad declared by Mullah Malaise. The EDMD website is still up (for now), and the outrage over their Facebook group has begun to build in the Muslim world. Heck, the Wall Street Journal has equated EDMD to flag burning.
The Origin
This all started due to South Park wanting to have Mohammad on, dressed in a bear suit. Not show him directly, mind you… but have him as a character. This (of course) riled members of The Religion of Peace, including one Zachary Chesser Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee, who sent a oh-so-discreet warning to Matt Stone and Trey Parker:
“We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show…” [...] A photo of Van Gogh’s body lying in the street was included with the original posting, which has been unavailable to some Web users since news of the item broke earlier this week [...] “This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them.”
On 15 April he posted a Twitter message: “May Allah kill Matt Stone and Trey Parker and burn them in Hell for all eternity. They insult our prophets Muhammad, Jesus, and Moses.” I have to point out two things here. One, this guy doesn’t sound like he’s been listening to the Jesus I know that much. Two, this guy posted this on Tax Day and didn’t get that much attention, but the Tea Parties did. Hello, media bias!
The Reaction
One word: retreat. Comedy Central re-did the Mohammad-in-a-bear-suit bit, and cut the final monologue (which was Kyle talking about not giving in to fear and intimidation). The reaction from the media was (essentially) a deep sigh of relief and wiping of the brow, with a small sprinkling of public officials getting the message. Penn Jillete said it best in a response to Seth McFarlane: “I think you cheapen Matt and Trey’s morality, strength and courage when you say ‘is the joke worth it?’ Because the question is: what is morally right?“ (Wait a second… me and Jillete in agreement on something related to morals… this is bizzaroland…)
Make no mistake, this New York Times piece has it right… this is the front line of a cultural war. This writer nails it:
It is clear that the Revolution Muslim group isn’t really focused on South Park as much as it is focused on America, Hollywood and American foreign policy. The group hates the American way of life, capitalism and freedom. The group is attacking people’s right to choose their religion, their soul mate [unless their soul mate is in The Cause -- Dixie], their movies, their music and their political candidates. It is an assault on freedoms and therefore, everyone who loves this country must speak out against the group’s threats of violence.
This struggle is going to be made harder by the fact that some in our society won’t even admit the battle is happening. (Like Bin Laden, they can’t quite come to grips with what’s happening.) Heck, quite a few in the media like the terrorists (while tap-dancing around certain friends of the President…). Sen. Lieberman was surprised when the Pentagon wouldn’t refer to the Ft. Hood shooter as a “terrorist.” I wasn’t… heck, Obama can’t even spare the money for a government agency designed to keep terrorists from getting visas. Muslim students here in the U.S. won’t even disown Hamas:
The struggle won’t be made easy by those here at home, either… I remember reading several left-wing websites just after the Ft. Hood attack, and the general tone was “those fundy teabaggers need to watch the terrorists in their own ranks and leave the peaceful Muslims ALONE!“ One man even tried comparing Ft. hood to the shooting of Dr. Tiller. For the record– targeting an individual is murder. Randomly killing people in a group is an act of terrorism. But then again, that goes against Larry’s Handy Guide to Terrorism, so I may be wrong.
(On a side note: Christians have a sense of humor, and don’t take umbrage at things like a man named Lord Jesus Christ, so why is it the media is always trying to pin crap on us? Seriously, if one more person tries to paint McVeigh as a “fundy”…)
However, the reaction to the South Park episode will be minor compared to the one that will be generated by Geert Wilders’ new film, “Islam Rising.” This gentleman was only recently allowed into the U.K to speak, and I hope this signals an about-face by the people of the U.K. in regards to Muslim extremism. (I doubt it… the big new mosque across from the Olympic Park will have plenty of users…) Hey, at least the U.K. isn’t finacing terrorist groups through welfare, right?
The Times Square Bomber
On 1 May, a naturalized citizen (who had recently made several trips back to his native country of Pakistan) attempted to set off a bomb in Times Square. Luckily, the device failed, but the bomber almost got away. The media instantly began hoping this wasn’t a Muslim, and Mayor Bloomberg stated that it probably was a Tea Party member. Reports (that have been denied) even state that signal intelligence (SigInt) aircraft may have been used to find the bomber.
In the aftermath, it was found out that the bomber was taken off the national terror surveillance list by the Obama administration. Why was he on the list? Because he had been on terror-related websites since 2006. Does our government decide to patch the holes in the current system? Maybe enact “sensible fuel and fireworks laws” to keep anybody from building a FAE bomb? No, they decide they want to hurt terrorists who are American citizens by stripping them of their citizenship.
As Tam points out, it’s odd that nobody is squawking about Congress trying to rule (ex-post-facto, to boot) that a citizen isn’t a citizen… or even the President cracking jokes about using Predator drones against American citizens.
Obama is turning out to be worse than expected… but, hey… at least he’s not Bush, right? (Yes, I’ve actually heard that from a Democrat.) Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go dig a bunker…
