Putting the fun in fundamentalism
Two events are making fun of som religious notions. First is the Boobquake. Seems some Iranian cleric said scantily clad women cause earthquakes. Because it sounds reasonable. If you live in the 12th century. So, in the name of science, women are dressing scantily. We need more days like that.
Next is that in May, they’re having an everyone draw Muhammad day. Depictions of him are not viewed favorably by the faith and some of his more, err, robust followers are threatening the creators of South Park with death over their episode depicting Muhammad, even though the episode didn’t actually depict Muhammad. Unfortunately, the creators pussed out and are now saying it was a bad idea. It’s probably offensive to some folks to do such a thing. And I mean the ones not threatening to blow people up.
April 26th, 2010 at 2:00 pm
Further the South Park guys have pulled earlier cartoons that had depicted Muhammed. The earliest some 2 months before 9/11 when he was introduced as on of the super friends.
Nose, fingers and Toes all on the ground at once facing east 5 times a day. Better start practicing now, NOT.
April 26th, 2010 at 2:33 pm
My understanding of the South Park issue is that Comedy Central keeps pussing out, not the creators.
April 26th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
Yup. It was Comedy Central that pussied out, NOT the creators.
April 26th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
And even the creator of Everybody Draw Mohammed Day has pussed out.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/04/creators-of-everybody-draw-muhammad-day-abandon-effort-after-it-becomes-controversial.html
April 26th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
I think this we shouldn’t care who pussied out. This thing may have taken a life of its own already. I know I have my cartoon ready to post.
April 26th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
Read today’s WSJ article by James Taranto. As usual a well though out and articulate piece that brings out some other points of view.
April 26th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
Hold on, how is refraining from doing something you know (or reasonably should know) will offend non-extremists “pussing out?” South Park itself showed that Islamic extremism can be mocked through absurdism without resorting to what is seen as blasphemy.
In any case, DMD is inapt. The extremists are noteworthy because they reacted to the non-depiction of Mohammed, which is unreasonable, whereas DMD advocates doing something that many Muslims, extremist or not, reasonably do find blasphemous. DMD basically says “Hey, you shouldn’t have found that offensive, so let’s go ahead and do something you reasonably could find offensive.”
I guess I just don’t see how not doing DMD means giving in to Islamofascism. Surely there are issues where people here agree with the Islamofascists (abortion? “gay marriage”? the importance of worshipping God?); doing the exact opposite of what they want isn’t necessarily the proper solution.
April 26th, 2010 at 6:59 pm
I still think it’s funny that “Revolution Muslim” showed their archetypal angry Muslim ass for all the world to see, and the bear costumed turned out to have Santa, not Mohammad.
April 26th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
I don’t care how many muslims are offended by this or a damn thing else. I am mightily offended by the fact that none, or at best only a few, denounce the killers in their faith. And none of them turn them in. The extremists terroristic sect of the religion doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Fellow worshipers know what they are doing. They recruit and train in American mosques, for crying out loud.
So fuck muslim sensibilities. Let them start the respect by not considering me or mine as acceptable losses if it placates their extremist brethren.
Did I mention fuck muslim sensibilities? Let them join the human race, then we’ll talk about a different plan.
April 26th, 2010 at 7:39 pm
Let me guess, straightarrow: you don’t personally belong to many, if any, categories for which you’d feel the need to apologize if another member of that category did something wrong.
April 26th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
I’m with straightarrow. Fuck the Muslims and their sensibilities. When they start respecting others’ I’ll respect theirs, not before.
I do in fact belong to several categories of people expected to apologize just for existing. But I won’t.
April 27th, 2010 at 4:06 am
The whole thing smells like a marketing/political stunt from Comedy Central.
You guys should be more concerned about the USA becoming USSA and stop worrying about “islamofacism” and all that nonsense. The facists are in Washington. Pull the troops out and send them to Washington.
April 27th, 2010 at 7:05 am
When are Americans and Euros going to understand that there is no such animal as a “moderate” Muslim? To be a Muslim, you have to believe in Jihad. To paraphrase a figure from American history, Jihad means fighting and fighting means killing.
I have yet to see a “moderate Muslim” who, when pressed, won’t defend the Arab suicide bombers and murderers in and around Israel as “freedom fighters” who have no choice but to shoot up busloads of commuters and minivans full of toddlers.
To come back to the topic at hand, when Muslims start behaving like grown up civilized people and purging their ranks of the wife-beaters, jew-haters and murderers, I’ll start giving their faith some respect.
April 27th, 2010 at 7:45 am
double dittos–fuck their sensibilities
and it was comedy central pussing out–not the creators.
April 27th, 2010 at 8:57 am
Wolfwood, I agree with you in polite company. PC is over the top these days, but there is still a place for not being an asshole about everything.
However, we’re talking about South Park. The whole premise is offending everybody. Jesus gets the treatment along with just about every other religion and a few where the offense is wondering out loud if they even are religions (Scientology). For Comedy Central to put the brakes on Islam getting some time in the cartoon sun is, IMO, pussing out.
Hypocrisy bothers me more than being offensive.
April 27th, 2010 at 11:03 am
To be a Muslim, you have to believe in Jihad.
To be a Catholic, you have to believe in transubstantiation, in papal infallibility, and not use artificial birth control. However, many self-identified Catholics do not believe in one or more of these things. Do they still count as Catholics? If the issue were (P)IRA terrorists, would you support “Draw the Virgin Mary Having Sex Day”? If not, why not? If so, why do you not feel that your solution is overbroad?
Obviously were’re not talking about Catholics in real life. Nonetheless, I know several Muslims who reject certain beliefs held by other Muslims while holding on to others. You may know the same for Christians, Jews, and other religions. It’s starting to look as though we’re getting into tautologies, saying that all Muslims are extremists because only extremists are true Muslims. Given that few of us are experts on Islam, and that even experts disagree about what are the definite tenets of the various religions, to what extent are any of us qualified to say what Islam actually is?
We do, however, have a pretty good idea of the beliefs of the Islamofascists. Mocking them specifically isn’t that difficult, and is only very slightly harder than mocking Muslims as a whole. I’m not seeing how mocking Muslims as a whole, as opposed to the Islamofascists, isn’t due to either ignorance or laziness.
April 27th, 2010 at 11:15 am
Wolfwood, you are being intellectually dishonest. We know what true Islam is because we know the last 1400 years of history, and because we can read. People saying they are something they are not does not change reality, whether the persons are falsely claiming to be a member of a good (Christian) or bad (Muslim) group.
April 27th, 2010 at 11:31 am
Mike Gallo
Oh really? What are the tenets of Islam that all Muslims absolutely must believe? Are there any forms of Islam that believe that it is blasphemous to draw Mohammed but that terrorism is wrong? What are your sources? “The past 1400 years” is lazy and the fact is that you cannot possibly have adequately studied the entire period well enough to know.
So who are the true Muslims and who are the fake Muslims? As before, saying that to be a true Muslim you must believe in violent jihad because only true Muslims believe in violent jihad is a tautology.
Not all Christians believe all the elements of the Bible. Not all Jews believe the same of the Torah and Talmud. Are we going to say that Episcopalians (or Catholics, or Baptists…pick the one you dislike most) and Reformed Jews are not actually Christians or Jews? If not, why can you say the same of Muslims?
April 27th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
No, Wolfwood, I don’t belong to any of those groups. Think about that a minute.
Are you finished? Now did you come up with the answer?
It’s really an easy one.
I refuse to take part in or belong to any categories or groups who would do things I find immoral, predatory or harmful to others as a matter of policy. Not to say I haven’t belonged to groups where one of its members have done something reprehensible. But in those cases they did not receive cover, approval or acceptance of what they did and if found out by other members were universally turned in to the law.
That does not happen with Islam. Even after 9/11 the response by the “moderate” muslim community was “regret that such things were necessary”. No condemnation of the act, only regret that it was felt it must be done. So fuck muslim sensibilities.