:: Wog Blog ::

:: WHAT AM I THINKING ABOUT? ::

:: Friday 10 February 2006 ::

I AM NOT A MUSLIM

So, all the Mohamed - no peace wished upon him here, no war either, but - cartoons are fine with me, and I am happy to publish them.

They are fine cos they are addressing the major issues of our time. The violent habits of some Muslims to take their religion into every part of the world where they settle, as if every person who is not a Muslim somehow has to adopt some Muslim ways.

The Christian church asks only that you do not dress like a slut when you go inside the Vatican or any other church. You can actually be a slut and enter, just not dressed like one and not behaving like one while you are there.

The Christian church asks.

If you do not accede to the request, the worst that will happen is that you will be asked to leave a church.

The Christian church asks only that you try to keep the offensive "art" about Jesus and Mary and God to a minimum. But if you do use elephant shit (Chris Ofili (?) )and urine (Andres Serano (?) ) , or cast Willem Defoe as Jesus (Martin Scorsese), to produce your "art" the Christians will ask that your "art" should not be exhibited.

The Christian church asks. And most often does not get what it wants - all 3 items above went ahead into the public over the protests of offended Christians.

The Islamic faith - who knows what it asks? It has no Pope and most of its noisy imams and sheikhs think killing poofs and putting blankets over all their girlies is a good way to live.

But we sure know what its adherents - the Muslims - demand. They demand that Christians should adopt Muslim habits, like the habit of fearing idolatory so much, even the worship of their own prophet, that he cannot be represented at all. Was not always this way.

They demand that governments censor their newspapers to ensure the Muslom's demand is met.

They demand a right for their faith to be held safe from caricature by people who do not even share that faith.

And they go full-on psycho if there is a hint of non-compliance with their demands.

Gi. Fa.

Now, this is the first soopadoopa generalisation I have made about 'Muslims' cos I prefer to try not to lump folks in. But I am gettin' fed up. They are either setting shit on fire and squealing about the Jews in their boring irrelevant blah blah way. Or they are silent and letting others in the midst do exactly that.

Silence as acquiesence.

That is where I am heading. Not a nice conclusion, but I am a gnat's dick away from it.

What has got my dander up?

Well, all this cartoon rubbish, of course but pecificly two things. First, I just saw a weak as piss "interview" on the BBC with some jackass called Tamimi head of, get this "The Muslim Centre for Political Thought".

Oh ya. Imagine the meetings - "Political thought should be Muslim thought? Motion passed. Good night every body." Urgh.

Him (natch, it is a him) is going to organise a rally to complain about the provacation of the Danes publishing the cartoons, and get this, they are going to demand an apology from the Danish government.

What a bloated sense of self-importance. What an absolutely rolled-gold misunderstanding of their place in the world. They like Mohamed (no peace, amemba) well, bully for them. They do not like figurative art? Well, they really are idiots. for this cos graphics are boring if they are all the art you have got. But still, bully for them. They do not like figurative art or caricature of Mohamed? Well, bully for them again.

But I do not have to play, and thank Jesus for that. Literally.

Denamrk, Australia, Italy - we do not have to play. UK too.

Natch, the BBC did not challenge this Tamimi jackass over the publication of the cartoons in Egypt, a Muslim nation with government control of the press. Natch, no mention of the fact that Danish muslims had internationalised the matter by lying about the cartoons. And natch, absolutely no mention of the fact that Mohamed has been represented plenty in Muslim art and this whole 'no pictures' thing is a bullshit modern habit that quite frankly cannot fit in a modern world with the innernut.

BBC sux.

And the second reason for my fury today? Sweden's government has decided to ban publication of a Swedish cartoon.

This one:

This is not about Mohamed.

He is just fine.

It is about Tamimi and the horrible standover mafia like tactics he uses to get non-Muslims like me.

Roman Catholics like me.

Now, one last point - you may amamba a whie back I slammed captain ed, an American blogger who thought it appropriate to publish Canadian info that was sealed by court, legitimately confidential for a period of time. I slammed him for being the epitome of an ugly American. He thinks his laws follow him on the internet, as if there are no borders being crossed when he goes online.

Well, he was wrong then and nothing has changed. Laws about courts and confidentiality in Canada, as in Oz and the UK etc etc are legitmate laws developed over hundreds of years for the good reason of needing to ensure the judiciary can have adequate evidence presented to it in order to reach a judgement.

I am not slamming any legitimate law by publishing on this blog these cartoons. And before anyone starts bleating about - ooooh, what about the laws in, say, Iran, about sharia law, no Muslim being allowed to draw or see Mohamed, and Islam and blah blah - let us get something crystal clear.

A court that orders material published in it to be kept confidential for a period of time so as to protect the integrity of the court process is a perfecly legitimate law, whether it is a court in Canada or Oz or Afghanistan.

But a court of public opinion and religious habit is not in the same league. Nowhere near it.

Neither is some stupid a statute on the books in Saudi or Iran (orunno but I am presuming, cos they have laws for beheading poofs, ya know, that is how craazy they are) that says "No citizen may draw or publish pics of the prophet or bring them into the Kingdom//Counrty".

They are not genuine laws for a respectably good reason.

They are religious laws, set up to hold the religion immune from any critique or even caricature. And they are all about prohibition and in the case of Iran they only started in 1979 for the simple reason that Khomenei hated women, poofs and non-Muslims. the Islamic revolution, yah?

Hardly the basis for a respectable jurisprudential history, now, eh?

And given that they seem to be being applied against the Danes, by extrapolation, they are patently not about control of the citizenry within the borders of the Muslim law zones. They are extraterritorial and utterly unenforceable.

Too much prohibition.

The innernut, she is a pull publishing mechanism. You wanna live in your world without figurative art and with blankets on your women, you can. You are a disgrace if you do in my view, but you can. And the innernut need never cause you problems.

But you wanna live in Denmark and do that? And you want Danes to give a shit what a bunch of mad Muslims think who are in the Middle east or elswhere?

Gi. Fa.

And you wanna live in the UK, like Tamimi, and insist the Danes should capitulate?

Well, two times, yeah?

Urgh.

UPDATE:
Terrific exchange at the Gates of Vienna that captures my mindset pretty much perfectly right now.

UPDATE II:
Check this exchange between a cartoonist, Bok, and some folks Stateside.
:: WB 5:06 pm [link+] ::