Where did this urge spring from? Well, to trace it to its roots, it seems a lot of Islamic fundamentalists got all wrapped around the axle about a Danish cartoonist portraying their religion as a pack of bloodthirsty bomb-toting terrorists, and so they naturally reacted to this biased portrayal by, well... threatening to bomb the cartoonist, the newspaper, the country he lived in, the continent he was located on, and anybody who might in any way be remotely connected with that continent.
Oh, and they're not going to buy anything from Denmark, either, so Erik Jørgensen furniture, Havarti cheese, and several yummy pastries are Right Out for the Sons of the Prophet. (Presumably Copenhagen-brand Danish Ham production is unaffected, thank Wotan.)
Sandmonkey is leading the countercharge to take up the slack in the Danish export market and the blogosphere seems to be rallying around the flagpole in a haze of Tuborg and FRÏS fumes.
Oddly enough, despite the rather prominent Pastafarian link on my blog, I have yet to have an Episcopalian turn up on my front porch with his Sansabelt pockets full of grenades. Maybe this is why I tend to take Episcopalians more seriously than I do people who respond to caricature with C4 Underoos.
On that note, I'll leave you with this: A cartoon of Mohammed with a bomb in his 'do.(H/T to TFS Magnum, who shoved me down this rabbit hole.)
Only one leetle problem with your analogy, Sparky.
ReplyDeleteNo one of the Jewish faith had to slaughter 3,000 Germans to make the German authorities turn against the Jews.
You cannot dialog with 7th century madmen who only want us dead.
Unless by "dialog" you mean "drop hundreds of tons of ordnance on", in which case I agree completely.
-"No one of the Jewish faith had to slaughter 3,000 Germans to make the German authorities turn against the Jews."
ReplyDeleteNo one of the Muslim faith had to slaughter anyone either. Europe has a long history of Racism, seething just under the social surface. When I first moved to Europe 15 years ago it was common to see anti-Muslim racist scribblings in bathroom stalls in Belgium, France and the Netherlands. Riding in a car with good Belgian citizens past a group of Muslims would provoke muttered racial epitaphs in Flemish. There was a palatable unease among Europeans any time Muslims entered a shop, or passed on the sidewalk. The last 20 years have seen the rise of a "NeoFacism" movement in many Western European countries. Look at Belgium's Vlaams Blok as an example. This was all pre-9/11.
Now with the publication of the Danish cartoons, that deep rooted hatred has bubbled from inside the bathroom stall, and frothed into the free press, and the non-nationalist press at that. The publication of the cartoons is an open display of the same feeling that existed for the Jews in the 1920's which Hitler used to catapult himself into power. That same feeling of deep-rooted distrust in the hearts of Europeans for Jews is now directed at Muslims.
Are you suggesting that the 9/11 attacks by Muslims justify a 21st century version of 20th century racism? I see it now: 2005-2006 Year of increasing bad press for Muslims results in-> 2006-2007 - ID cards required for Muslims which morphs into ->2008 Restricted travel and property ownership for Muslims which leads to ->2009 Crystal Nacht and the "Star and Crescent Armbands" Which leads to....
No one stopped the anti Semitism in the early 1930's in Germany, we need to stop the blooming of the public anti-Muslim movement now. I have no problem with cartoons lampooning Al Qaeda, it's leadership, the enemy combatants. Just don't start down the path of blanket racial stereotyping, ala 1933 in the Third Reich.
-"You cannot dialog with 7th century madmen who only want us dead."
Who are you calling madmen? Osama Bin Laden? We paid him to kill Soviets for us for nearly a decade. We paid him because he is a killer and has the ability to rally his troops. Now that they have turned on us, they are suddenly madmen. When did Osama become mad? Was it after his usefulness to Ronald Regan's Administration ended as the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan? Was it right before the bombing of the USS Cole? Perhaps he has been a madman the whole time, in which case the US did lots of dialoging with a madman during the 1980s. We were very successful in our dialog with him, just ask the Soviets.
You oversimplify. They don't "only want us dead". They want US troops out of the Middle East. They want an end to the oppression of Palestinians. Not all Muslims want us dead.
Are Hamas madmen too? Yikes! They just won elections and have control of a middle eastern country (albeit a small one). That means that voters consciously went to the polls and selected Hamas as reprehensive. Are those voters madmen (and women)? Should we add Hamas and the Palestinian voters to the "Madmen list"?
Are the insurgents in Iraq madmen also? If they are mad, then so were the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Madmen supported by America. What a novel concept.
-“Unless by "dialog" you mean "drop hundreds of tons of ordnance on", in which case I agree completely.”
Who do you suggest we "drop hundreds of tons of ordinance on"? We have dropped thousands of tons of ordinance on Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Somalia, and Bin Laden and Al Quada are still running around. It looks like Bin Laden will outlast the Bush Administration. In the process of our bombing we have rallied Muslims around the world to Bin Laden's cause. Our "Shock and Awe" has turned out to be the greatest recruitment tool that Muslim Fundamentalists have. The more we drop, the more they recruit. Lets crank up the ordinance factories, and see if we can match the Muslim birthrate! There are 200,000,000 of them in Indonesia, that is a crapload of sorties, luckily, wooden huts only require a single hit. I hope you detect sarcasm here.
It seems like you subscribe to the simple "Kill them all and let God sort them out" philosophy, which has not worked in the war on terror. The hatred in the heart of Bin Laden was planted centuries ago in Abraham's sons, was cemented during the Crusades, and flared to white heat with the USS New Jersey shelling of Beirut in the 80's. It is an age old problem that won't be fixed with a shooting war.
It seems like you subscribe to the simple "Kill them all and let God sort them out" philosophy, which has not worked in the war on terror.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that it has worked loads better than the Kiss their asses and blame the West for all of their actions plan that you seem to advocate.