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Cartoons and the Honor Wars

By Jane Smiley, Huffington Post. Posted February 7, 2006.


Why Islamic rioters in the Middle East and Europe are like South Carolinians during the American Civil War.
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Ten years ago, when I was researching for my pre-Civil War novel, The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton, I ran across a book by former NYT reporter Fox Butterfield, called All God's Children, about the family and culture of a boy who committed murder -- the youngest person ever to be convicted of murder in the state of New York at the time the book was written.

What was interesting to me about Butterfield's book, in the context of my novel (which was set in Kansas Territory in the 1850s, a scene of considerable sectarian violence that was damped down for a while before erupting again in 1861 in the east) was his analysis of the different cultures of Massachusetts and South Carolina in the antebellum U.S.. Butterfield's view was that honor in South Carolina was defined more or less by status -- insults had to be answered immediately, usually with violence, in order to save face.

This led to a lot of dueling, and he cites statistics on the persistence of dueling and other forms of violence and fighting in South Carolina well into the twentieth century. By contrast, honor in the entirely different culture of abolitionist Massachusetts was more like what we think of today as self-respect -- the primary marker of self-respect was not to respond, but to remain stoic and dignified in the teeth of insults.

For most of ante-bellum American history, it happened that hot-blooded slaveholding South Carolinians and passionate abolitionist citizens of Massachusetts, who agreed on nothing culturally or politically, didn't have much contact with one another. Geographically, they were separated by the more mixed and moderate states of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, etc. They constituted extremist wings of an American political culture that was forming itself through many types of dialogue, confrontation, and discourse.

In the Kansas Territory in 1855 and 1856, though, they ran head on into each other, unmediated by more moderate types, as a result of the Kansas Nebraska Act. In 1854, Congress had decided to let Kansas and Nebraska Territories decide for themselves whether to be slave or free, and the result was that the most extreme slave partisans and the most extreme abolitionists headed for Kansas Territory in order to settle the land and, more or less, stuff the ballot boxes.

When these two groups got to Kansas and saw one another, they hated what they saw. The Massachusetts settlers saw dirty, barefoot, ignorant, uneducated, and violent southerners, and the South Carolinians saw pompous, self-satisfied, elitist, mercenary, and cowardly snobs. To the Massachusetts settlers, the fact that the South Carolinians would fight and kill at the slightest provocation was a sign of their immature and low natures. To the South Carolinians, the fact that the Massachusetts settlers wouldn't fight was a sign not of self-respect but of cowardice and failure to actually believe in what they said they believed in.

There were lots of skirmishes, some open voter fraud, and one real terrorist attack -- John Brown's attack on five slave-owning Kansans. John Brown was an abolitionist who believed that God was telling him to free the slaves at any cost and that it was divinely ordained that the South was to pay for its sins through suffering, blood, and fire. When he was chased out of Kansas, he went to Maryland, and, many say, sparked the Civil War at Harper's Ferry.


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Jane Smiley's most recent book is Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel.

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Those thin-skinned Muslims
Posted by: RayK on Feb 7, 2006 3:49 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
When confronted with an image of a Terminator Jesus with grenades dangling from His crown of thorns, bayonet clenched in his teeth, sweat glistening on His chiseled, cartridge belt-crossed pectorals and a 50-cal cradled across His bulging biceps, we free speech-extolling Western Christians can be models of restraint and tolerance to those volatile, medieval Muslims by showing them how we can unprotestingly accept the Rambo Redeemer as witty satire.

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» Come on now. . . Posted by: NthnBrazil
» Holocaust Posted by: kittynboi
» RE: Holocaust Posted by: dlf
» RE: Holocaust Posted by: kittynboi
» RE: Holocaust Posted by: dlf
» RE: Holocaust Posted by: kittynboi
» RE: Holocaust Posted by: dlf
» RE: Holocaust Posted by: kittynboi
» RE: Holocaust Posted by: dlf
» RE: Holocaust Posted by: kittynboi
» RE: Those thin-skinned Muslims Posted by: Simon Sez
» RE: Those thin-skinned Muslims Posted by: gexrobert
» RE: Those thin-skinned Muslims Posted by: kittynboi
ALL THE MYTHICAL GODS
Posted by: zoza on Feb 7, 2006 5:23 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
All the mythical gods of the world are the single source of conflict in our silly little world. These gods who are so puny and defenseless, who constantly need defending and who are so insecure that they constantly need worshipping are from the world of fairy tales. Whether Islamic, Jew, Catholic (now there's a silly religion for you), Baptist or Buddist, their leaders always ask of their minions to go out and do their bidding for them. To kill, rape, torture and proselytize, all in the name of some "Big Daddy up in the Sky". Religions have the power to bring about world peace, but instead they are like big "Fight Clubs".

If there is a "God", I say we all pray to Him today to end all religions that do not teach peace.... in Big Daddy's name... Amen.

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» RE: ALL THE MYTHICAL GODS Posted by: AlienSlave
» RE: ALL THE MYTHICAL GODS Posted by: NotConvinced
» RE: ALL THE MYTHICAL GODS Posted by: AlienSlave
» RE: ALL THE MYTHICAL GODS Posted by: aonghus36
» RE: ALL THE MYTHICAL GODS Posted by: kittynboi
» RE: ALL THE MYTHICAL GODS Posted by: aonghus36
» RE: ALL THE MYTHICAL GODS Posted by: kittynboi
» RE: ALL THE MYTHICAL GODS Posted by: billfaster
» Hardly the single source Posted by: stormchilde1975
» RE: Hardly the single source Posted by: kittynboi
» RE: Hardly the single source Posted by: aonghus36
» RE: Hardly the single source Posted by: Basenjis
» RE: ALL THE MYTHICAL GODS Posted by: robbrian
» RE: ALL THE MYTHICAL GODS Posted by: aonghus36
» RE: ALL THE MYTHICAL GODS Posted by: Dragonwoman
» RE: ALL THE MYTHICAL GODS Posted by: Doubtom
» RE: ALL THE MYTHICAL GODS Posted by: aonghus36
» RE: ALL THE MYTHICAL GODS Posted by: Doubtom
Putting the cartoons into context.
Posted by: Colin on Feb 7, 2006 5:36 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
You probably didn't hear about this side of the cartoon row over there in America. This new information certainly puts the 'freedom of speech' argument into it's correct context.

FROM: The Guardian
HEADLINE: Danish paper rejected Jesus cartoons
Gwladys Fouché
Monday February 6, 2006

Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first published the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that have caused a storm of protest throughout the Islamic world, refused to run drawings lampooning Jesus Christ, it has emerged today.
The Danish daily turned down the cartoons of Christ three years ago, on the grounds that they could be offensive to readers and were not funny.

In April 2003, Danish illustrator Christoffer Zieler submitted a series of unsolicited cartoons dealing with the resurrection of Christ to Jyllands-Posten.

Zieler received an email back from the paper's Sunday editor, Jens Kaiser, which said: "I don't think Jyllands-Posten's readers will enjoy the drawings. As a matter of fact, I think that they will provoke an outcry. Therefore, I will not use them."

To see the full article see here.

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» part 2 Posted by: kittynboi
» PArt 3. Posted by: kittynboi
freedom of expression
Posted by: eileenflmng on Feb 7, 2006 6:00 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The 'cartoon' first ran in a newspaper September 2005, but was circulated on the Internet in order to provoke and inflame an uprising.

People who live where free expression and freedom of speech are guaranteed must learn to develop thick skins. While the West must be more sensitive to the sensibilities of other cultures, the other needs to lighten up and come into the 21st century where all people are understood to have inalienable human rights of conscience, thought and speech.

excerpt 2/6/06 WAWA Blog:
http://www.wearewideawake.org


The Freedom of Speech trial in the democracy of Israel that is being ignored by USA media continues in Jerusalem Feb 9, 2006:
www.vanunu.com

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» Engineered situation. Posted by: kittynboi
» MUST be? NEEDS to? Posted by: Bic Pentameter
Epiphany
Posted by: jak on Feb 7, 2006 6:36 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I read Butterfield's book years ago and recommend it highly...expecially to tansplanted Yankees like myself. When I moved South, I was unprepared for the attitudes I encountered on a daily basis. In my world, these types were bullies to be shunned. In SC, they were the norm...if not heroes. 'All God's Children' finally opened my eyes to the cultural roots of this behavior.

In the same manner, Smiley's article is an epiphany--one of those rare 'ah-ha!' moments when another piece of the puzzle of life falls into place. The world makes more sense today.

The attitudes of our leaders today have much more in common with those antebellum Southerners--and by extension the Jihadists--than they would like to admit...and more than I ever realized.

Click! Another piece falls into place....

We're being led by rednecks, who are more concerned with primitive, violent notions of 'honor' than with evolving the state or our civilization.

jak

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» RE: piphany Posted by: kittynboi
» You are so right Posted by: hagwind
» RE: Epiphany Posted by: Basenjis
Why Cartoon explosion?
Posted by: Citizendeane on Feb 7, 2006 6:39 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Does not any one understand why this explosion over a bunch of dumb cartoons in a Danish newspaper? I have a suggestion. It isn't about cartoons and it isn't about different civilizations and values either. My suggestion is this: it is about the race war being waged by the United States and British on peoples of the Middle East. They are sick of it! They are sick of the race wars waged against them by Europeans and Anglo phones for more than 100 years. The cartoons are the straws that break the camel's back. --Joe

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» RE: Why Cartoon explosion? Posted by: YogiBear
» Not so. Posted by: kittynboi
» RE: Not so. Posted by: Graeme
» RE: Not so. Posted by: kittynboi
» RE: Not so. Posted by: Graeme
» RE: Not so. Posted by: kittynboi
» RE: Not so. Posted by: Graeme
» RE: Why Cartoon explosion? Posted by: jareilly
» RE: Why Cartoon explosion? Posted by: Graeme
Don't Tread on Me
Posted by: YogiBear on Feb 7, 2006 6:44 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
We can give them the theory of free speech until we are blue in the face, and they will not necessarily find it believable or true in their hearts, compared to deep-seated cultural expectations.

Replace "muslims" with "religious right" and tell me again if you think there is some wiggle room here. What if the issue was not "Depictions of Mohammad," but "photos of abused Islamic women"?

Cowtowing for "cultural sensitivity" is basically appeasement through ceonsorship. If we truly care about bringing democracy to the middle east, we shouldn't be backing down on any issue. Is there such a thing as a theocratic democracy? I guess we'll find out.

"No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered as patriots. This is one nation under God."
-- George HW Bush

"There ought to be limits to freedom."
-- George W Bush

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» Thank you. Posted by: kittynboi
» RE: Don't Tread on Me Posted by: Jimbo
» RE: Don't Tread on Me Posted by: kittynboi
» RE: Don't Tread on Me Posted by: Doubtom
» RE: Don't Tread on Me Posted by: amatullah
It didn't just happen in Kansas
Posted by: bookwoman on Feb 7, 2006 7:31 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In 1856, Preston Brooks of South Carolina confronted Massachusetts Senator, Charles Sumner as the Senator sat at his desk on the Senate floor. Sumner's perceived crime was an abolitionist speech made earlier. Brooks beat Sumner so badly, with his cane that the cane broke and Brooks had to be dragged off Sumner to keep Brooks from killing him. It took the Senator years to recover, and he had headaches the rest of his life.

Brooks was the nephew of a member of Congress and a member of one of the richest, most powerful families in South Carolina. I guess you didn't have to be dirty, ill educated and badly brought up to be a violent boor if you were from South Carolina.

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sonoftheoldwest
Posted by: sonofthewest on Feb 7, 2006 8:13 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I grew up in Arizona in the 1950s and saw the same conflict reflected in a manner. In more than one fight I found myself defending my honor because that is what you had to do in a "cowboy" atmosphere. I was also raised a Bahia, though I am now a secular humanist/atheist, and from that earlier religious sensativity it was apparent from the appearance of the first cartoons back in September 2005 that european ignorance and arrogance would feed the war of civilizations. Some Euro culture peoples, including most "mericans" say, how irrational these Muslims are, looting and killing over cartoons as though a rational person would just step back. Well, belief in any god and religion is irrational and superstition so why wouldn't people react irrationally about a religious affront? I suspect that if a Muslim drawn cartoon were to be put out with the Christian prophet fornicating his mother or going down on his father, many Christians would be affronted and talk fighting words in defense of their religion and their status. Remember the inquisition in Catholic Spain and Europe, the warfare over religion in England, and the Crusades: were these rational reactions?

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» RE: sonoftheoldwest Posted by: aonghus36
» RE: sonoftheoldwest Posted by: aida1200
» Son of a pompous ass Posted by: Bic Pentameter
» RE: sonoftheoldwest Posted by: dlf
» RE: sonoftheoldwest Posted by: YogiBear
Don't forget the atheists on death row in Islamic countries
Posted by: counterpoint on Feb 7, 2006 9:32 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I can see how flames are fanned, on the background of real war waged against Muslims, their disposession and humiliation. But it also seems clear to me that this consiliatory talk of Islam as a 'religion of peace' is rhethoric without meaning. The Mohammed figure was a warlord if there ever was one. More importantly, his is a universalist religion, claiming to own the one single truth, and it calls its followers in many places in the Qran and the commentary to pursue, convert or kill infidels as a matter of religious duty. Read Ibn Warraq's testimony to the UN Human rights commission in 2004 where he points out that freedom of and from religion is seen as incompatible with the philosophy and laws of Muslim nations (Apostasy & Human Rights, Free Inquiry, Feb/March 2006, p53, or google "ibn warraq apostasy"). There are atheists on death row in a number of Islamic countries. Any religion that would use its might to threaten to put people to death for believing differently from their arbitrary superstitions is a dangerous piece of shit. Believe me, most people will eventually recognize a piece of shit once it flies right into their face. As long as they're able to duck it the may chose to remain polite. However, in the real world we must still acknowlege that a 700 pound gorilla can sit whereever he pleases and use diplomacy in order not to stoke the flames of war.

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The cartoons
Posted by: esactun on Feb 7, 2006 10:12 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
posted by brave Belgians: http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/698

Some of them could be considered offensive, but the reaction to them has been blown out of proportion (to use a heroically British sort of understatement). Thug-like behavior is unconscionable and uncivilized regardless of who the perpetrators are, or their so-called reasons.

Condemn the protestors for being idiots on those grounds, not on the grounds of them being Muslim. For that really has little to do with it (except making people more easy to fool and control, a feature of all religions...). Mobs are mobs.

One commenter mentioned "liberals' Muslim fetish" and said it's time to recognize how "bloodthirsty Islam is." Nonsense. Absolute nonsense. Islam is no different from Christianity in its peaceful factions and hardcore militant idiot factions. Pretending otherwise is both delusion and bigotry. Look at the so-called Christians picketing soldier's funerals for, to paraphrase, defending a country that tolerates homosexuality and adultery... look at the so-called Christians who firebomb abortion clinics and shoot their doctors, all in the name of forcing women to bear children... We've already had terrorism, so do you really think we're all that far away from a similar spate of riots? All it'll take is one little spark to set of the far-right evangelicals here in the US, fanned by loudmouth charlatan preachers.

And considering that Christians hold far more nuclear bombs--and are directly responsible for killing more people in war and otherwise than anyone--and that the Christian Bible is full of calls to violence, saying Islam is somehow inherently bloodthirsty based on what one sees in the MSM strikes me as a bit of Western cultural myopia (a bit of the pot calling the kettle black).

Reasonable local Christians complain about being lumped together with extremist nuts like Robertson. Most find that to be a reasonable complaint. Now some people here do it with Muslims too. It's real easy to paint with broad brushes, but they won't leave you with a clear, detailed picture.

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» RE: The cartoons Posted by: Graeme
» RE: The cartoons Posted by: kittynboi
» RE: The cartoons Posted by: Graeme
» RE: The cartoons Posted by: kittynboi
» RE: The cartoons Posted by: Graeme
» RE: The cartoons Posted by: aida1200
» RE: The cartoons Posted by: kittynboi
» RE: The cartoons Posted by: kittynboi
» RE: The cartoons Posted by: Graeme
» RE: The cartoons Posted by: kittynboi
» RE: The cartoons Posted by: Graeme
» RE: The cartoons Posted by: kittynboi
» RE: The cartoons Posted by: Graeme
» RE: The cartoons Posted by: kittynboi
» RE: The cartoons Posted by: Graeme
» RE: The cartoons Posted by: Doubtom
» RE: The cartoons Posted by: kittynboi
» RE: The cartoons Posted by: Graeme
» RE: The cartoons Posted by: kittynboi
» RE: The cartoons Posted by: Graeme
» RE: The cartoons Posted by: kittynboi
» RE: The cartoons Posted by: Graeme
» RE: The cartoons Posted by: kittynboi
» RE: The cartoons Posted by: Graeme
» RE: The cartoons Posted by: amatullah
Well, what insulting garbage
Posted by: Summer on Feb 7, 2006 11:04 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Actually being a southerner, I have to say there is a different view than is being espoused on here.

Those damned yankees thought they would come to the South and rule and be superior. They began the most vicious onslaught of cruelity to the south and burned the south, killing many. They didn't care about the slaves being free. They wanted to sell their cotton gins. They didn't want the South to annex either.

Gone with the wind depicts correctly what a proud bunch of people they were and still are. There are poor in every state.

The Yankees were much like Bush and his minions. Filled with arrogance. Still are.

They always want to rule, but aren't smart enough.

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» I believe you proved the point, Sir ... Posted by: AdamSelene11726
It is the arrogance
Posted by: Summer on Feb 7, 2006 12:05 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I don't care about the Civil War between the South and North now. What is done is done. I just don't like to hear the South berated and ridiculed.

When people come down here from the north, we find they have a lot to learn. Many northerners have went back North with their tails tucked between their legs.

I do believe that some of what has been posted in this article is the same type of mentality that Bush has had against the poor, the elderly, the Muslims and Islam.

A lot of revisionist history on here. Northerners haven't locked the market on brains or insight. They do have a lot of arrogance just like the Bushites.

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» RE: It is the arrogance Posted by: Gma1
CULTURE WAR
Posted by: midwest-musings on Feb 7, 2006 12:08 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Communications, transportation and many other areas have improved a great deal since the 1850's, but our ability to handle culture differences remains centuries old. If we are unwilling or unable to make improvements in our adjustments to understanding culture differences then I fear another Fort Sumter awaits.

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A Sense of Humor? Take Off Its Head!
Posted by: achilleshart on Feb 7, 2006 12:52 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
When life is cheap, and your parents gave you plenty of beatings (maybe for looking at a comic book), an insult is to behead someone ... that is, to slaughter them the way you might slaughter a barnyard animal. That's an insult.

I encountered the swift physical response to insults when I first moved to North Carolina from Texas and started 1st grade ... The kids started screaming, "Yankee! Yankee!" at me when I said something smart, and no matter of reason could convince them Texas wasn't actually a Yankee state. They simply didn't like evidence of someone trying to use reason! No, the real culprit in all this is a lack of sense of humor. I've been fighting against it my whole life, and have a website, Non-escalating Verbal Self-Defense

A sense of humor unfailingly leads people to commonalities. For instance, the Iranians, and the Californians, have the funniest jokes in the world about cheating wives. Then there are those who don't think that's very funny! Jane Smiley, we went to the same high school in St. Louis ... Thanks for expressing your keen insight.

Ciao,
Richard Ames Hart

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Freedom of the Press or Speech
Posted by: gcshaw5 on Feb 7, 2006 1:11 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It would help bolster the claim of "Freedom of Press" or "Freedom of Speech" if the Danish newspaper that first published the cartoons in question had not refused to publish material that lampooned Jesus Christ. The paper claimed that publishing the material lampooning Christ would cause too much contriversy.

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another poor excuse to slam the south
Posted by: gerdhansel on Feb 7, 2006 1:16 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
So we Southerners are the only ones who shoot from the hip when you talk nasty about our women folk, disparage our religion or insult our mothers?

So if I went into a vitriolic anti-Catholic diatribe, all the Irish and Italians in New York City would just chuckle and buy me a free pint of Guiness, eh?

And if I denied the Holocaust in certain parts of Brooklyn, I'd be welcome at the next neighborhood bar mitzvah, right?

And if I screamed, "I hope you all die of AIDS," in downtown San Francisco, the grateful residents would hand me an autographed copy of "Funny Lady," right?

I've got news for you snooty elitist blue-staters. You've got your own share of ignorant, violent brutes who'd just as soon beat the crap out of you as look at you. The South doesn't have a monopoly on stupid, violent people who shoot from the hip if you're crazy enough say the wrong thing at the wrong time in the wrong place.

"Them's fighting words" may not mean the same thing to a redneck from Texas as it does to a Jew from Brooklyn or Catholic from Boston, or a tree hugger from Portland, but trust me, people get their asses handed to them every day in all of these places for allowing their bulldog mouths to overload their Pekingese behinds.

Enough with bashing the South. Violence and ignorance are part of the human condition, and nobody in San Francisco or New York is immune. Clean up the mess in your own back yard before you go mouthing off about the mess in somebody else's.

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» A more objective analysis... Posted by: ABetterFuture
» Ok, I did look it up. Posted by: sln70
» He He.. Posted by: sln70
» No surprises here ... . Posted by: AdamSelene11726
» RE: No surprises here ... . Posted by: YogiBear
EXCUSES, EXCUSES
Posted by: 7 Levels on Feb 7, 2006 1:46 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The FACT is that the people rioting are savages. Call me a biggot or whatever you want but look at how they treat women. Look at their 'eye for an eye' mentality. Look at how they view homosexuality, hell ANY sexuality. What would we call them if they were South African and white ? We would call them what they are - backwards and ignorant. It does not matter what color they are, how we have offended them, etc. Do African Americans riot when confronted with stupid racism in it's may forms ? No. This culture will never get to any sort of even footing until they abandon this way of handling their problems. It's a CARTOON for God's sake. See any Christians losing their minds over what's on SOUTH PARK ???

FREE SPEECH TRUMPS EVERYTHING. PERIOD.

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» RE: EXCUSES, EXCUSES Posted by: Graeme
» RE: EXCUSES, EXCUSES Posted by: 7 Levels
» RE: XCUSES, EXCUSES Posted by: amatullah
» RE: XCUSES, EXCUSES Posted by: YogiBear
» RE: XCUSES, EXCUSES Posted by: Graeme
» RE: XCUSES, EXCUSES Posted by: chief of okeefe
» RE: XCUSES, EXCUSES Posted by: kittynboi
Cartoon
Posted by: Sparks56 on Feb 7, 2006 3:25 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Can someone tell me where I can go to see the cartoon that has caused all the trouble?
My only comment is that any religion that cannot tolerate another view of itself is a weak, shallow, and insecure faith.

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» RE: Cartoon Posted by: Graeme
» RE: Cartoon Posted by: Sparks56
» RE: Cartoon Posted by: thirdmg
» RE: Cartoon Posted by: Sparks56
» RE: Cartoon Posted by: counterpoint
» RE: Cartoon Posted by: Sparks56
The last word....
Posted by: 7 Levels on Feb 7, 2006 5:19 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel
/0,1518,399263,00.html

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Oversight of author of this piece, and a couple points
Posted by: fifthworld on Feb 7, 2006 6:39 PM   
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"Islamic", or "Muslim" for you title ?? Think.

I see a dangerous rift widening between "atheists"/"agnostics" and religious true-bluers, reified in fear and self-doubt. The emulsifying agent, as it were, would be wild imagination. Spiritual imagination, archetypal animations of life in myth and story. It all requires fluidity of mind, compassion, depth of soul. Consumers, don't be afraid to be humble, to submit to greater things. Let's go there. Before it IS too late. "Sit, be still, and listen -- because you're drunk, and we're at the edge of the roof." - Rumi

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Cartoons... an update
Posted by: RayK on Feb 7, 2006 7:24 PM   
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The same Danish paper that published satirical cartoons of Islam had earlier rejected cartoons lampooning Christ. Curious?

http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,1703500,00.html

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» RE: Cartoons... an update Posted by: mythbuster
aware
Posted by: aware on Feb 7, 2006 7:50 PM   
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"Deja vu all over again" is REDUNDANT!
Deja vu is sufficient.

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» awareness, twice told Posted by: fifthworld
» RE: aware Posted by: RayK
» RE: aware Posted by: Gma1
Not convinced
Posted by: boygranddakar on Feb 7, 2006 10:07 PM   
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Two things about this article disturb me:

1. Smiley asserts so confidently that she knows what constitutes self-respect for "Islamic rioters." How has she come by this information, or how has she arrived at this conclusion?

Her assertion that this is "cultural" reinforces stereotypes about the cool, intellectual global North and the hot-blooded, passionate global South. The possibility that violence may be the result of decades of the global North (in this case, everywhere from Denmark to the U.S.) ignoring or depriving the global South (Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan) doesn't seem to occur to her. Assigning such differences as "cultural" can serve as a way to de-politicize the situation. For example, were the riots in France a way to save face and dignity, or were they the release of pent-up frustration over long-term exclusion from French social, political and economic life?

If this story were about riots by African Americans in Philly, would Smiley feel so comfortable using words such as "visceral" and "instinctive," words that frankly animalize her subjects? Why can't she see the frustrated call for justice from a community that has been globally demonized by the top nations in power?

Of course, of course, I do not condone the violence, but I don't condone the implicit racism in this article either.

2. Has anyone considered the way that conservative Christians would react if Jesus were to be portrayed as a terrorist in a cartoon? Would Christians in Montana, Utah, Michigan, and, yes, Massachusetts, as well as other "cool North" places really maintain control and be "reasoned" in their responses? Please.

Smiley needs to reconsider her easy answer and give some thought to the real-world complexities of this situatio