Cartoon controversy - Steyn style

Once again, Mark Steyn hits the nail on the head regarding the ongoing cartoon controversy. A sample:

"In a world in which Danish cartoons insult the prophet and Disney Piglet mugs insult the prophet and Burger King chocolate ice-cream swirl designs insult the prophet, maybe it would just be easier to make a list of things that don't insult him. Nonetheless, the Muslim Association wrote to the Ann Summers sex-shop chain, "We are asking you to have our Most Revered Prophet's name 'Mustafa' and the afflicted word 'shag' removed."

If I were a Muslim, I'd be "hurt" and "humiliated" that the revered prophet's name is given not to latex blowup males but to so many real blowup males: The leader of the 9/11 plotters? Mohammed Atta. The British Muslim who self-detonated in a Tel Aviv bar? Asif Mohammed Hanif. The gunman who shot up the El Al counter at LAX? Heshamed Mohamed Hedayet. The former U.S. Army sergeant who masterminded the slaughter at the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania? Ali Mohamed. The murderer of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh? Mohammed Bouyeri. The notorious Sydney gang rapist? Mohammed Skaf. The Washington sniper? John Allen Muhammed. If I were a Muslim, I would be deeply offended that the prophet's name is the preferred appellation of so many killers and suicide bombers on every corner of the earth."

Read the whole thing...

Post election blues - What were they thinking???

Well, here we are after the first full week of the new Stephen Harper squeaky-clean Conservative government - and already, the honeymoon has come to an abrupt end, and a great deal of political capital has been blown.

It seemed like such a good idea - that the folks coming in to run the government would not be the same folks who ran the campaign - but in practise, it seems like the people running the campaign were the smart ones. They were the disciplined team that cranked out policy announcements, kept on top of the issues, and were smart about communication.

But this first week, well, it tells a different story. In making a cabinet Harper, in a couple of strokes, managed to dispel a great deal of goodwill from the press, the public (who were told that the Conservatives were going to different), and within his own party - all those competent, hardworking Conservatives who dreamed of a spot at the Cabinet table, only to be snubbed in favour of a Liberal turncoat and an unelected backroom boy parachuted into the Senate.

To say that this has been a disappointing week would be an understatement.

Parliament does not resume until April 3rd - so there is time for them to recover - and who knows? This whole ‘controversy’ might blow over by then and become a distant memory - provided that when Parliament does re-convene the Conservatives govern smartly and don’t fuck that up too...Otherwise, we might just as well start writing cheques to the Natural Governing Party - because if the Conservatives screw this up, than it’ll be a loooong time before we see them back in the driver’s seat.

Cartoonish protests?

Cartoon protests - well, that says it all, doesn’t it.

The level of "outrage" being expressed across the Muslim world over the publication of cartoons is staggering. Embassies burned, angry mobs rampaging through city streets, Westerners of all kinds (Europeans, Americans -well anyone with a pale complexion) fleeing for their lives - what a scene the world has been presented with. But come on - all this over a bunch of cartoons that were published 4 months ago in some obscure Danish newspaper? Cartoons?? However supposedly inflammatory these particular pieces might have been (showing Mohammed wearing a bomb shaped turban might have been going a little far, for instance), the reaction by the radical Islamists across the globe is entirely out of proportion.

All these calls for the Danish government to apologize, and for anyone ‘blaspheming’ Islam to be punished - give me a break. How about y’all collectively go fuck yourselves. Its called freedom of speech and freedom of the press for a reason. It means that speech, even speech you might, in your narrow minded little world, find offensive, is protected. Give an inch here - oh my, someone’s religious sensibilities were offended - and where does the next line get drawn? Given the virulently anti-semitic speeches, cartoons, etc routinely published in these vast centers of Islamic outrage, are they really the ones to be lecturing us on what constitutes "acceptable" speech? I guess its only un-acceptable when the object of caricature is aimed at them.

I find it odd that there is so much outrage over depictions of Mohammed in the first place. Ok, I get that there is supposedly a ‘ban’ on images of the prophet - designed, I believe, to prevent the sin of idiolatry - they are supposed to worshiping god, not the prophet - right? But does all this anger, protest, and righteous indignation seem to indicate that all these supposedly pious Islamists are already committing the sin anyway, by practically worshiping the Prophet? Maybe if these folks spent a little more time learning how to think, and less on dreaming up anti-American slogans (how many ways are there to chant "death to the great Satan", anyway?) than they might see for themselves the irony here. But thats just my view as a rational, atheistic Canadian.

Personally, I also find it quite ironic that these are the same people who begged that we not tar the entire Muslim world with the same brush after September 11, - that we continue to be tolerant and not overreact. Overreact?? A dozen cartoons trigger off rampaging mobs across the Islamic world, people are threatened (and in some cases killed), and there are calls for extreme violence (unless you consider calls to "behead the blasphemers" to be a message of tolerance) - and we are the ones who are not supposed to overreact when people identifying themselves as Islamist (and praised in many Muslim countries) fly planes into buildings and murder thousands. Hmm...To me it seems clear which is the more offensive crime - but the nutcases seem to believe that we should be tying ourselves into knots and bending over backwards because the entire western world is somehow responsible for the publication of a bunch of cartoons in a Danish newspaper. I find the hypocrisy here staggering.

Has it come to the point where we have to treat the Islamic world like a giant, tempermental two year old? Tread carefully, lest you wake the monster and it throws a tantrum? Are we supposed to all fall in line and abandon our ideals (free speech among them) to appease an angry mob? I do not find the statements coming from Western leaders comforting. Too many of their statements seem to be aimed at appeasing the two year old - ok, from a practical point of view I can understand, since there are may westerners (journalists, aid workers, etc) whose lives are at risk - but still, it seems to me that we are playing a dangerous game - if we fall back here, as I said before, than where does the next line get drawn? Like with the temperamental two year old, if they get their way here, their demands will only grow...especially as they see how fearful we have become - tread carefully, lest you wake the psychotic neighbour.

All in all the situation is seriously deranged...