I am Spartacus
The first effective counterstroke in the cultural confrontation between the West and Radical Islam has been fired by Europe. The Guardian reports:
Two leading German newspapers and one of France 's biggest dailies today reprinted the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that have sparked furore across the Middle East. The 12 drawings were first printed in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten in September, sparking protests by Muslims against Denmark in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other countries in the region. The offices of the newspaper were evacuated last night following a bomb threat - a day after the editor in chief apologised to the Muslim world for publishing the cartoons.
Islam forbids the human representation of the prophet. Many Muslims were also angry that some of the cartoons appeared to ridicule Muhammad. Die Welt printed on its front page today the drawing of the prophet wearing a turban with a bomb about to explode.
"Democracy is the institutionalised form of freedom of expression. There is no right to protection from satire in the west; there is a right to blasphemy" the paper said in an accompanying comment piece.
Commentary
Michael Crichton characterized complex systems in the following way.
We live in a world of complex systems. The environment is a complex system. The government is a complex system. Financial markets are complex systems. The human mind is a complex system---most minds, at least. By a complex system I mean one in which the elements of the system interact among themselves, such that any modification we make to the system will produce results that we cannot predict in advance.
Furthermore, a complex system demonstrates sensitivity to initial conditions. You can get one result on one day, but the identical interaction the next day may yield a different result. We cannot know with certainty how the system will respond. Third, when we interact with a complex system, we may provoke downstream consequences that emerge weeks or even years later. We must always be watchful for delayed and untoward consequences.
The first significant notice of the Danish cartoon controversy was carried by Samizdata in November, 2005. The subject was repeatedly touched on in the Brussels Journal, whose Paul Belien describes how an issue on the periphery rapidly gained center stage.
Four months ago to the day, on September 30th, Jyllands-Posten published its twelve Muhammad cartoons. Over the past four months The Brussels Journal, an internet publication, has posted 19 stories about the affair, but the mainstream media (MSM) have – until today – remained conspicuously silent. In the Belgian newspapers and magazines not a single letter has been published about this important story. And when the MSM finally decide to devote some attention to the case it is amazing to see how they manage to get basic facts wrong despite having had loads of time to do their research. The Australian networks SBS reported today that one of the twelve cartoons shows a pig-snouted Mohammed, while our readers know from our article of 14 January that Muslim hate mongerers had added this particular cartoon (and two others) to the original twelve because they did not deem the original cartoons offensive enough. Why do Western journalists repeat the lies of these anti-Western fanatics? Out of incompetence, or worse?
But something unexpected happened. An individual act by a little known Danish politician provided the twist which changed the course of the whole affair.
Meanwhile, one can but admire the courage of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. He is one of the very few European politicians with guts. If anyone deserves a prize for his valiant defence of freedom of speech and freedom of the press, it is certainly Mr Rasmussen. He did not give in to pressure from Muslim fanatics, nor from the appeasers at the UN, the European Commission and the Council of Europe. In the past weeks Denmark has shown that all is not yet lost in Europe. If something is rotten now it is not in Denmark.
Today conservative Americans have started a “Buy Danish” campaign in support of Copenhagen’s valiant stand. The Danes deserve this. The sale of Danish products in the Middle East has come to a standstill.
When little Denmark stood firm the global Jihad probably believed it was simply another punk European country that needed to be put in its place. Danish ambassadors were summoned to Arab capitals. Fatwas were issued. A boycott of Danish goods was organized. It should have led to predictable results, but as when nearly a hundred years ago "some damn fool thing in the Balkans" happened -- in the least consequential place in the world -- the results were unexpected. The two day old article in Brussels Journal continues:
Meanwhile, today’s raid on the EU offices in Gaza has dragged the EU into an affair it has so far generally tried to ignore. The European ministers of Foreign Affairs discussed the cartoons in Brussels today and condemned threats against Danish and Swedish citizens – since they are EU citizens. “We have expressed a spirit of solidarity with our northern colleagues, as well as our belief and attachment to the freedom of press and the freedom of expression as part of our fundamental values, and the freedom of religious beliefs,” Austrian foreign minister Ursula Plassnik said after the meeting. Her French colleague, Philippe Douste-Blazy added: “We have all declared our solidarity with the Danes.”
The EU is also considering bringing the boycott of Danish products before the World Trade Organisation (WTO) because a boycott of Danish products is also a boycott of EU products. EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson told the Saudi minister of Trade to “convey the seriousness of this issue to his government.” “Any boycott of Danish goods would be seen as a boycott of European goods,” Mr Mandelson said.
Europe discovered how to recognize shame all over again, but it was not the shame which the fatwa issuers had envisioned. Now the choices before the global Jihad are as follows: up the ante and humble Europe in its entirety or back down and eat crow. If they push forward the likeness of Mohammed will probably be plastered on thousands of newspaper and Internet websites before the week is up. It's a no-win situation for the Islamists which no one -- not the Danish cartoonists, nor Ramussen, nor Muslim clerics, nor even the startled Europeans themselves -- could have predicted.
77 Comments:
It is amazing this story has not gone away. There have been many other similar stories out there that have come and gone and who could have guessed this one would be still be burning.
Just before you put this one up I came to think of that event nearly 100 years ago to which you refer. Will this be a similar such event? What will the EU do? Will the EU treat this as is being suggested they are treating it or will they back down?
I think they will stand pat here as it is not that rogue nation ;-) that instigated this row.
It's dangerous to the Islamists in more ways than one. Bullets they can stand. Ridicule they cannot.
That's right. I was certainly compelled to put 'Mohammed' cartoons on my blog. And Bill Clinton's cowardice towards Muslim fundamentalists has been punished here
.
Anyone with links to these new French German reprints? I'm having a hard time believing this is real.
Fascinating. A movement of purposeful blasphemy has begun in the West. It's message: we will not be cowed. I can't think of anything more certain to cause a clash of civilizations.
The old phrases of solidarity were "Remember the Alamo!", "Viva la Revolucion!", "For Frodo!"
Perhaps the new phrase will be "Mohammed is gay!" Maybe such a banner will be strung across the new Gates of Vienna, for all to see.
As I said, absolutely fascinating.
It's dangerous to the Islamists in more ways than one. Bullets they can stand. Ridicule they cannot.
Bingo! That is why I why I get so worked up with the demand for patty-cake treatment of the terrorists we detain.
For example, the woman interrogator who smeared red-ink on her subject making him believe it was menstrual blood. Kill him and he is just fine with it but make him think he is subject to a menstruating prostitute that puts real fear into them.
I don't know if true or not but it was said BJ Pershing buried dead Moros with pigs. I heard the Brits had their soldiers coat their bullets with lard or beef tallow depending on the exact nature of the enemy. If they enemy does not fear death then we need to employ what they do fear against them.
as I have been saying for over a year...
hit the enemy where it hurts...
humilate them...
Finally, a spine.
Let us see which US paper prints these cartoons.
They certainly are "news" worthy, now.
I don't know how many butter cookies I can eat but it's not too unpleasant finding out.
The EU weenie response is late but more forceful than one would have expected. On the other hand a cave-in to an organized boycott would have been tantamount to unconditional surrender. The weenies aren't there yet.
An indirectly related item that could prove interesting are little bytes of info on the new Pope. I understand that the Pope met with Oriana Fallaci. I was glad to hear that although one can only guess at the implications.
Don't recall the reference but a participant reported that the Pope suggested at a recent meeting that Islam was rooted in the 7th century and incapable of change. There was some wiggling after the initial report but it's good to know that the new Pope is not likely to be parroting the religion of peace nonsense.
Why am I supposed to believe what The Guardian and the BBC have to report on ANYTHING?
Where are the fsck'n links to these new reprints?!
Mika,
http://www.welt.de/
http://www.welt.de/data/2006/02/01/839667.html
Huh?!!
Mahmud is a fat white guy?!
yeah, mika, like Jesus was a tall Italian.
I think a buy Danish campaign is in order.
There may just be a canned ham at Safeway with my name on it.
Bless 'em - Cox&Forkum have now joined in. http://www.coxandforkum.com/
We'll know they have
Jumped the Shark
when the intellectual firepower and emotional fervor of the
KOS KIDS is brought to bear on their most revered icons.
(don't hold your breath)
Desert Rat,
There may just be a canned ham at Safeway with my name on it. ..
You usually seem so serious (in a good way!), but that comment really made me smile.
Jamie Irons
Jamie,
You going to sacrifice a little and join him? ;-)
Leave us recall that the Danes also resisted the Nazis and refused to turn in their Jewish neighbors.
Sic semper tyrannis.
At last, my people have raised their eyes from the herring nets!
Can Hollywood (Oliver Stone's hilarious parody "Ali Baba & the Killer Cult"?) be far behind?
Oh, check the imported cheeses--Danes do not commerce by ham & butter cookies alone.
"Mohammed is gay!"
---
If SouthPark doesn't do a show to that effect I will be disappointed for the first time.
Have they already?
Aristedes, 10:33 AM -
Just think:
Many of us were doing it in our homes and in our local forums immediately after 9-11.
Usually a State Dept-Like Parental Type would interject the obligatory tsk tsk comment.
You can never have enough porcelain!
So let me get this straight. According to the Europeans, The Devil is a White Guy? No wonder Ahabs are upset. They can't get credit for anything!
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
The Danes went into WWII knowing they had not a chance against the Wehrmacht.
So, instead, they planned for occupation.
As a result, theirs was the most effective resistance movement during WWII.
The Netherlands as a whole has a long history of resistance and has been the springboard for freedom in Europe. Their battle against Spain and the Inquisition ranks up there with Britain's battle against Nazi Germany.
Buddy,
Don't forget their Offshore Oil!
Burn a Gallon for me Allen.
ok guys, til to rent monty pythons "life of brian"
(with a side of) i fart in your general direction...
may the moslem world riot and kill each other KNOWING that i am sitting in my office torturing korans (and host crackers, for any murderous catholics that did not murder enough jews for that)
what are you going to do? destroy my temple? (ya already did that)
call me a son of a dog, pig or satan? (ya already did that)
screw you moslem world... I just posted a pic of mohammed eatting a pork pulled sandwich
The First Ryder of the appocalypse.
- ht Sonia
The most surprising outcome in this debacle is that the EU has shown enough backbone to support one of its own, even though the Danes rejected the EU constitution. Could this be a different type of appeasement on the part of Brussels?
The hypersensitivity on the part of Islamists is nothing new, God knows that they would have objected to Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel.
"Brokeback Muslims"
Aristides,
Nuke the gay whales for Allah! Makes a nice bumper sticker.
It looks like the Washington Post has also decided to publish ahighly controversial cartoon.
My whack-job lefty blogosphere sources claim that the Joint Chiefs of Staff have sent a “menacing” letter to the Washington Post about the cartoon.
Will the European press have the cojunes to print this one?
Le Monde also reported that the Muslim protests against the cartoons using images of Mahomet would have resonated better if the same Imams had protested against a recent Syrian television documentary that depicted Rabbis as cannibals.
These Two Youngsters could be the face of the New Crusade.
(There were many more graphic photos - odd that the Mighty Google cannot find them)
"Perhaps if we'd taken, on that summer day, not the tissue of words from our brave new world, but the tempered steel of the old vows and stood by them we'd all have learned that it isn't the Wedding party and the Wedding night that needs to endure in our hearts, but the things that stand at the center of the old vows. We all know them. They are the words that allow no misunderstanding when said from heart's truth: love, honor, comfort, fidelity. We all know too the promises that come later: to have, to hold, for better, for worse, richer or poorer, fairer or fouler, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, unto death and beyond, under God's holy ordinance.
Real vows are not the casual things come to of a stoned summer's afternoon, but the hard things come to over long lives and many generations. We thought we were a brand new generation, that nothing like us ever was. We had a lot to learn."
American Digest
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Doug, you should show that post to Mrs. Doug--you might get outta stir for a few minutes.
\;-D
Mr. Clinton is going to have to sprint hard to get back in front of public opinion wrt his calling the twelve cartoons "appalling." He needs to bring back Mr. Morris, his best finger-in-the-(wind).
I think the wizards that created South Park should do a decade long series on these folks who are so full of themselves, starting with the past "off limits" topics (Egypt Air 990 perhaps, the singleton nut cases at airport counters and stadiums, CAIR, etc., no end of good story lines) - holding up to ridicule the diseased portions of these societies and the heresy of a peace-loving religion that makes them so.
Back in the late summer of 2001 David Horwitz took out an ad in a number of college newspapers saying that reparations for blacks was a dumb idea.
His real point was not about the reparations idea, it was to prove that certain ideas were unacceptable on college campuses; that free thought was nopt possible.
I still think about reading how one student screamed that seeing the ad in the paper "hurt him really, really, bad."
I think about that very time I see pictures of the people plummeting from the WTC. Its funny what people can think hurts really, really bad.
The Danish cartoons are much the same thing - to make a point about how some people think - a shot fired across the bow.
"He needs to bring back Mr. Morris, his best finger-in-the-(wind)."
LOL: That's Dickie, to you.
---
My little artistic contribution.
Use as desired. tm
The Ritual
Here's the letter the Joint Chiefs sent to the Washington Post.
Kevin,
Back to Monty:
The Rabbis on Cannibis.
Peter Pace Rules!
"holding up to ridicule the diseased portions"
Ugh!
Mind if I don't look?
This battle would fall under the 4GW category, right? - what with the target being the neurological substance of "will," the arena being cultural and economic in nature, and the actors/soldiers (in our case at least), being media owners/content-producers (not even the elite class of them, though it looks as if we've recruited them!)
No longer do Al-Jazeera and Al-reuters have information-supremacy. Al-reuters' narrow-minded memetic agendas have been subverted profoundly, while Al-Jazeera's irrational BS must face the reckoning the uproarious and proud Transatlantic, gleefully illustrating a sissified prophet and even drawing menagerie of phalli flying around his head.
This was the blogosphere acting as a force multiplier for a smaller Danish publication, if I understand the story correctly.
Bottom-up blog-based 4GW strikes against the, until now, relentless march of muslim memes upon the vulnerable prey of Euro-pomo. May those who've acted so valiantly inherit that continent...
Uh oh, you would have never guessed but it looks like the French have already surrendered:
France Soir originally said it had published the images in full to show "religious dogma" had no place in a secular society.
But late on Wednesday its owner, Raymond Lakah, said he had removed managing editor Jacques Lefranc "as a powerful sign of respect for the intimate beliefs and convictions of every individual".
Mr Lakah said: "We express our regrets to the Muslim community and all people who were shocked by the publication."
The president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), Dalil Boubakeur, had described France Soir's publication as an act of "real provocation towards the millions of Muslims living in France".
Will the Washington Post stand up to the heat or will they surrender too?
"the actual rod said...
are you all actually this stupid?
so, i am, by birth, a muslim (i don't need to get into why i don't call myself a muslim sans qualification, suffice it to say that i'm secular and think for myself). i will return to this fact later.
when i see some europeans making fun of islam, i tend to find that to be qualitatively different from europeans making fun of christianity.
why? --well, europeans themselves tend to be christian, and making fun of your own faith (of origin) is not the same act as making fun of someone else's faith: it does not require the implicit targetting of a minority group. that's the problem here.
what clinton is getting at, and what you all seem to have overlooked, is that the targetting of any minority group is wrong regardless of the situation. yes, fundamentalist islam is dangerous, but it is most dangerous for muslims themselves. this bigoted alarmist bullshit is really laughable--what, do you think that a whole faith of a billion adherents is responsible for the actions of a few desperate individuals?
10:45 AM
the actual rod said...
to return to my own identity: so, i am a muslim. i have issued no fatwa and have instead attempted to engage in some meaningful debate. i doubt that any of you will appreciate that.
so am i guilty? do i deserve to have you target the customs of my forbears with disdain? if so, what have i done to deserve this?
10:49 AM
sonia said...
Actual Rod,
What you say is true, but that has nothing to do with the issue at hand - the Muslim countries calling for a boycott of Denmark because some cartoons are depicting the prophet Mohammed.
Now, a devout Muslim doesn't have the right to draw human figures in general (and especially Mohammed himself) - that's fine with me.
But the same devout Muslim doesn't have the right to tell other people (i.e. the infidels like us) what to do. We have the right to draw anything we want, including prophet Mohammed.
That's the issue here, not any politically-correct bullshit.
10:56 AM "
---
Mr. Rod Tends to get on one's nerves.
"Will the Washington Post stand up to the heat or will they surrender too? "
---
Will you ever grow up?
Did Pace threaten to Nuke them if they don't?
First, Mr Bush is said to have wanted to bomb the headquarters of Al-Jazeera, now doug thinks General Pace is going to nuke the WaPo.
oh my!
I've heard that commenters on LGF are calling for the Washington Post to be nuked.
If free speech means anything, it means the ability to laugh at the beliefs of others.
It *IS* a problem in our society that "nothing is sacred". But that's part of what free speech means; perhaps the most important part.
If the Muslims can't live with that, yet, they can't live with Human Rights oriented civilization.
By their choice. Which they may well be forced to change.
Too late to close the barn door now. It's gotten to the cellphone stage. From Reuters
Newspapers in France, Germany and Spain reprinted Danish caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed on Wednesday, saying press freedom was more important than protests and boycotts the cartoons have sparked across the Muslim world. ... Two Spanish newspapers, ABC and El Periodico, ran pictures of the cartoons on Wednesday. A German language newspaper in Switzerland published two cartoons on Tuesday. ...
The Danish embassy in Damascus was evacuated after a bomb threat that turned out to be a hoax and Syria recalled its ambassador from Denmark in protest at the cartoons, one of which shows the Prophet Mohammed wearing a turban shaped like a bomb.
Danish police said they had told Denmark's imams they were "highly aware of the risks of an escalation of the case, including the calls to burn the Koran, which these days flourish on the Internet and via SMS (phone messages)".
I am deleting electronic copies of the koran, over and over again..
does this make me a hate monger?
As a next step, someone needs to redo Spike Jones WWII song, ala "Right in the Mullah's Face"
By the way, is it true that the Danes were one of the few nations in Europe who did not say "Our Jews are right over here." when the Germans occupied their country?
Europe has slept for over 60 years. Those who remember why Europe went to sleep are past.
In the present, the "Rights" of the MSM are to be protected, first and foremost.
NO ONE can tell them what to or not to run, except themselves.
The Mohammed as Censor and Off Limits Target could not long last.
Even in England, the anti Religious Defamation Law failed.
I Think I Am Going To Throw Up
And I never throw up.
The soulless cartoon by Tom Toles in the Washington Post is beyond tasteless, callous, childish or inept. It simply demonstrates someone without any compassion for their fellow human beings. Even those who risk and sacrifice everything they have for a cause they believe in and all of us benefit from.
Michelle Malkin has the round up here with the Toles’ Turd.
But I think that it is it for me and the Washington Post.
We used to get the Sunday paper for the advertisements - not any more!
Take note DC area stores - your ads are not welcomed in my home anymore.
I will not be gracing your doorsteps with my wallet in hand.
"Is it wise to insult deeply held values (no matter how ridiculous) of people you are trying to win over as allies?"
Let's re-phrase this question.
Is it wise to pander to the hypersensitivities, emotional insecurities, manipulative whining and intellectual hemophelia of others just to get them to like us?
And won't failure to put our collective foot down now simply earn us contempt and more of the same?
What if the 'deeply held value' is involves the rest of us living on our knees?
Perhaps if there were some reciprocity, but there isn't. As it is, we've been far too patient and indulgent.
Tell you what. When Friday prayers pass without seventh century theocrats depicting those of other faiths as monkeys and pigs and screetching for my destruction, I'll consider according some deference to the predictably delicate sensibilities of Muslim grievance-mongers.
Till then, Dar al harb, and proud of it.
Medienkritik
Daahh, whoops...
Next time I want respect I will hold someone innocent at gunpoint. Medienkritik reports that Der Spiegel won’t show solidarity with the Danes because there are Germans who have been kidnapped. Looks like the terrorists have failed to hold enough Danes in captivity. Don’t worry, the Germans and the French are rewarding kidnappers. The big question in the EU is, “Hey, were on your side, why don’t you kill more Americans, they deserve it.”
Mr Lakah said: "We express our regrets to the Muslim community and all people who were shocked by the publication."The president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), Dalil Boubakeur, had described France Soir's publication as an act of "real provocation towards the millions of Muslims living in France".
I hope this inane sensitivity means that the co-religionists of piece will stop burning Paris. I’d like to visit there sometime, I hear that it is cooler than Disneyland.
Word of the day: Blasophere
blas·o·phe·re (bl s o sf r )
1.
a) A contemptuous or profane blog concerning God or a sacred entity.
b) The act of blogging for oneself the attributes and rights of God.
2. An irreverent or impious blog in regard to something considered inviolable or
sacrosanct.
Please note the difference between the response of the Joint Chiefs and Syria. I can't believe I have to type that sentence, or the rest of this.
The JCs' letter states very clearly that no one challenges the right of the Post to publish any cartoon. It does, however, in very polite terms, call Mr. Toles and the editor who approved that cartoon, assholes.
The dysfunctional portion of the Islamic world reminds me more and more each day of the ne'er do well family member who make a mess of his life, squanders every opportunity, always blames others, even for self-inflicted mis-fortune, borrows money and tries the patience of all who try to help.
Perhaps the GWOT, like the global war against fascism more than a half century ago, is civilization's way of conducting an 'intervnetion.'
Cosmo 4:32 PM,
You left out
"...who is always there for a free meal."
annoy:
Or, stated another way:
'Don't upset them, or they'll kill more of us than they were going kill.'
Doug:
Good catch.
And I'd add 'doesn't accept criticism very well or at all.'
"Islam does not allow the (pictorial) representation of the Prophet"-- who gives an infected camel-dropping what "Islam" allows? Any so-called "faith" that countenances endless successions of the most brutal and degrading murders, committed almost solely against defenseless women and children,is not merely unworthy of respect. Its ragbag of self-serving apologists, its bizarre litany of condemnations --including anything whatever decent, modest, tolerant-- its endless whining that it is "misunderstood": All these and more self-evidently expose a core of vicious hatred, violent bigotry, disgusting slander of anyone not of Mullahdom's own deathly ilk.
"Cartoons" offend them? Would that there were high-resolution holographic dramatizations of their child-molesting Prophet stalking nine-year olds. Nothing anyone can do or say against "radical" (read, historicially normative) Islam does justice to the barbarity of this nihilistic creed. Too bad the Roman Church --perhaps the Mormons?-- shrinks from giving these creeps their due. Wouldn't be too difficult to "hurl Anathemas" in the direction of Mecca and Medina, maybe torch a prayer-rug or two with Mohammed's phiz deftly woven into it.
Maybe a Mullah or two will grow up sufficiently to acknowledge the good ole Koran ain't all it's cracked up to be. "Religion of peace", eh? It's not just cartoonists who have to laugh.
From Der Spiegel:
To Muslim leaders in Denmark like Akkari and fellow imam Abu Laban, the images provided evidence of an Islamophobia that they believe permeates Danish society. ...
Akkari and his group traveled together to Cairo, where they visited Al-Azhar University, ... Kaare Quist, a journalist at the Danish daily Ekstra Bladet, who has been reporting on the story for a number of weeks, says the group found a number of highly placed officials in the Arab World keen to listen to its message. Quist told SPIEGEL ONLINE they included representatives of the Arab League, Egypt's grand mufti and other high-level officials. The trip the group made, Quist believes, helped to raise attention to the political cartoons in Jyllands Post and prejudices against Denmark's Muslims. Denmark has a total of 5.4 million people residing from the northern German border to the base of the Oresund Bridge, including 270,000 Muslims who make up 5 percent of the population. ...
Quist says the dossier they shared in Egypt may have been far more damaging than the Jyllands Post episode -- and it may have further exacerbated misgivings between Denmark and the Arab world. In addition to the now notorious caricatures published by the newspaper which have now spread like wildfire in the blogosphere, it also included patently offensive anti-Muslim images that had been sent to the group by other Muslims living in Denmark. The origins or authenticity of the images haven't been confirmed, but their content was nevertheless damaging. Quist says the dossier included three obscene caricatures -- one showed Muhammad as a pedophile, another as a pig and the last depicted a praying Muslim being raped by a dog.
"The drawings in Jyllands Post were harmless compared to these," he says.
For his part, Akkari said the more outrageous images were clearly separated from those published by the paper when the group met with Muslim leaders. "They were at the back of the folder," he told Stiftstidende. By including them, the group sought to show the kind of hate they feel subjected to in Denmark.
But Quist claims the group may also have perpetuated misunderstandings during its trip. The reporter says that Arabs who visited with the group later claimed Akkari's delegation had given them the impression that Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen somehow controlled or owned Jyllands Post.
Pythroes:
I see your patience has run out, too.
Only a naive and cosseted Western intellectual class could be so openly conned -- over and over -- by gangsters masquerading as an organized religion, all because it fits their narrative of an evil West getting its comeuppance at the hands of the long-suffering exploited.
Wretchard's 4:54 post makes my case -- in this instance, the apologist's mastery of multi-culturalism and grievance nurturing. The ropes by which the West will hang itself.
The level of indulgence, excuse-making and enabling for what amounts to little more than barbarism could keep platoons of analysts busy unwinding such profound dysfunction.
Or maybe all the flacking and cover is deliberate. The battle with intellectual rivals is paramount -- even if it risks bringing civilization down in the process.
The French paper caved - or at least one of them.
--------------
BBC NEWS | Europe | Muhammad cartoon row intensifies
The owner of one of the papers to reprint - France Soir - has now sacked its managing editor over the matter.
----------------
It's like the old commercial, withthe greasy mechanic saying you can pay me now, or you can pay me later. I'd say the owner of the Soir is looking to pay later - not realizing the price will be MUCH higher than he'd ever think possible.
New worm crawling through blogs
The Reach of the Worm
Red States Win.
It looks like the "tough" Muslim crybabies are either very sure of their ability to intimidate the Western World or are very stupid.
Like novice poker player that has won a hand, the Muslims are now flashing their cards for the rest of the players to see. This usually leads to disaster.
ledger:
I think it's the former. They have us sized up pretty good.
As for France Soir's: "costs were simply too high" . . .
In other words, we've allowed ourselves to be put in a position where we can be effectively blackmailed/extorted and have little choice . . .
I'm afraid the days of cost-free moral and intellectual showboating -- and with it the papier mache puppets and the hateful rhetoric directed at a superpower which rarely complaints and never retaliates -- is coming to a close.
Now we'll learn how deep our commitment is to things like free speech. I suspect it's not very deep. But then, I'm destined to become a very cranky old man -- if I live that long.
I haven't read the comment thread yet, but I just reviewed the bidding, and Michelle Malkin ran her first post on the Danish cartoons on Oct. 27, 2005, FWIW.
Who do these Islamists worship? Think who gets the most honor:
If you mock God, they disregard you.
If you mock Mohammad, they try to kill you.
That is why, james, the Mr Churchill and others that understand the power of words call them Mohammedans.
It is the word that best describes them.
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