And then what?
I am sorry but this whole story about the Danish cartoons of Mahomet is really blown out of proportion.
At the same time it is showing what many Muslims all over the world actually want, and that is simple supremacy.
People should respect everybody’s religious beliefs, I agree with that.
But the moment Muslims start demanding people who don’t believe in Allah to follow the Koran restrictions they are in fact trying to impose their faith.
Just the way the Iranian delegation in Belgium last Summer tried to impose their faith by refusing to greet the president of the Belgian senate, Anne-Marie Lizin, and refusing to have lunch if any alcoholic beverages were served to anybody.
Out of courtesy nobody would serve wine or beer to them, but they don’t have the right to forbid others from drinking.
This is why I ask: what next?
Are they going to start attacking anybody who eats pork or drinks wine?
Their religion states there is no god but Allah and Mahomet is his prophet. Are they going to start a holy war against whoever doesn’t bow to their god?
Many other Muslims claim that their religion is not violent, well, it is up to them to show the world how true that really is. The sad truth is that so far Muslims seem to demand respect but not to respect back.
People have already died, embassies have been destroyed, hate is in the air.
The only thing that can stop this madness from becoming a real war is a reaction from those non-violent Muslims in order to stop this madness.
Every year hundreds, if not thousands, of cartoons are published all over the world making fun of every religion. True enough that is not a nice thing to do, but true also no other religious followers turn into murdering mobs over some cartoons.
I’ve always respected Muslims, but when a Muslim turns to me and says this is the right punishment for such a blasphemy I simply won’t stand it, enough is enough.
The Danish authorities have no reason to apologize, those cartoons were not an action of the Danish government nor of the entire Danish population. In fact the Danish authorities are owed more than one apology on account of all the persecution aimed at their citizens and embassies all over the world.
Whenever we visit a Muslim country we must obey their laws and traditions, whenever they visit one of our countries they have the right to live by their laws and traditions and they even want to ignore our laws while doing so.
Respect is something that must be reciprocal, when it works in only one direction that is not called respect, that is called submission.
We non-Muslims must not submit.
This not a hatred post, it simply is a statement of non-submission.
At the same time it is showing what many Muslims all over the world actually want, and that is simple supremacy.
People should respect everybody’s religious beliefs, I agree with that.
But the moment Muslims start demanding people who don’t believe in Allah to follow the Koran restrictions they are in fact trying to impose their faith.
Just the way the Iranian delegation in Belgium last Summer tried to impose their faith by refusing to greet the president of the Belgian senate, Anne-Marie Lizin, and refusing to have lunch if any alcoholic beverages were served to anybody.
Out of courtesy nobody would serve wine or beer to them, but they don’t have the right to forbid others from drinking.
This is why I ask: what next?
Are they going to start attacking anybody who eats pork or drinks wine?
Their religion states there is no god but Allah and Mahomet is his prophet. Are they going to start a holy war against whoever doesn’t bow to their god?
Many other Muslims claim that their religion is not violent, well, it is up to them to show the world how true that really is. The sad truth is that so far Muslims seem to demand respect but not to respect back.
People have already died, embassies have been destroyed, hate is in the air.
The only thing that can stop this madness from becoming a real war is a reaction from those non-violent Muslims in order to stop this madness.
Every year hundreds, if not thousands, of cartoons are published all over the world making fun of every religion. True enough that is not a nice thing to do, but true also no other religious followers turn into murdering mobs over some cartoons.
I’ve always respected Muslims, but when a Muslim turns to me and says this is the right punishment for such a blasphemy I simply won’t stand it, enough is enough.
The Danish authorities have no reason to apologize, those cartoons were not an action of the Danish government nor of the entire Danish population. In fact the Danish authorities are owed more than one apology on account of all the persecution aimed at their citizens and embassies all over the world.
Whenever we visit a Muslim country we must obey their laws and traditions, whenever they visit one of our countries they have the right to live by their laws and traditions and they even want to ignore our laws while doing so.
Respect is something that must be reciprocal, when it works in only one direction that is not called respect, that is called submission.
We non-Muslims must not submit.
This not a hatred post, it simply is a statement of non-submission.
posted by DCveR at 6:46 PM
12 Comments:
Have you read this post by a Saudi expat, I think it sums it up as best as I've seen yet:
http://muttawa.blogspot.com/2006/02/memo.html
portuguesa: Nope, I hadn't read it. Now I did. Thank you so much for the link, it really shows a bit of a precedent.
i like that- nothing much to add from my side..
D,
I think the anger felt in the Middle East is related to the invasion of Iraq and the current threats being made against Iran. There is a growing anger in that region and I think if Iraq had never been invaded those cartoons would have caused some upset in Denmark but nowhere else. I think what we are seeing is a reaction against imperialism. It appears to take a religious form because those that are currently at the forefront of the struggle against imperialism in that region are deeply religious. I'm not convinced that the average Muslim in the street is a fanatical believer of Sharia or any other extreme Islamic Law. Like in any religion the majority are pretty average. What will make the average Muslim angry is the destruction visited on their homelands by the US, UK and others in that coalition. Only the other week a US drone fired a missile that killed a whole family in Northern Pakistan. They justified this by saying they were targeting Al Qaeda. Well what about the innocent? Israel does the same thing every week. So the ratchet of anger clicks up another notch. I'm not surprised by the size of the demonstrations, I'm surprised they don't happen more often.
All Muslims are not fanatics trying to impose their religion on the rest of us. And even if they were they simply don't have the means. The majority of Muslims live in some of the poorest parts of the planet, whereas we live in some of the richest and most powerful. I think the anger is related to the contempt with which Arabs, Palestians, Iranians etc are treated by the Great Powers. Those same powers that allow Israel to have nuclear weapons, that support some of the most undemocratic and brutal regimes in the region, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran before 1979, Iraq before 1991, Kuwait, Jordan, Syria (yes even the brutal dictatorship in Syria is preferable to a democractic government that might ignore the Western powers.
On 18th March there is to be a demonstration in London against the occupation of Iraq. It will be a demo of white and black, of Muslims and Christians, Jew and Hindus, Sikhs and Buddists, Secular and Religious, men and women. And it will inspire those in the middle east by once again demonstrating that the majority in the west are against imperialism, and against the tyranny's under which Middle Eastern peoples live.
After the great Anti War Demos in Feb 2002 I was talking to someone who had been in Cairo on that Saturday of February 15th and he said it was on the tv in every cafe, on every market stall. And it inspired everyone in Cairo and elsewhere who saw it.
D,
Don't beliee the hype. The vast majority of Muslims know it is not the likes of you and me who is to blame for their suffering. They are not fools, and neither are you or I.
I've had a post on this topic sitting in my notepad for a while... Can't decide whether to publish it. Maybe I will.
It really angers me that the Danish government is being attacked for something it had no part in... Of course, it bothers me anytime anyone is attacked for anything. Sometimes I wish the apocalypse would hurry up and end our pathetic existence.
DC, Islam is going through a knee-jerk reaction as a result of decades if not centuries of subjugation by internal and external forces. The current backlash is being fuelled by the US’s desire to remain top dog and the world policeman. Attacks against the Axis of Evil only serve to keep the US economy afloat.
In their retaliation, a handful of extremists have played in the hands of big business by hijacking Islam and distorting its peaceful aims in such a way that anything to do with the religion is sadly linked to fear and intolerance.
Denmark has sadly become the latest scapegoat of an Islam going through a disturbed adolescence.
Muslims do not think that their religion can be derided just as Christians did a few centuries ago during the Inquisition.
The fact that it is happening in this age of free expression only adds to its turmoil.
I believe that there is a long way to go before Muslims feel good about themselves especially as long as the words “Axis of Evil” remain in George W Bush’s limited vocabulary.
Then and only then will Muslims feel sufficiently secure to shun extremism and maybe become comfortable enough to laugh at insensitive cartoons.
Whether this becomes a reality or not, I have not the foggiest!
D,
Riverbend's blog from Baghdad always makes sober reading and gives another view to what it's like living under occupation. Here's the link.
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/
dan and cream: I do realize that the Western meddling in the Middle East and in particular the American invasion of Iraq are a major cause for all that is happening, but that doesn't blind me to the fact that many leaders of Muslim countries are also taking their shot at world domination, be it economically like the Saudis or religiously like the Iranian. This said it is somewhat hypocritical for them to complain about American imperialism. Most of all for Saudi Arabia, with so much of their money invested in the US. Every time the Americans bomb someone the Saudis earn some more money so lets cut the bullshit and take things for what they are, there is no one sided guilt in all this. As for taking Denmark as an escape goat that reminds me of the little punks in school who get bullied by the bigger punks and instead of fighting back they will go and pound some other smaller kid: it is stupid, it is useless at it doesn’t show courage but cowardice. As for what the “majority” of Muslims think or do, the fact remains I am yet to see any firm action against those Muslims who are violent and who attack innocents. The fact remains that whenever something happens the religious leaders always come out with plenty of excuses for the terrorists, the fact also remains that whenever attacks like the ones on these embassies happen the authorities of Muslim countries (that by mere coincidence are highly repressive states) do nothing to deter these mobs.
viking: We may be heading for self-destruction but some of us aren’t going down without a fight, some of us actually work to try and build a better world instead of simply saying we’re doomed. For those of us there is no hurry in the apocalypse.
tall glass: The fact is I no longer believe the militant fraction is that small. Surely this Iraq invasion has enlarged that fraction, but I still don’t think it was that small to start with.
Here
Although I do have to say that there does seem to be a majority outrage here and we do have too many 'politically correct' people about.
I'm actually tired of the whole "mass lumping" together of people...all 3rd world people are backward, all Muslims are violent, all whites are bullies.
In conflict resolution they teach you to examine BOTH sides of the issues.
I'm real glad I live in this neck of the woods. Guess what? Hindus and Muslims and Christians live in peace together here.
The Americans must be laughing at the Europeans too.
jonny: Guess they should also do a poll regarding cartoons about the pope...
GG: I am examining both sides. The more I try to examine both sides the more I get disapointed at Islam I am sad to say. I am not saying all Muslims are this or all Muslims are that, but when we see religious leaders inciting to violence and when we fail to see a firm position of any Muslim group against violence it is only natural to notice something is not right. Remember that Christ's message is a message of love and still we've had the crusades in Christ's name, and the Inquisition.
As for people of different religions living together in harmony, you are a very lucky person to live in such a country, Lebanon used to be like that too, I hope you can preserve that harmony.
I agree with your non-submission statement, but there are several millions of people in Teheran, and under hundreds attacking the embassies. That is at some extent not even a number to count. The major part of the the world, and that means all kinds of peolple belonging to whatever religion, just want to live their lives in calm and perhaps a little dash of prosperity. These other cunts can sure go fuck themselves, but as there are like over a billion moslems, And with 57 countries in their coalition of moslem countries, it takes no mathmagician to say that these news are the result of sensational journalism.... If one sixth of the population really wanted too fuck all the other guys, they would have made it in a sec!
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