Muslim Outrage

[PsycoJoe]

I've got an idea for a cartoon...but I'm no artist, and I have no 'credentials'.

[Brian Baldwin]

Since when would that stop one of our group? lol Draw it out an post it here. We'd still like to see it.

Brian

[PsycoJoe]

Like I said, I'm no artist. But I happen to know one or two who find amusement in the idea. I'll have to see if they're willing. (The one guy I have in mind did one for me after 9-11.) If all goes well, it should be up in a few days.

[Sean Osborne]

"Muslim rage" is an absolute crock and the western media is very complicit in this agenda.

It is a psyop and a way to fan the flames of Jihad in the world.

Below is a link to MUST SEE truth about what Islam is. Go to the bottom of this page for .wmv's and audio clips, surf around also. Well worth your while.

I particularly recommend the O'Reilly Factor and the CN8 "Your Morning" .wmv's.

www.shoebat.com

[Aplomb]

From http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/823

Don't Burn Muhammad

From the desk of Paul Belien on Thu, 2006-02-16 20:43

In 711 Muslim armies crossed the Strait of Gibraltar. They took Spain by force and remained there until they were thrown out during the reconquista in 1492. Every year, in a tradition that goes back to the 16th century, Spanish villages still celebrate the liberation from the Moors (as the Muslims were locally called) during “Moros y Cristianos” festivals in which effigies of the prophet Muhammad – the so-called “la Mahoma” – are mocked, thrown out of windows, and burned.

Now the Spanish, having witnessed what happened to the Vikings recently, are wondering whether they can still continue their tradition of “offending Muslims.” The village of Bocairent near Valencia decided this year to discontinue the century old tradition of mocking and burning effigies of Muhammad. Bocairent does not want to risk becoming the target of suicide bombers.

In Belgium, as we reported last week, the organizers of the traditional carnival (mardi gras) parade of Aalst hope that the participants in this year’s parade will be sensible enough not to offend Muslims by dressing up in burqas or posing as Muhammad. But not only the Belgian authorities are worried. The neighbouring Netherlands have a tradition of dressing up at carnival as well.

The authorities in Oldenzaal have decided that mocking Muhammad will not be tolerated. “We will be very strict,” they told the media. Similar prohibitions have also been imposed in the province of Limburg, where carnival (this year from 26 to 28 February) is a very old tradition. Participants can mock whomever they want, except Muslims. “Making allusions to the cartoon crisis will not be tolerated either,” the organizing committee of a carnival parade in Brabant said.

Some Dutch, however, are made of sterner stuff. Last Friday, at the conclusion of a debate on Dutch television about the Muhammad cartoons, an animated cartoon was shown. It was made by Joep Bertrams, who won an award last year for being the best Dutch political cartoonist of 2005. See it here. The title “Gevoelig” means “Sensitive.”

Click the link.

[Aplomb]

Perhaps many people are just so done with this subject, but I have to tell ya, it ain't nowhere near coming to an end. This is from Little Green Footballs:
Muslims Demonstrate at Danish Consulate, NY




Yes, it is coming to a neighborhood near you. Canada, London, America. One more in London coming tomorrow. These protests have so far been w/o any reported violence. But, you know, the thing is, there are those of us who are not standing down, which means our defiance is looked upon as additional fuel for the fire. And I can also imagine the face offs are about to begin with counter-protests.

And here's one more example of in your face and the violent retaliation:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4726204.stm

'Nine die' in Libya cartoon clash

At least nine people are reported to have been killed and several injured in Libya in clashes during a protest outside an Italian consulate. Police confronted protesters who set fire to the building in the port city of Benghazi, in the latest protests over the Muhammad cartoons. They were said to be angry at Italian minister Roberto Calderoli, who had worn a T-shirt displaying the drawings. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has called for his resignation. He said Mr Calderoli - of the anti-immigrant Northern League party - should step down after announcing he would wear a T-shirt bearing the controversial cartoons, which were first printed by a Danish newspaper. Regret Speaking by telephone from inside the besieged consulate, Italian consular official Antonio Simoes-Concalves told the Associated Press a crowd of some 1,000 protesters had surrounded the building. Libyan police tried to keep them back by firing bullets and using teargas, he said. "They are still continually firing," he told the AP in Rome at 2100 GMT. "They haven't managed to block them." He said nine protesters had been killed and several more had been wounded. Libyan officials put the casualty figure at 11, which included some dead. The Italian foreign ministry confirmed the first floor of the building was set alight after protesters broke into the grounds. Libyan state television showed firefighters trying to extinguish the flames. Stones were thrown at the building and nearby cars were badly damaged. Television footage showed ambulances taking casualties away from the scene. The Libyan government has said it regrets the violence. Yes, now Mr. Badass Calderoni, who actually wants to take on radical Muslims in a "Crusades" type action, has himself worn a cartoon T-shirt. And this is what he has to say about it: The minister is quoted as saying: "I've had T-shirts made with the cartoons that have upset Islam and I shall start wearing them today." He added that it was "time to put an end to this story that we need to dialogue with these people", and asked: "What have we become, the civilisation of melted butter?" The remarks could prove embarrassing to Mr Berlusconi, at the start of what promises to be a bitterly contested general election campaign. The Italian ambassador to Libya has already been forced to distance his government from some of Mr Calderoli's previous remarks. Official government policy is expressed only by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who wants dialogue not confrontation with Islam, the ambassador to Tripoli said. Italy's Northern League, of which Mr Calderoli is a leading member, is expected to get about 6% of the vote in the forthcoming general election. Their anti-immigrant election platform has gained them support in the industrial north of the country where the League accuses immigrants of stealing jobs from Italians and being responsible for growing crime rates. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4714548.stm And this from Flemming Rose: At Jyllands-Posten, Flemming Rose was himself full of fury at the events of the past week. "Apologising would imply that if you intimidate us enough we will follow your demands," he insisted. "This is blackmail. You cannot edit this newspaper according to mafia rules." Did he regret the decision to defend free speech that might conceivably cost his life and those of the cartoonists he commissioned? "I do not regret it," he said. "It is a bit like asking a rape victim if she regrets wearing a short skirt at a disco." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...5/nflag405.xml

[Aplomb]

Well, now there's Muslim protesting including the new black panthers going on in Washington DC. Michelle Malkin is to give an update later since she will be there to cover this. Get back with a post on that. Meantime from Fox News:

Thousands of rioters burned 15 churches in Maiduguri in a three-hour rampage before troops and police reinforcements restored order, Nigerian police spokesman Haz Iwendi said. Security forces arrested dozens of people, Iwendi said.

Chima Ezeoke, a Christian Maiduguri resident, said protesters attacked and looted shops owned by minority Christians, most of them with origins in the country's south.

"Most of the dead were Christians beaten to death on the streets by the rioters," Ezeoke said. Witnesses said three children and a priest were among those killed.

Nigeria, with a population of more than 130 million, is roughly divided between a predominantly Muslim north and a mainly Christian south.

Thousands of people have died in this West African country since 2000 in religious violence fueled by the adoption of the strict Islamic legal code by a dozen states in the north, seen by most Christians as a move to impose religious hegemony on non-Muslims.

The Danish cartoons, including one showing Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban with an ignited fuse, have set off sometimes violent protests around the world.

After the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten printed the caricatures in September, other Western newspapers, mostly in Europe, followed suit, asserting their news value and the right to freedom of expression.

But Nigeria has been spared much of the violence seen elsewhere in the world, though lawmakers in the heavily Muslim state of Kano burned Danish and Norwegian flags and barred Danish companies from bidding on a major construction project. Kano lawmakers also called on the state's 5 million people to boycott Danish goods.

With Saturday's deaths, at least 45 people have been killed in protests across the Muslim world, according to a count by The Associated Press.

In the violence in Libya, Seif el-Islam Gadhafi, the son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, said four of the 11 dead were believed to have been Egyptians or Palestinians.

"Setting the consulate on fire was a mistake, but using excessive force was the most tragic response," the younger Gadhafi said, explaining the suspension of Interior Minister Nasr al-Mabrouk.

Gadhafi expressed pride, however, that the demonstrators were behind Calderoli's resignation when "other Arab states refused or lagged behind in taking revenge for insults to their religion."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,185329,00.html

Yes, and so it goes. Stand up and out you go. But we will NOT stand down. The demonstrators in Libya were a threat and so after several hours they finally stopped. Why? Because they were being shot. Problem solved. Now it's called "excessive force". And since you've defended you're now the bad guys. Today they killed little kids and another harmless priest. What have they done to offend them? They are Christians.

[Aplomb]

There are pictures of what appears to be another peaceful parade for Islam in London which took place today. http://ibloga.blogspot.com/2006/02/a...in-london.html

Of this one particular photo I have this nagging question:


Does that sign really say: "War on Terror is a War on Islam"? I mean, I just want to know if that's an admission on their part.

[Aplomb]

From: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/s...ngs-socal.html Friday in Los Angeles about 300...

After the speech, the protesters, who included completely covered older women, teenagers of Middle Eastern decent and black American Muslims, walked up busy Wilshire Boulevard to the consulate.

Stopping at traffic lights, they waved signs that read “United against Islamophobia” and “Freedom of speech is not freedom of hate” at passing cars. Many drivers honked and yelled words of encouragement.
“Putting a bomb on Muhammad's head gives a message that all Muslims are terrorists,” said Walid Bitar, 34, a car salesman from Syria who brought his 3-year-old daughter to the protest. “More than 99.9 percent of us don't have anything to do with al-Qaeda.”

Hmmm. So what exactly was that protest about? Looks like identity. The interesting part of this is that they are waving the Koran around --the holy book which tells them that they must do damage to the infidels by converting us, taxing us, or killing us. Maybe they don't know who they are--yet.

This was organised by the western branch of the Muslim Student Association. Here's something from the MSA:
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/notislam...nceptions.html

A related misconception to jihad is often propagated by Muslims who say that "Jihad is only for self-defense of physical borders." The Qur'an and Sunnah refute this notion categorically. As the verses cited above show, jihad is obligatory wherever there is injustice, and Muslims need not acknowledge imaginary lines around the earth when it comes to upholding this obligation. The Messenger of Allah (saas) has also commented on this extensively in the Sunnah. From the study of the Sunnah called Sahih Bukhari, we find that,

[4:52:65] Narrated Abu Musa: A man came to the Prophet and asked, "A man fights for war booty; another fights for fame and a third fights for showing off; which of them fights in Allah's Cause?" The Prophet said, "He who fights that Allah's Word (i.e. Islam) should be superior, fights in Allah's Cause."

Hence, the Creator obligates us to fight wherever people are being grossly deprived of freely hearing or practicing the Message of Allah as contained in the Qur'an and Sunnah. Sayyed Qutb, a famous Muslim scholar eloquently discusses the notion of jihad and self-defense in his book Milestones,

"If we insist on calling Islamic jihad a defensive movement, then we must change the meaning of the word `defense' and mean by it `defense of man' against all those elements which limit his freedom. These elements take the form of beliefs and concepts, as well as of political systems, based on economic, racial, or class distinction."

A third reason often cited for the misconception about Islam which says that this way of life tolerates the killing of innocents is that the judicial system of Islam is unnecessarily harsh. This reason is weak in two respects. First, it presupposes that human beings are more just and more merciful than the Creator, and therefore we can change the law. Second, it is often based on gross oversimplifications of Islamic law, such as saying "all thieves get their hands cut off."
The Qur'an and Sunnah make it clear that the law of retaliation (or equality) governs us for murder and physical injury, but forgiveness is better as the following verses from the Qur'an show (translation),

[2:178] O you who believe! the law of equality is prescribed to you in cases of murder: the free for the free, the slave for the slave, the woman for the woman. But if any remission is made by the brother of the slain, then prosecution (for the bloodwit) should be made according to usage, and payment should be made to him in a good manner; this is an alleviation from your Lord and a mercy; so whoever exceeds the limit after this he shall have a painful chastisement.

[42:40-43] The recompense for an injury is an injury equal thereto (in degree): but if a person forgives and makes reconciliation, his reward is due from Allah: for (Allah) loves not those who do wrong. But indeed if any do help and defend themselves after a wrong (done) to them, against such there is no cause of blame. The blame is only against those who oppress men and insolently transgress beyond bounds through the land, defying right and justice: for such there will be a grievous penalty. And whoever is patient and forgiving, these most surely are actions due to courage.

The Creator ordained the law of retaliation on us knowing full well that we might question it. In many non-Muslim societies today, there are ongoing debates about the death penalty. In Islam, this discussion is moot: the Creator has decided the matter for us. He has however given us an interesting verse in the Qur'an which advises to consider the matter carefully if we want to understand it (translation follows),

[2:179] And there is life for you in (the law of) retaliation, O people of understanding, that you may guard yourselves.

[Aplomb]

...Nigeria-recall that 15 churches were burned, Christians were beaten to death in the streets. Update time:

http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acn...0/acns4113.cfm

Reaction of the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, The Most Revd Peter Akinola on recent events in Nigeria

1. Having watched with sadness and dismay the recent development in some States in the Northern part of this Country where many Christian Churches and other property have been wantonly destroyed by some Islamic fundamentalists, the Christian Association of Nigeria is compelled to issue the following statements:
   1. From all indications, it is very clear now that the sacrifices of the Christians in this country for peaceful co-existence with people of other faiths has been sadly misunderstood to be weakness
   2. We have for a long time now watched helplessly the killing, maiming and destruction of Christians and their property by Muslim fanatics and fundamentalists at the slightest or no provocation at all. We are not unaware of the fact that these religious extremists have the full backup and support of some influential Muslims who are yet to appreciate the value of peaceful co-existence.
   3. That an incident in far away Denmark which does not claim to be representing Christianity could elicit such an unfortunate reaction here in Nigeria, leading to the destruction of Christian Churches, is not only embarrassing, but also disturbing and unfortunate.
   4. It is no longer a hidden fact that a long standing agenda to make this Nigeria an Islamic nation is being surreptitiously pursued. The willingness of Muslim Youth to descend with violence on the innocent Christians from time to time is from all intents and purposes a design to actualize their dream.
2. 1. It is sad to note that all acts of hostility meted against Christians by Muslims in the past have remained unaddressed with nobody paying compensations or the culprits brought to justice.
   2. We do appreciate the fact that at this stage of our national development, peace is absolutely necessary for realizing our dreams and aspirations. It is in view of this that Christians in Nigeria agreed to participate in the forthcoming National Census as sacrifice for the peace and progress of this nation, in spite of our protest over the non-inclusion of Religion and Ethnicity as necessary demographic data.
   3. May we at this stage remind our Muslim brothers that they do not have the monopoly of violence in this nation. Nigeria belongs to all of us – Christians, Muslims and members of other faiths. No amount of intimidation can Change this time-honoured arrangement in this nation. C.A.N. may no longer be able to contain our restive youths should this ugly trend continue.
3. 1. We now demand that further destruction of Christian Churches and property in this nation be permanently put to an end.
   2. All levels of Government in this country should take adequate steps to protect the lives and property of Christians everywhere in this land as no further destructions will be tolerated or ignored.
   3. The Federal Government and those States where Christian Churches have been destroyed are hereby urged to take urgent steps at rebuilding those structures and paying adequate compensation while assuring Christians of adequate protection in this country. These governments should now show in practical terms that Nigeria belongs to all of us by going beyond mere promises of rebuilding destroyed Churches and property as in the past to actual reconstruction, which will help the victims to quickly put this unfortunate incident behind them. A stitch in time saves nine.

Signed
Most Revd. Peter J. Akinola (CON, DD.)
President, Christian Association of Nigeria

Strong words, huh? And no doubt he will be martyred. But he does take a few down with him--

Bodies burned in open after Nigeria riots kill 146 http://today.reuters.com/news/newsar...RIA.xml&rpc=22
By George Esiri


ONITSHA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Christian youths burned the corpses of Muslims on Thursday on the streets of Onitsha in southeastern Nigeria, the city worst hit by religious riots that have killed at least 146 people across the country in five days.

Christian mobs, seeking revenge for the killings of Christians in the north, attacked Muslims with machetes, set fire to them, destroyed their houses and torched mosques in two days of violence in Onitsha, where 93 people died.

"We are very happy that this thing is happening so that the north will learn their lesson," said Anthony Umai, a motorcycle taxi rider, standing close to where Christian youths had piled up the corpses of 10 Muslims and were burning them.

Dozens more corpses had been thrown into the back of pick-up trucks by security services overnight, residents said.

Uncertainty over Nigeria's political future is aggravating regional, ethnic and religious rivalries in Africa's most populous nation and top oil exporter.
Elections are due next year and many Nigerians believe President Olusegun Obasanjo and some state governors will try to stay on after eight years in power. The prospect angers those who want their own ethnic or regional blocs to have their turn.

Militants in the oil-producing Niger Delta have waged a three-month campaign of attacks and kidnappings, which has cut exports and driven up world oil prices. One of their demands is greater control over their region and its resources.

There was no fighting in Onitsha on Thursday but Emeka Umeh, of human rights group the Civil Liberties Organization, called it "the peace of the graveyard".

Some charred corpses were still lying on the streets and hundreds of Muslim men, women and children fled the city crammed into open-top trucks for fear of more killings. Thousands more were hiding in army barracks and police stations.
Umeh said most of the bodies his group counted were Hausa, but some Ibo were killed too. The Hausa are the main ethnic group in northern Nigeria and most are Muslim, while the Ibo are dominant in the southeast and almost all are Christian.

[Aplomb]

Winning in the midst of a huge Muslim population we have a journalism instructor at Detroit area Michigan State University:

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...354/1026/METRO

Muslim groups criticize MSU for online caricatures

Controversial drawings have sparked worldwide outrage by adherents of the Prophet Muhammad.

Gregg Krupa / The Detroit News
February 28, 2006

Muslim groups sharply criticized the online publication of controversial caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad on Monday by a Michigan State University instructor and a group of students.

"We need to differentiate between freedom of speech and respect for each other," said Mahmoud Mousa, president of the Lansing chapter of the Muslim American Society.

"If it was about any of the great messengers of God, whether Moses, or Christ or the Prophet Muhammad, people would be offended at the same level."

The caricatures are published on spartanedge.com, an online newspaper published by journalism instructor Bonnie Bucqueroux.

In posting the controversial caricatures, Bucqueroux, said she perceives a clear difference between describing them and displaying them.

"The circumstance is that free speech really requires giving people information, and the information is to be able to look at the cartoons," she said.

Some Muslims in Metro Detroit and around the world have criticized the publication of the images in Europe, and some protests have been violent.

Newspapers in the United States have described the caricatures in detail, but few have published them.

MSU officials say the publication has no relation to the university, although Bucqueroux is on the faculty of the journalism department at the school and some students work on the online publication.

"We've looked into it with some depth and clearly it is not a university activity or an activity sponsored or affiliated with the institution in any way," said Terry Denbow, vice president for university affairs.

While plans are not firm, Denbow said the university hopes to use the incident as a teaching tool.

Bucqueroux said that by presenting the caricatures in a forum in which viewers need to click on a portion of the Website in order to see them, people will make their own decisions about viewing the material.

Bucqueroux's comments on politics also are occasionally published by The Detroit News in the form of a weblog. The News has not published and does not intend to publish the caricatures.

Point of view from the SpartanEdge.com editor Alexander Scott:

http://spartanedge.com/blogs/spartanedge9/?p=9#comments
The Decision on the Danish Cartoons

Posted in Uncategorized by Administrator on the February 26th, 2006
Freedom of speech. This belief, an ideal so important the Founding Fathers made it the First Amendment to the Constitution, allows SpartanEdge.com and so many other media organizations to exist. The Founders agreed that the most important legal right was that of free speech: to make sure everyone had a voice and equal ability to express their ideals. And because of that, the media have a responsibility to inform the public of all aspects of events around the globe.

Unfortunately, most U.S. media outlets seem to have shirked that responsibility recently.

As many of you know, there is a massive uproar in the Islamic community stemming from a Danish comic portraying the Prophet Mohammed with a bomb in his turban. It is partially based in the idea that it portrays Islam as a violent religion. The greater problem Muslims have with the comic is simply that it portrays the Prophet; personification of the Prophet is a sin to Muslims.

As a result of the anger over these comics, numerous businesses have been burned, violent riots have erupted and many people have been killed.
The media in the US, protected by the First Amendment, have spent many hours covering these riots, showing burning businesses and the signs of the protesters, some of which call for the beheading of the cartoonists.

However, these media outlets have almost unanimously NOT published or shown the cartoons, claiming that they do not wish to disrespect Islam.

While it is admirable to not offend anyone, homogenized thought is not the reason Americans were given the First Amendment.

The First Amendment was created so that everyone would be free to think and voice their own thoughts. It was made to guarantee all sides of an issue could be heard, to improve democracy. It was made to guarantee a government of the people and for the people.

Certainly not all people would agree upon certain ideas, but without those free ideas, the Founders could not make a democracy.

The media has one of the greatest responsibilities in protecting this idea: To make sure all people have the facts to make their own decision on issues. Only people who have all the facts can make a true democracy; if their ideas are dictated to them, then it is tyranny at the most basic level.
In this comic controversy, the vast majority of the media have neglected that responsibility.

Out of their “respect” for Islam, they do not print the comics.

However, why is that “respect” not granted to others?

The media publish recipes for pork and shellfish; it is against the religious rules of Judaism to consume those products, so why isn’t there a censorship of that in the interest of “respect”?

The media publish pictures of the Amish, in spite of their beliefs against having their pictures taken. Where is the media’s “respect” for their beliefs?

The media aired various parts of the videotape of Nicholas Berg’s beheading and the pictures of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Where was the “respect” for the privacy and dignity of these people?

But the artistically benign comics that have set off riots resulting in many deaths are unacceptable to publish out of “respect” for Islam? Suicide bombers and Osama Bin Laden are more visceral insults toward the values of Islam, yet they and their results are shown regularly.

Admittedly, the print and broadcast media do have a rationale for not showing the comics: anyone who tunes in or flips the pages would be forced to see the evil cartoons and that person could be offended by it.

SpartanEdge.com has the advantage of the Internet. We have the ability to show the images to people who consciously click the link to the page containing them. We can make the comics available to those who wish to see what has caused all these problems and hide them from those who would be offended.

And we have chosen to use that tool unique to the Internet. You have the choice to view the comics. You have the choice to avoid being offended.

Many major media outlets that have refused to print or air the comics also have Web sites where they could do the same as we have. However, they choose to keep the public uninformed in that arena as well.

Cherry-picking images and information is why public trust of the media is at an all-time low and it is a deserved fate for not following the obligation to distribute the facts.

While we may not agree with everything another group says, the moment we censor their speech is the moment we silence our own. The day we prevent information from being distributed and viewed is the day we embrace ignorance. And when we lay down the sword and stop defending ideological freedom, the foundation of America will shatter where the blade rests.

The mainstream media has dropped the sword; SpartanEdge.com now wields it.

SpartanEdge.com Editor Alexander Scott

SLAM!

Maybe we will be getting better reporters from MSU some day.

[Aplomb]

Found out about this insightful essay, "All For One," at little green footballs. Posting the end of it...

What has been the Western response? Some continental European newspapers, understanding the issue and the stakes, reprinted the cartoons as a show of solidarity and in the name of free speech. Many editors were fired and/or are under death threats as a result. American press was less courageous, realizing that their government would not act to protect them, so only a handful of papers reprinted the cartoons. Others disingenuously claimed to be respecting Muslims’ “feelings” by not doing so, yet the “feelings” of peaceful targets had never previously stopped them from publishing offensive material. A Boston newsweekly, the Phoenix, perhaps most clearly stated the real reasons for which they were not republishing the cartoons: “Out of fear of retaliation from the international brotherhood of radical and bloodthirsty Islamists … This is, frankly, our primary reason for not publishing any of the images in question … we are being terrorized, and as deeply as we believe in the principles of free speech and a free press, we could not in good conscience place the men and women who work at the Phoenix … in physical jeopardy … this may be the darkest moment in our 40-year publishing history.”

In reality though, it is not the role of the press, but of the government to stand up to those who threaten violence. Yet Western governments have acted deplorably, once again breaking their most solemn promise and contravening their very raison-d’etre. Said the US State Department: “These cartoons are indeed offensive to the belief of Muslims." "We all fully recognize and respect freedom of the press and expression but it must be coupled with press responsibility. Inciting religious or ethnic hatreds in this manner is not acceptable.” (The Department later mitigated its position somewhat, but in the face of death threats, killings, etc., it was clear that it had no principled defense of free speech or of Western values and citizens.)

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw “praised the UK media for refusing to reprint the cartoons” saying that “I believe the republication of these cartoons has been unnecessary, it has been insensitive, it has been disrespectful and it has been wrong.” He later added that “freedom of speech did not mean an open season on religious taboos.” EU commissioner Frattini capitulated completely and suggested that the press adopt a “voluntary code” of self-censorship.

No Western government has taken a single action to eliminate the sources of the bounties on the heads of Western citizens, to hunt down the issuers of death threats against editors and publishers, nor even to pledge full and unconditional protection to any citizen who wishes to exercise his statutory rights in the face of violent Islamic opposition.

The historical pattern is clear and consistent. For twenty five plus years, Islamists have isolated and targeted Western citizens around the world with impunity, and have succeeded in fostering fear in most citizens. They have effectively used a divide and conquer strategy, with little or no opposition. The pattern must be broken immediately.

To see how, imagine a neo-Nazi state arising and declaring to Western nations: “We have no quarrel with you, we just want to exterminate the Jews who reside within your borders.” The proper response would of course be: “if you want to harm our law-abiding citizens, you DO have a quarrel with us, in fact you have a war, for no one may threaten our citizens without threatening our nation as a whole.” Similar reasoning extends from a segment of the population to a single individual citizen. If a nation threatens one citizen, it threatens the nation, and we must do everything in our power, including going to war if necessary, to eradicate the threat. Otherwise there is no point for individuals to delegate their use of force to the state, and every enemy will employ a “divide and conquer” tactic to eliminate us one citizen at a time.

As a reminder of this, let us resurrect Dumas’ famous Musketeers’ rallying call: “One for All and All for One” emphasizing the latter phrase. For only by standing together to defend each individual can a peaceful society exist. Thus we must stand together and protect the lonely author who dares question a religion and who is sentenced to death because of it. We must stand together to defend his publishers who are firebombed for printing the book. We must stand together to defend the individual film-maker and political dissident who criticize Islam and are sentenced to death because of it. We must stand together to defend the benign cartoonist, who pens a simple cartoon, and is then forced into hiding by death threats and bounties.

To stand together means to assert our rights with our government as our agent. To those who threaten us with force, asserting our rights means responding with force, in fact, with overwhelming force. We must say to Iran (which on February 14 just reconfirmed the Rushdie fatwa) “oust and turn over the regime which sees fit to condemn a single citizen of ours to death, or face all out war.” And if they refuse, give them the war they started, but be sure to win it decisively, not protecting their mosques and infrastructure, but instead doing everything necessary to ensure they have no capacity to ever threaten us again. To Pakistan and India, which host clerics bold enough to put bounties on the heads of our citizens, demand that they turn over the men and their supporters, and if they refuse, go in and take them by force.

For if we fail to reverse our pattern, men will continue to learn that their rights are a sham, that the government’s promise to protect the individual is a hoax, and that only by refraining from thinking and speaking out might they be momentarily safe. Men will then go on to realize that they must seek out true protectors, in the form of some gang; ethnic, religious or otherwise; who may afford them a measure of security, albeit at the cost of complete obedience. Eventually the gangs will fight it out in an effort to wrest absolute power and to subjugate the others.

So will end the great intellectual and political achievement of the West, which began 2,500 years ago in Greece with its discovery and reverence for the individual, and which culminated in the enunciation of the guiding principles of the United States. The end will not come because an over-powering enemy has arisen –- no, to our everlasting shame, the end will come because Western governments, in a display of incredible cowardice and treason, have abandoned and delivered their disarmed individual citizens to a mob of stone-age savages.
http://amitghate.blogspot.com/2006/03/all-for-one.html

[ExplodedMind]

Aplomb: It shocks me that the threat of violence has so easily inhibited free speech in much of Europe and the USA. What will be the next demand, that women cover their heads when they pass by mosques? I expect something of this sort will be forthcoming soon.

EM

[MTStringer]

Ya know what they say about instincts? First impressions? Forgive me, the first image popping into my warped mind is one of "Downhome Bubba" rollin' by real slow on his hog while "Dixie" sits proudly on the back, trying in vain to cover her head with the two-handed, one-fingered salute.

[MTStringer]

Perhaps I should explain. On a recent road trip, I noticed quite a few mosques in the Indianapolis area, and I've been giving thought to the trickle down effect and it's relation to small town USA. In short, what goes in the "big city" might not be as well received in "Smallville" just yet. Kin you'ns say "target practice?"

[Aplomb]

Orignially posted by EM:
It shocks me that the threat of violence has so easily inhibited free speech in much of Europe and the USA. What will be the next demand, that women cover their heads when they pass by mosques? I expect something of this sort will be forthcoming soon.

It doesn't shock me at all. I find it disgusting that courtesty, tolerance, understanding, appeasement, accomodation and diplomacy has overtaken truth and justice in the West. Of course our media is fearful of brutal and violent reaction by Muslims if their journalists lay things out blatantly. They have no body guards. They know their lives would be at stake for they know the reality of the nature of the beast that we are dealing with, and they know that for the mostpart, we do not stand together to put bad guys in their place. And in addition to that, the media being leftists does damage to itself in this regard because conservatives whom they play themselves against constantly, are the very ones who would most likely stand beside them if they did face and report the reality that they fear but deny to themselves. They must deny it for if not they admit that there are real monsters in the world and the leftist ideology is pure bull shit.

Look at what has happened in France:

Jews claim police hid killers' motive to appease ghetto From Charles Bremner in Paris

THE torture and murder of a young Jewish man in Paris triggered outrage among Jewish leaders yesterday as the Government sought to prevent the affair from inflaming emotions in the Muslim-dominated housing estates of France. Dominique de Villepin, the Prime Minister, and his ministers promised that justice would be done after the parents of Ilan Halimi, 23, who was held captive for three weeks on an immigrant estate, accused the police of playing down the anti-Semitic motives of his kidnappers. Voicing the anger felt among the Jewish population, Radio Shalom, a station in Paris, said that M Halimi had "been made to pay for the (Danish) cartoons of Muhammad and Abu Ghraib", the prison where US forces tortured Iraqi captives. http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/1679

Don't think it could be because of cartoons? Recall that I correctly called it that the priest in Turkey was murdered because of them. And here in America:

(03/03/06 -- CHAPEL HILL) - The driver of an SUV that plowed into a group of pedestrians at UNC-Chapel Hill on Friday told police it was retribution for the treatment of Muslims around the world, sources tell Eyewitness News and ABC News.

Police said they would charge Taheri-azar with nine counts of attempted murder.


Link to terrorism?

Sources say Taheri-azar told police he was seeking retribution for the treatment of Muslims around the world, according to ABC News justice correspondent Pierre Thomas. Taheri-azar apparently told police he tried to rent the biggest SUV he could find to use in the attack.

Last month, Muslim students at UNC protested the publication in The Daily Tar Heel of an original cartoon depicting the prophet Muhammad. Islam is interpreted to forbid any illustrations of Muhammad for fear they could lead to idolatry. The recent publication of a series of cartoons of Muhammad in European newspapers sparked violent protests in the Middle East and elsewhere.
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?se...cal&id=3958312

[Aplomb]

another goodi tip through little green footballs:

Kevin Siers, The Charlotte Observer

Dana Summers, The Orlando Sentinel

More at: http://www.henryk-broder.de/tagebuch...aturisten.html

[Sean Osborne]

SUV Update...

Runaway SUV Intentionally Hits College Students

It's been a while but the SUV Update returns ... • Paul Shanklin

[Aplomb]

Gotta quote the whole thing. This is unbelievable...

Seeking Muslim Moderates

By Aaron Hanscom
FrontPageMagazine.com | March 3, 2006


Irvine, California, was recently ranked one of the safest cities in the country. But one would have a hard time squaring that reputation with the sight that greeted visitors to the University of California at Irvine on Tuesday evening.


A huge police presence and bomb-sniffing dogs were posted outside the Crystal Cove Auditorium. The reason: a panel discussion on Islamic extremism was being held inside and as many as 1,000 Muslim students gathered to protest the decision of the event’s sponsors to unveil the Danish cartoons of Muhammad.

I arrived at UC-Irvine early and decided to walk around the campus. Outside the Student Center, I overheard a large group of women who were wearing head scarves express their displeasure that the United American Committee and the College Republicans would have the temerity to sponsor such a hateful event. “Free speech does not equal hate speech!” one of them declared. That same line appeared on many placards held by the protestors. Others were: “Muhammad: Truthful, Trustworthy”; “A Racist Attack Against One Group Is An Attack Against All Of Us”; and—my favorite—“Muhammad: The Leader of the Free World."

In front of several television crews, members of the Muslim Student Union began the protest by rolling out green prayer mats and saying a prayer in Arabic. Green was the color of the night, as many protestors wore green armbands, just like two dozen students did at the 2004 UC-Irvine graduation. They represent allegiance to Hamas and were clearly designed to intimidate those on the other side of the police barricades. Fortunately, those in attendance did not include the editors of the American newspapers that have chosen not to publish the cartoons. Instead, behind an American and Israeli flag, the crowd spontaneously shouted “USA! USA!” and sang “God bless America.” The Muslim students responded by chanting: “Hey Republicans Stop the Hate! All You Do Is Instigate” and “Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho! The Prophet’s Cartoons Have Got to Go!”

When the panelists began to speak, it was clear that they wanted to appeal to moderate Muslims—not spout hatred. Frontpage Magazine contributor Lee Kaplan spoke of the Nazi-supporting activities of the German-American Bund before World War II. He then informed the audience that America’s entry into the war changed everything, so much so that 60 percent of GI’s were of German descent. Japanese-Americans also showed their patriotism by performing bravely in the 442^nd Regimental Combat Team. Kaplan urged Muslims in America to act like the Germans and Japanese did in the current war against Islamist fascism. Up until now, though, self-styled Islamic civil rights groups have acted like cheerleaders for Islamists overseas, instead of embracing U.S. goals in the War on Terrorism.

It didn’t take long for protesters to start heckling Kaplan. One man called him an “Israeli agent.” Another repeatedly interrupted his answers by screaming off-topic questions such as, “How many Iraqi’s have died in this war?” The majority of the audience begged the many police officers standing guard to expel the saboteurs, but they were in no hurry to do so. In fact, the first person the officers escorted out of the auditorium was a person who confronted this heckler. When the shouts continued, the man was finally shown the exit to a standing ovation. Kaplan was joined on stage by Ted Hayes and Jesse Peterson, two black Republicans. Both of them expressed a desire to see Muslims start protesting in the streets against Islamic violence—not cartoons. Speaking of the cartoons, they seemed to be the last thing on the minds of the Muslims in the audience. The truth is that most Muslims can handle stupid or offensive cartoons.

There are exceptions, of course. While a member of the Free Muslims Association against Terrorism was on the panel, the seat reserved for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) remained empty the entire night. Nor could CAIR’s absence be explained by the controversial subject of the cartoons. The president of The United American Committee, Jesse Petrilla, explained that CAIR decided not to attend the event even before the idea to unveil the cartoons had been hatched. The night ended with a challenge to moderate Muslims everywhere. Kaplan named two actions Muslims might take to prove they are on American’s side in the War on Terror: 1) Volunteer to fight the fascism that threatens the entire Islamic world and that is supported by Saudi funding. 2) Issue fatwas for Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Unfortunately, this may take some time. The president of the College Republicans at UC-Irvine has been receiving death threats all week and now fears for her life at the hands of Muslim extremists. In the face of agitated Islamists, the refuge of one of America’s safest cities has proven illusory.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles...e.asp?ID=21486

[PsycoJoe]

Say it, sister. SAY IT!