The Volokh Conspiracy reports on an instance of Moslem “feelings” so tender that one begins to think that there’s no way to mollify them, or reason to try. The Akron Beacon-Journal printed a cartoon making fun of CNN’s method of showing the dread Danish drawings and was assailed by self-proclaimed Moslem leaders.
[O]n Feb. 5, the Akron paper published a Bok cartoon depicting a pixilated picture of Muhammad on CNN. A couple in the cartoon said, “Well, no wonder Muslims are upset. Muhammad looks like he's onacid.” . . .
[O]n Friday afternoon, there was a demonstration outside of the newspaper’s East Exchange Street building.
At Friday’s news conference at the Islamic Society of Akron & Kent in Cuyahoga Falls, the speakers were passionate.
A.R. Abdoulkarim, Amir of the Akron Masjid, applauded newspapers that decided against running the cartoons, but condemned those who did. The Beacon Journal, he said, was in a class of its own.
“They take the prize for being the most ill-intended, irresponsible property group,” he said. “Allah curses and condemns them and every Muslim in this community should curse and condemn them.”
Julia A. Shearson, director of Ohio’s Council of American-Islamic Relations, said they want the Beacon Journal to apologize for running the “unethical”cartoon . . . .
Muslim leaders said Bok’s cartoon was disrespectful because the prophet should not have been depicted in such a way. In fact, they said, there are no pictures or statues of Muhammad because he should not be confused with God.
The last sentence is presumably a reporter’s garble; else, he has encountered a very peculiar form of Islamic theology. Be that as it may, there is a point at which one must give up trying to be exquisitely polite to people who are determined to take offense and who show no compunction about hurling crude insults at Christianity and Judaism. Therefore, let me dedicate to all Moslems who believe that disagreement with Islam is or ought to be a capital offense this hymn, written by the gentle, humane brothers John and Charles Wesley in 1780:
The smoke of the infernal cave,
Which half the Christian world o'erspread
Disperse, Thou heavenly Light, and save
The souls by that Impostor led,
That Arab-chief, as Satan bold,
Who quite destroyed Thy Asian fold.
O might the blood of sprinkling cry
For those who spurn the sprinkled blood!
Assert Thy glorious Deity,
Stretch out Thine arm, Thou Triune God.
The Unitarian fiend expel,
And chase his doctrine back to hell.
We may as well be scimitared for a forthrightly antagonistic song as for an innocuous image.
Further reading: “The Future We’re Headed For”
Tom Gross, “Drawing a Line Under Hypocrisy”
National Review Online, “Symposium: The Clash to End All Clashes?”
Daniel Pipes, “Cartoons and Islamic Imperialism”
Amir Taheri, “Bonfire of the Pieties”
Mark Steyn, “Toon-Deaf Europe Is Taking the Wrong Stand”
Olivier Guitta, “The Cartoon Jihad”
Stephen Schwartz, “Muhammad Caricatured”
Per Nyholm, “Man pisser på os” (English translation)
Paul Belien, “Jihad Against Danish Newspaper” (with numerous links to prior news coverage)
Gateway Pundit, “Snubbed! Danish PM Shuns Radical Muslims, Meets with Moderates” (the good news about Moslem attitudes)
Hjörtur Gudmundsson, “More and More Moderate Moslems Speak Out in Denmark” (more good news)
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