Monday, February 13, 2006

The Stranger posts Mohammed Cartoons

... what’s happening here is that a gang of bullies—led by a country, Saudi Arabia, where Bibles are forbidden, Christians tortured, Jews routinely labeled “apes and pigs” in the state-controlled media, and apostasy from Islam punished by death—is trying to compel a tiny democracy to live by its own theocratic rules. To succumb to pressure from this gang would simply be to invite further pressure, and lead to further concessions—not just by Denmark but by all of democratic Europe. And when they’ve tamed Europe, they’ll come after America.

After all, the list of Western phenomena that offend the sensibilities of many Muslims is a long one—ranging from religious liberty, sexual equality, and the right of gay people not to have a wall dropped on them, to music, alcohol, dogs, and pork. After a few Danish cartoons, what’s next? - The Stranger - News - Feature - All the Rage:

It is important to thoroughly consider who it is that are re-publishing and distributing these cartoons.

Some folks like to point, with a look-at-them-right-wingers-go glee, those folks posting the Mohammed cartoons.

Yet, certainly Seattle's The Stranger is nowhere close to being labeled a right wing paper and they have evidently posted several of the cartoons on their website and perhaps published them too (to be confirmed).

And what about the clerics that distributed the cartoons in the Muslim world? What makes them different from Levant, publisher of the Western Standard? Shouldn't they be scolded just as much as newspaper publishers for distributing the materials in question?

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Liberals contemplate quick comeback after disastrous first week for Harper - Yahoo! News

'We're going to oppose those measures that we find are not in the interests of Canada and Canadians and we'll oppose them all the way,' Graham said.

'And if that leads to the government falling, it's going to lead to the government falling. And the way they're making their decisions it's clear that could happen earlier rather than later just given the nature of what they're doing.'

Harper plunged his fledgling regime into turmoil with some unusual choices for his cabinet which cast doubt on his election pledge to run a more accountable, ethical administration. - Liberals contemplate quick comeback after disastrous first week for Harper - Yahoo! News:

Am I missing something? Is the situation really that dire?

Anti-protest protest in Paris

Two guys in Paris are caught on video wearing a Danish flag and a sign reading "free cartoonists" amid what I think may be called an anti-Danish
Mohammed Cartoon" protest.

Check out the video here.

While I wouldn't want to be them, I do wonder if they really are in the wrong for protesting agains the protest.

Do they not have the write to stand up for the other side, even if the other side is wrong?

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

TheStar.com - Toronto lawyer wants to be Liberal leader

TheStar.com - Toronto lawyer wants to be Liberal leader:
A relatively obscure Toronto lawyer has become the first declared candidate for the Liberal leadership.

Martha Hall Findlay threw her hat in the ring Wednesday, undaunted by the fact that much higher profile contenders have been dropping from the race like flies.

And which riding will she be running in? Last time she ran she was beat out by Belinda Stronach in the riding of Newmarket-Aurora. Perhaps her offer to be the Liberal leader is to challenge Ms Stronach to run for Liberal leadership.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Mohammed cartoon row a case against religion?

Getting upset over....

Does the violent reaction to anti-muslim cartoons make Christopher Hitchens right?

For most of human history, religion and bigotry have been two sides of the same coin, and it still shows. - Hitchens, The case for mocking religion

Of course I find it rather ironic that for all his accusing religion Hitchens forgets that people putting together anti-muslim illustrations are not expressly religious which would suggest that bigotry, religion, and secularism are all going to be somewhere together on that coin of his.

Still, religious things do give a group of people something in their relation to another group of people to be upset about. Cartoonist Doug Marlette recounts his experience with religious groups:
I have outraged Christians by skewering Jerry Falwell, Catholics by needling the pope, and Jews by criticizing Israel. Those who rise up against the expression of ideas are strikingly similar. No one is less tolerant than those demanding tolerance. Despite differences of culture and creed, they all seem to share the notion that there is only one way of looking at things, their way. What I have learned from years of this is one of the great lessons of all the world's religions: we are all one in our humanness. - Marlette, I Was a Tool of Satan

That's a victory for secular humanism against religion.

But then we come back to Denmark, a country that the Spiegel's Jürgen Gottschlich says has Europe's most xenophobic government. There Danish voters, perceiving Muslim immigrants as social welfare freeloaders, elected a government to impose stricter immigration controls. This isn't religious bigotry, this is secular bigotry.

Jurgen goes on to consider the bankruptcy of secular values,
Instead of participating in a disingenuous battle for free speech, it is high time for some in Europe to return to the virtues of Enlightenment to help them find reason. The situation is difficult enough already and there are idiots on all sides. Indeed, neither is free of guilt.

The Telegraph's John Casey hasn't forgot history nor the culpability of the Enlightenment's nation states in today's violence.
Have we in the West become so historically ignorant that we forget how closely, within living memory, Christian attitudes to the sacred resembled those of Muslims? ... There is little doubt that only a generation ago the blasphemy laws would have been used against Jerry Springer, the Opera. They would certainly have been used against Gibbon had he not concealed his assault on Christianity in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire under layers of irony.
The current political violence by Muslims can be traced to two quite clear events. The first was the fatal decision of President Sadat of Egypt to bring the Islamists into politics as a weapon against the Left. The second was the creation by the Americans of the Mujahideen to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. This Frankenstein's monster has stalked the world ever since. - Casey, This is folly, not a clash of civilisations

Give Islam some time to evolve, says John Casey, accusing the badly drawn cartoons as inhibitors of progress.

But where are we going, Casey? That's the question progress poses. And that may only be a question that religion can answer, unless we start to claim that secularism actually has an eschatology other than that day when religions will exist no more. Because that would just be intolerant and bigotted.

Casey mentions Gibbon. To what end did he work? I know a little about Gibbon and his "irony". Joseph Levine in his Autonomy of History draws a number of similarities in his comparisons of Gibbon's historical method with that of Erasmus in his work The Autonomy of History. Erasmus came to similar conclusions as Gibbon (centuries before Gibbon) and was called blasphemous for chopping off the Johannine Comma and among others little work entitled The Praise of Folly.

And we know what end Erasmus worked for.

Monday, February 06, 2006

TheStar.com - Harper debuts his team

TheStar.com - Harper debuts his team:
Key members of the new cabinet
# Jim Flaherty, Finance
# Peter MacKay, Foreign Affairs
# David Emerson, Int'l Trade
# Tony Clement, Health
# Gordon O'Connor, Defence
# Vic Toews, Justice
# Rona Ambrose, Environment
# Stockwell Day, Public Safety
# Monte Solberg, Citizenship
# Maxime Bernier, Industry
# John Baird, Treasury Board
# Rob Nicholson, Democratic Reform"

Yup, that's right. David Emerson is staying on. He crossed the floor.

Telegraph | News | Cleric calls on Mohammed cartoonist to be executed

Telegraph : Cleric calls on Mohammed cartoonist to be executed:
"'We are not saying ourselves to go there and start to look to him and kill him, we are not talking about that. We are talking about Islamic rules. If anybody insults the prophet, he will have to take a punishment.'

He said if countries refused to put people on trial for insulting Mohammed they must 'face the consequences'."
And while Omar Bakri Mohammed is termed by the article as a radical Muslim cleric, the question that still persists in my mind is, wouldn't administering "a punishment" (nothing short of an execution (!!!)> to the cartoonist be the ultimate demonstration of Western tolerance?

Friday, February 03, 2006

rights, reactions, and the closing of the Red Sea

The cartoons of Muslims, particularly depicting Muhammed, published by Denmark's Jyllands-Posten is still getting quite a lot of attention today. I sincerely hope that this awful tragedy in the Red Sea will turn attention agitated in the West and East to something that can be agreed upon - that death is an inhuman thief that can come in the night.

Yet from the comments I've received I'm coming to suspect that there are several deeply significant issues taking place here:

  • There's the matter of european solidarity (via Michael). Non-muslim europeans have probably been looking for something worthwhile to unite them on and I think the loss of Spirit non-muslim europeans have in contrast to their muslim counter parts could be an effective motivator. This interpretation quite strongly suggests that jealousy is the motivator. Are europeans jealous of the muslim spirit?

  • There's the matter of christians comparing their reactions to insulting depictions of their God in a freedom of speech society to the reaction of some in the muslim world (via DP). Christians can look at a people who are burning Danish flags and boycotting Danish goods and too easily say that they're not capable of the same thing. Christians believe strongly in consciencious freedoms. But I think this is the part of the truth that will be emphasised to the point of becoming a myth. Christians may not burn flags, but they sure do enjoy reacting. Christians love to react to images insulting their values. It thrills them to be insulted. Can't have evolution taught in school, insulted. Homosexual cowboys in the movies, insulted. Sharon pulls out of Gaza, insulted. Jesus Christ Superstar, insulted. Britney Spears mocking Christ, insulted. Of course there are many Christians who are on the opposite coin of all these offensive ideas and images, but I don't know if it is a complete picture to focus on just those that don't get insulted.

  • The west's religious history of iconoclasm has reduced the value of images for them and therefore makes them insensitive to peoples who do not share that same history (via Anastasia). "I seriously think that Christians in the West having been the predominant religion for centuries have completely forgotten what it’s like to be persecuted for your beliefs the way that Muslims have been lately," says Anastasia.

  • Many in the west are confusing this matter with the war on terrorism (via Anastasia). I agree, but I think it will be too easily done. Apart from telling people that these are two different matters, I do not know how to substantiate it.

  • Should good manners trump rights. Michael procured two interesting quotes: "Kofi Annan said freedom of the press should not be an excuse for insulting religions. The French interior minister, Nicholas Sarkozy, said he preferred “an excess of caricature to an excess of censure”."

Thursday, February 02, 2006

On the growing anger over badly drawn cartoons

Here are the cartoons that have caused quite a stink in the Muslim World.

and

Here is a cartoon that has not caused a stink in the West.

and

Here is Britney Spears trying to create a stink. Perhaps religious fanatics in the West will be led by this to burn her records.

Is there a difference and what is the difference between Judaism, Christianity and Islam that sparks a varied reaction to acts of defacement committed in the name of free speech?

Harper snubbed by 'progressive' summit

Seems like this organization is confusing the Canadian centre-right for the American right. Canadian centre-right is more left than the American left! Tory support for nationalized health care is pretty much the only evidence needed.
"'My understanding is that the invitation wouldn't be extended to Stephen Harper,' he said.

'I think it's fair to say the Conservative party as a whole now operates from a centre-right position. This is a movement designed to bring the centre and left together.'" - From the National Post