Laura Curtis

I noted recently that Dove World Outreach evidently lacks a Webster’s dictionary, a sense of irony, or both, but does have some Qu’rans to burn on 9/11.  Well, it’s a free country, and consequently people are free to act like jackasses.  But the response from unindicted terror funding co-conspirator CAIR was amusing.  (via Volokh)

“Can you imagine what this will do to our image around the world?” said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington. “And the additional danger it will add whenever there is an American presence in Iraq or Afghanistan?”

I’m not sure, but I think that must mean Mr. Hooper is Islamophobic. After all, he just suggested that Islam is more violent than other religions. That exercising free speech about Islam in one country would cause Muslims in other countries to kill people not involved in the original “offense.” Oops! Religion of peace, much?

Of course that’s the standard, and conflicting, line. Islam is a religion of peace, and if you say otherwise, we’ll kill you. The only reason people like Mr. Hooper are permitted to have it both ways is a press which is both fearful (remember the MoToons?) and sycophantic where any culture but American, or any religion but Christianity, is concerned.  It’s tiresome.

And yes, as Volokh points out, he’s using threats to achieve ideological goals – and affirming exactly what the Dove World Outreach claim about Islam.

Added: and at JihadWatch, “moderate” Mulims pull a Dr. David Banner: “You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.”

I realize it’s not “Everybody Photoshop Mohammed Day” but this’ll have to do.  The bomb head is by and for Kurt Westergaard and the bear suit is in homage to South Park.

I understand that many Muslims feel it is blasphemous to have an image of Mohammed.  (Though that wasn’t always the prevailing view.)  Not only am I endowed by my creator with certain inalienable rights including freedom of speech, I AM NOT MUSLIM AND I AM NOT OBLIGED TO OBEY ISLAMIC LAW.  And I will not obey it, now or ever.

Allah is not God and Mohammed is a false prophet.

I’ll be adding new links and quotes to this post over the course of the day.

Mark Steyn:

I’m bored with death threats. And, as far as I’m concerned, if that’s your opening conversational gambit, then any obligation on my part to “cultural sensitivity” and “mutual respect” is over. The only way to stop this madness destroying our liberties is (as Ayaan Hirsi Ali puts it) to spread the risk. Everybody Draws Mohammed Day does just that.

Some great quotes at Hot Air on this topic, including:

And at the heart of the liberal project is ultimately a recognition that individuals, for no other reason than that they exist, have rights to continue to exist. Embedded in all that is the right to expression. No one has a right to an audience or even to a sympathetic hearing, much less an engaged audience. But no one should be beaten or killed or imprisoned simply for speaking their mind or praying to one god as opposed to the other or none at all or getting on with the small business of living their life in peaceful fashion. If we cannot or will not defend that principle with a full throat, then we deserve to choke on whatever jihadists of all stripes can force down our throats.

Nick from Gay Patriot at his offsite EDMD contribution on the issue of mightn’t EDMD radicalize formerly moderate Muslims:

I’m a huge pro-life dude. I’m big anti-abortion. But no level of mockery in this belief, no level of argument, no level of demeaning invective, hell, no level of actual abortions would ever turn me into Scott Roeder. There is no way of insulting anything I believe, even the most ardent of my beliefs that would lead me to murder simply for voicing them. Oh, but if there ever were a way of insulting me so greatly, and I were, for example, to murder an abortinist, it wouldn’t be the fault of pro-life demonstrators. It wouldn’t even be the fault of George Tiller himself. Point being: there is no level of words or harmless deeds that justifies murder. Everybody Draw Muhammed Day is about that point, and that point only from my perspective.

Is Everybody Draw Mohammed Day a good idea?  Take the poll.

LAST UPDATE OF THE DAY: Iowahawk has the EDMD post to end all EDMD posts, including the news that Seth MacFarlane plans to blaspheme Mohammed in an upcoming Family Guy episode:

Fourth, all this ostentatious caterwauling about “free speech” and “preserving Enlightenment values” seem to me to be nothing but a cheap excuse for a few low-brow jokesters to engage in juvenile humor. For example, ‘Family Guy’ creator Seth MacFarlane, whom I understand is planning an upcoming episode of the popular infidel TV cartoon in which Stewie and Griffin family dog Brian take turns anally raping Islam’s holy prophet (PBUH) while singing show tunes. “After slamming Jesus and Christians countless times, I would qualify as the biggest hypocritical p**** in Hollywood if I didn’t give that psychotic medieval child molester the vigorous cartoon anal raping which he so richly deserves,” MacFarlane has reportedly said.

Prose can be a work of art, too. Very well played, Iowahawk.

Also celebrating free speech: Snapped Shot, Atlas Shrugs, Jihad Watch, Confederate Yankee, The Jawa Report, Urban Infidel, Zomblog, TigerHawk, Because No One Asked, Wizbang, Everybody Draw Mohammed Blog, IMAO, Jihadwatch, more at Jihadwatch, Amy Alkon, Gateway Pundit, Right Wing News, Jackbooted Stormtrooper, Colorado Publius, Moonbattery, Michelle Malkin, GM.

So we’re going to have a $100 million, 13 story mosque in the shadow of the World Trade Center?

Oh, right. There is no shadow of the WTC.  Because some adherents of the “religion of peace,” actiing fully in accord with their scriptures, caused the WTC buildings to collapse.  But hey, what’s a few thousand lives?  Unity, that’s what we need.  Tolerance.

“Definitely, this is a victory of American tolerance over hatred,” Rauf said.

Hatred? Tell it to gays in Iran, or schoolgirls in Afghanistan committing the crime of trying to get an education.

Tolerance? Until we see some churches and synagogues opening their doors in Saudi Arabia, I don’t want to hear another word about the tolerance Islam thinks it should enjoy.

Oh, and where’s this $100 million coming from? Anyone care to bet against Saudi Arabia, which has a thriving Wahhabi export business?

Friends of mine, who are missionaries in a country where Christians are at serious risk, are in the United States for a visit and we had dinner with them last night. They were surprised I had not seen this video. I haven’t verified every statement in it, but what I’ve checked so far is accurate.

Very disquieting, isn’t it?

Added: This Albert Mohler post about Franklin Graham’s disinvitation to the Pentagon is thought-provoking.

I’m not enthused about government-sponsored prayer events.  If the government can use my tax dollars to promote a religion I like now, it may use them to promote one I don’t like later.  Even when events are ecumenical or generic, I still oppose the concept.  George Bush simply enraged me when he said that all religions pray to the same god.  That’s postmodern nonsense.  Any serious study of other faiths reveals that the characteristics of the god worshipped are dissimilar -in many cases diametrically opposed – to the others.  Consequently as Christians, I think we ought not to encourage people to pray to false gods, and a generic, “everybody of all faiths pray” event necessarily does that.

All of that said, the fact that Graham was disinvited from the Pentagon event due to his views on Islam is a disgrace.  OF COURSE he thinks Islam is a false religion.  Muslims think the same of us; to them, the view that Jesus is the son of God, and God, is blasphemy.  Graham said it perfectly:

“I am who I am. I don’t believe that you can get to heaven through being a Buddhist or Hindu. I think Muhammad only leads to the grave. Now, that’s what I believe, and I don’t apologize for my faith. And if it’s divisive, I’m sorry.”

Good for him. No Christian should shy away from stating that. And if you don’t believe it, by definition, you’re no Christian.

Albert Mohler wrote,

Adding insult to injury, the spokesman for the Pentagon made a direct reference to Franklin Graham’s statements about Islam, calling them “not appropriate.”  What is clearly “not appropriate” is for a Pentagon spokesperson to render a theological judgment about the statements of Franklin Graham.

The idea that the government is now the arbiter of an acceptable religious belief is very disquieting. The times, they are a’changin.

Many crimes take place in two locations. For example, a kidnapping begins at the primary crime scene where you are actually abducted. The secondary crime scene is where you are held hostage, and where your kidnapper can torture, rape or murder you at his leisure. That’s the entire point of going there; to bring you further under his control. Islamic attacks on free speech are an attempted kidnapping of western civilization. Compliance with those attacks represents going to the secondary crime scene. That’s what Comedy Central has done. The trouble is that these sorts of scenarios never turn out well for the victim.

At the heart of the South Park controversy is whether Trey Parker and Matt Stone – and by extension, Comedy Central – have the right not to obey Islamic law. Abu Talhah al Amrikee/Revolution Muslim thinks they do not; that it’s reasonable and normal that the death penalty be administered for the offense of insulting Islam: [Read more...]