I wasn’t looking for any hidden meaning, I just thought his post was funny. I don’t have a history with **Metacom **and religous discusssion, so maybe I’m missing something. Is he known for being hyper-sensitive about criticism aimed at Christians?
I’m kinda with lissener on this one. Part of me wants the Danes and Norwegians to close their embassies and sever all diplomatic ties with Syria until the parties responsible are caught and punished to their satisfaction. If the radical Muslims want to remain in the Dark Ages, let them. Sever all ties and trade, and let them rot. I realise that this is an over-reaction, and slanders the great majority of Muslims that are peaceful and rational. But this is a violation of national sovereignty, and needs to be dealt with severely.
We really need to eliminate all religious extremists, Phelps and company included. But what can you do in an inclusive, democratic society? Only one thing, and the moderate Muslims need to take note of it, as more and more of them are: The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing.
I’m not sure of a much greater pattern, but I didn’t even recognize his user name before the last time he went totally mental.
Evidently, unless you presuppose that God is a more valid myth than pixies, you’re an asshole. And, of course, it’s okay to call the myths of previous societies fairy tales, but if you do it with modern beliefs with no proof, why, it’s time for someone to go berserk. When faced with someone saying that it was a discussion of someone’s beliefs and not their personality or self-worth, Metacom continued his freakout.
Then, when further challenged on why one should place more faith in God than in Thor, he just ran away from the thread.
If that behavior is in any way indicitave of normal behavior, and I’ve seen no apology or retraction which would lead me to think otherwise, then I don’t think that Metacom is exactly the most rational person to discuss religion with. Especially since he seems physically unable to understand that challenging someone’s ideas is not the same as attacking them as a person.
Religious folks with a chip on their shoulders aren’t always the best people to talk about religion with. And, in a thread about a reaction of violence and a massive freakout in the Muslim world over criticism of their religion, Metacom posts. The Irony Gods took note, I’m sure.
Word. It goes against principle to feel this way, but damn, where were the torch-bearing mobs of Christian fanatics screaming “Death to Andres Serrano” when “Piss Christ” was making headlines? Outrage? Sure. Thousands rioting and burning? No.
Have I missed something? CNN et al are reporting that the Norwegian embassy got torched. As far as I’d read, Norway had nothing to do with it.
Are they torching embassies of countries close to other countries in which independent newspapers printed cartoons?
Jesus Christ is that fucked up.
Personally, I am still royally pissed at the Visigoths.
IIRC a Norwegian paper reprinted them.Yep.
Not that it makes the current round of infantile violence any less abhorent. It really does strike me as a war, as a campaign of terrorism; they’re attempting to get us to change our very culture or risk violence.
ahem Marley23
The cartoons were printed in Denmark and had Danish texts. [and Amsterdam isn’t the capitol of Denmark either] 
The Netherlands had the honor to be the first European country being subjected by muslim censorship.
When filmmaker Theo van Gogh was beheaded by a muslim for critisizing Islam.
My mistake. And I’ve been to both countries. It’s probably your fault for bringing up Theo van Gogh out of nowhere in that GD thread. 
Eh?!?!
http://www.cagle.com/news/BLOG/main.asp
Can someone clarify why suddenly the Idiot president is saying he is in favor of censorship? (Is this another of his “there ought to be limits to freedom moment”?)
Why is the administration beginning to support the positions of extremists?
And you can see how bad is this when a neo-conservative like Christopher Hitchens also pounces on the president:
No rioting and burning, but “Death to Andres Serrano” threats? Hell yeah.
Terrence McNally received some of the same charming Christian love ‘n’ peace too, when his Corpus Christi – a play depicting a gay Christ – was to be presented by the Manhattan Theatre Club a few years back. When announcing that the play would be postponed, staffers gave this explanation:
The play eventually went on, but not before the threats worked their magic and temporarily closed the theater.
Y’know, I’m not defending these acts of violence at ALL. Behavior like this, especially over a drawing on a piece of paper, is absurd and contemptible.
Unfortunately, everyone is on a hairtrigger these days. This isn’t occuring in a vacuum: at a time when thousands of civilian Iraqi Muslims are being killed and maimed in a war most Arabs feel is unjustified, it’s probably easy for some who share their faith to feel under attack. In such a climate, outrage escalates all too quickly into violence.
Oh yeah, and askeptic’s implication that jjimm’s Muslim friends must answer for genital mutilations and women-stoning are fucking toolish as all get-out. Just curious, are you straight man? I demand that you prove you’re against gay-bashing, rape, and pedophilia. If you’re white, you’d better add your stance on the Aryan Alternative newspaper and Strmfrnt. Christian? How do you feel about killing abortion providers, or Fred Phelps protesting Coretta Scott King’s funeral, or burning crosses on Jewish people’s lawns? If you’re Hispanic, how do you feel about the Latin Kings and other gangs? And naturally, if you’re black, you’re gonna have to give your alibi now regarding where you were during the riots in NOLA.
Dumb shit like that is ignorant as hell. Cut it the fuck out.
Sure, there were death threats, I’d have been amazed if there weren’t since Christians aren’t lacking their own wacko nutjobs. But did Serrano have to spend years in hiding, a la Rushdie? Nope. Did thousands-strong mobs surround his studio and burn it down? Nope. The play you cite did go on eventually. For that matter, Monty Python’s Life of Brian surely pissed off a lot of people too, but were movie theaters showing it torched?
Look, it’s no secret that Christianity went through its own dark ages where a smidgen of heresy could get you beaten, imprisoned, or burned at the stake; where brutal crusades were government policy. But Christians as a whole have pretty much evolved beyond that level. Even among fundamentalists you have to go well out into the fringe to find real violence. When a fundaloonie like Pat Robertson spews his shit he gets repudiated and forced to backpedal. That’s not what we’re seeing from the Islamic world currently.
Are all Muslims aggressive fanatics? Hell, no. Most of them? I don’t believe so. But are the aggressive fanatics in control? Based on the (admittedly Western-media-filtered) evidence before me, I’m forced to at the very least wonder.
Don’t get sucked in. it’s all just a publicity stunt for this. Trust Hollywood.
Well, that and Al-Jazeera. Nope, they’re worthless shit that need to be flushed.
Right fucking now.
“In control” of what? There are at least 1 billion Muslims in the world. You could marshal 1 million rioters and still only be “in control” of 0.1% of all Muslims. And I’m not condoning what’s been done, just pointing out that no one is really “in control” here. The more violent the response, the bigger the press converage. That’s all.
Absolutely. Similarly, I’m sure many an Arab Muslim believes that all Americans are fascistic warmongers who want to rule the world and who condone torture of innocents and minors; considering what they see of us, through the war that’s right on their doorstep and their own propaganda that mirrors our own, is it any surprise? But just as I don’t want to be painted with that broad brush because I’m an American, I can’t fathom doing the same thing to Muslims “as a whole.”
Who controls the aggressive fanatics?
I haven’t read it in this thread but maybe it’s in the news, by now.
Danish tv reported ye´sterday evening that the burning started when a rumour spread that there was going to be burning of the Koran in Copenhagen. It was spread by SMS (text messages).
Note that this started after the Danish P.M. made statement, trying to calm things down, and shortly after Hamas won the election.
It’s all been a wonderful way for the tugs that run the police state that is Syria to turn away attention from other things.
The fanatics look for damned sure to be in control of the public face of Islam, don’t they? Where are the overwhelming masses of moderates (that I agree exist) willing to stand up in public and condemn the fanatics? How many governments in Muslim-dominated countries are condemning the rioters and suppressing them rather than encouraging them? Think about the comment from Salman Rushdie that danceswithcats posted.
Do the silent majority of Muslims hold their tongues because they fear the violent wrath of the fanatics? If so, what does that say about who’s in control of Islam’s position in the eyes of the world?
I think the silent majority of Muslims hold their tongues because they agree with the fanatics.
There are message-boards for muslims where you can read what the silent majority thinks.
I know some Dutch ones www.elqualem.nl - www.maroc.nl - www.wijblijvenhier.nl - but that won’t help you, huh.
There’s also www.masnet.org. Take a look over there.