Stop calling it the “Turkish symbol.” It’s an Islamic symbol. If it wasn’t, the Council on American-Islamic Relations wouldn’t have gotten its bowels in an uproar over this.
Oh yes it does.
That would be the people who made this a big deal earlier.
Why? The origin is Turkish. The original depiction in the links in the OP made a point of noting its resemblance to the Tutkish flag. The manipulated gif linked in the OP used the Turkish flag as a template. It may be used by Muslims, but it is a Turkish symbol.
No, it is not. Islam does not recognized any “official” symbol. Even among practicing Muslims where there exists some disagreement on this point, there are many who eschew the Crescent and Star symbol. And note that the symbol is comprised of both the crescent AND the star. The crescent, on its own, means nothing. Just like a red stripe is not the symbol for the USA. Nor a hammer, the symbol of the USSR.
A thought: there’s a lot of talk about what the crescent is “supposed” to mean in regards to Islam. But is it possible that, as with the evolution (or dumbing down, depending on POV) of English, it matters less in regards to this controversy than what people believe it means?
Q.E.D., you go too far the other way regarding the meaning of the symbol. We have already seen that a number of Muslim states have chosen that device, with a clear appeal to their religion, and that the Red Crescent (with no star) was founded to provide emergency relief services, primarily to Muslim nations while seeking contributions from Muslims.
The idea that there is no Muslim association with the moon crescent is not tenable.
I did not say there was no association. I said there is no OFFICIAL association.
Meh. It might have, if the artists had drawn a design that actually looked like the moon crescent.
However, the only way you get the moon crescent out of their actual design (.pdf) is to either play games with it, changing the shape the way that the gif linked in the OP does, or to look at it from a particular angle of the mock-up, with bold red highlighting areas that are not the size that color makes them appear and with features extended or foreshortened by the odd perspective of the drawing.
Well, in all fairness, they DO call it the “Crescent of Embrace” right there on that page. This does not change my opinion on this foolishness, though.
Actually, in the articles I read about this in my local (as in within 100 miles of the crash site) paper, the designer was specifically concerned about use of the term “crescent”, and did not want it used in reference to the design because of the very nonsense which is being brought up here.
I’ve no plans for the weekend yet, and it’s been too long since I’ve been up in the mountains. If I make a trip up to Shanksville with a friend who has a digital camera, I should be able to provide a photo of the memorial site, if anyone is interested and/or would be willing to host it.
By the way, tomndebb, check your e-mail, please.
CJ
Yeah, right, because there are NO dissenting opinions presented in this thread at all, which I might also weigh to form an opinion. Not to mention that I don’t believe for a minute that it was the people in this thread that you presumed I’d “been influenced by,” as if I were some malleable idiot who can’t read cited links and 2+ pages of debate and actually form my own opinion.
That’s your issue, not mine. The assumption I made was that you entered this thread without prior knowledge and based your opinions on the posts and links in it. However, as I have already noted, the only images of the design at the beginning of the thread are distorted, some accidentally, some maliciously, and you specifically mentioned making up your mind on what you had seen.
I have made no assumptions regarding your abilities to form opinions.
Chaning the design makes about as much sense as Burger King redesigning the packaging on their ice-cream cone because some nutjob said the design resembled the Arabic writing of Allah.
I would have linked to the original Sun article; but there are some NSFW images on that page.
Not only is this story an excellent example of the problem… but I’m totally with your husband on the fence design. I don’t know if I would have seen the swastika without it being pointed out to me, but now that it has been, I see it, unmistakably, in the middle of the design. And it would creep me out to have that design around my house, even though I’m sure that the fence designers were not subtly pushing neo-Nazism on the world.
Do you really fail to appreciate the difference in significance between a fast food package and a memorial of national significance?
There’s no difference in the significance nor rationality of the manufactured offense.