P/S
I shall have to warn my brother not to shake hands anymore with his muslima colleague.
Apparently it is no longer halal.
http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2006-03/28/article03.shtml
I’m completely of two minds about this. One the one hand, by bowing to this kind of pressure, these chains are just asking for more of the same in the future. On the other hand, they’re not in the business of selling courage. Good, old-fashioned cowardly avoidance of controversy has a long, long history in American business. Look at some of the things Wal-Mart has refused to sell over the years. People can bitch, but you know what? At the end of the day, the market is a big place. Whatever you want that you can’t get at Waldenbooks or Borders or Wal-Mart, you can get somewhere else. These stores are doing anything particularly unusual here. What’s unusual is that they’re getting press for it.
Is “muslima” a real word?
So does standing up for the principles of the nation before the principles of money. In 1814 the merchants of Baltimore willingly had some of their ships sunk in order to help fight off a British invasion. I’d like a bit more of that.
Yup, it’s a transliteration of the feminine form of the Arabic word for “Muslim”. The Arabic letters are mim-sin-laam-mim-taa’ marbuta.
However, many Muslims don’t have any problem with the practice of mixed-gender handshakes. If you do meet a Muslim who doesn’t want to shake hands for religious reasons, they’ll tell you so.
Perhaps, but I wouldn’t give a shit if a relative or the relative of someone I know ,
or hell, anyone for that matter got smoked in a Borders store because some happy-ass muslim was on a jihad.
You liberal, you.
It is their right to say that they find the cartoons offensive enough not to sell the magazine. But this is not the case. They say they’re specifically concerned with the threat of violence. The message this sends is that violence works, let’s have more of it.
And by the way, if y’all are pissed off at bookstores for refusing to carry a magazine because it might offend Muslims, what do you think about the Manhattan Theater Workshop’s recent cancellation of a scheduled production of My Name is Rachel Corrie, a play about the American pro-Palestinian activist killed in 2003 under an Israeli bulldozer, because they were concerned that it might offend Jews?
Personally, I thought several of the anti-Muhammad cartoons were genuinely offensive and insulting and mostly an attempt at Muslim-baiting, with pieties about free speech tacked on as an afterthought. However, I nonetheless condemned (and still condemn) efforts to censor or repress their publication by means of violence or intimidation.
So I hope all you free-speech advocates who are writing reproachful letters to Waldenbooks about caving in to fears about negative reactions from Muslims will follow them up with similar letters to the Manhattan Theater Workshop about caving in to fears about negative reactions from Jews. Right?
Heck, if you consider Borders and Waldenbooks cowards for worrying that they might be targets of actual violence by Muslim extremists, the Workshop folks must be the biggest wusses in the world for being afraid of mere pissed-offness and criticism from Jewish theatergoers.
Sure, if you can show that there have been organized Jewish riots, murders, and instances or arson over similar bits of art.
There’s a difference between giving in to terrorism and respecting someone’s sensibilities.
Indeed. I got my April/May copy of Free Inquiry in the mail last week. The story didn’t seem in the least bit controversial to me. But I have a different perspective, I suppose. Fer instance, Waldenbooks and Borders both sell many versions of The Bible. And I find that damnable thing far more offensive. I won’t even mention the thousands of books they sell which promote psychic abilities and all that other psuedo-scientific garbage. Chickenshit fuckers.
Heh. Borders’ so-called diversity statement:
And
Mebbe they oughtta remove that religion thing from there.
Or, y’know, any thinking person.
And it seems cowardly for them to not sell the mags, but as businesses, they’re certainly free to do whatever in hell they want.
GIGObuster, to be fair, Al Shatat received a fair amount of condemnation from the US and from Europe, and resulted, among other things, in the banning of Hezbullah’s television channel, Al Manar, in France and elsewhere in Europe. Hezbullah is already classified as a terrorist organisation in the US. So, it’s not true that there was no reaction to that series.
It’s easy to be brave and stand up for principle when it isn’t your head in the crosshairs. I can’t say I’d be willing to put my life on the line for a silly cartoon, and if I worked at Borders or Waldenbooks I’d sleep better at night knowing that my employer wasn’t risking my life for his principle. You have to choose your battles, and I don’t think the right to see these cartoons is worth peoples’ lives.
I demand that everybody here go buy this issue, even if it means having to go through a violent mob. Otherwise you are empowering extremists. Dare I call you a coward if you don’t?
Borders/Walden are not stopping carrying the Free Inq. mag. They are just not going to carry it for a month. Then its back on the shelf. So they are more than willing to carry a publication they know has, and will again, offend a great many people. they just dont want those pics in their stores. Where, for all we know, they have a substantial muslim workforce.
Now…if this issue causes a huge uproar, and Borders/Walden drops them because of it…i would call them cowards.
If I had a subscription, and asked not to have the latest issue delivered, then by all means call me a coward. These stores already sell the magazine. They’re doing something different to please a tiny, violent minority. If I were a Christian Fundamentalist extremist, I would be watching this very closely. Once the government is no longer kowtowing to then, how long do you suppose it will be before they demand magazines promoting evolution be banned?
Of course, I have a lot of sympathy for the Muslim protestors. No one should have to look at cartoons that express that kind of prejudice against them. Just wait until they find out that 10% of their 11th-Grade History Final will be an essay glorifying the cartoonist.
I’m offended by lots of things. Mein Kampf, Britney Spears, Micheal Savage, The Left Behind series. Should I threaten people with violence to suppress them? And should people cater to my threats?
No, but you may avoid a store which sells them. I think it is fair buisness pracice to not sell items that are offensive if you believe the losses due to selling them will outweigh the gains due to selling them.