Moon and I simply refuse to allow a generalized hate towards Muslims on this blog.
I choose to believe, as Ann Frank did, that “people are really good at heart”. I am reminding people that post here, actions of a few vocal and violent people do NOT represent an entire people.
Outstanding photos!
IS someone putting out generalized hate towards Muslims? If so, I support you in denouncing them.
You are absolutely right to point out that the actions of a violent minority does not represent the views of the non-violent! The Bangladeshi men that I worked with thought that the Salafists and other militants were literally insane.
Are you being sacrcastic? Try reading the thread entitled “cowardice……….” below this one, you will find your fill of generalized statements!
There should be a picture tomorrow of Americans holding signs that say “oops! Didn’t mean to drop a huge bomb on your country!”
Looks like you just illustrated Elena’s point for her. @pokie
I just read every entry in the Cowardice thread. I saw no commenter presenting generalized hate or bigotry. Must be “code” or something.
Thanks Slow, you just did an excellent job proving my point. thank G-d you don’t have an opportunity to speak for America.
Cargo,
It was also a general message, given the disgusting comments I have seen all over the interet.
thanks to Slow comment #1:
Where is the differentiation between the thugs and the regular people? Nowhere!
I hope the regular people aren’t in danger for standing up for what’s right.
How about the CNN interview with one of the actors from the movie. she had NO idea this was movie about demeaning Islam. She SHOWED the script to the interviewer, the name of the main character, i.e. Mohamed, was actually GEORGE in the movie. She was duped and she is livid.
Well-stated, Moon.
That’s what i’m here (well, in Dallas) for!
Did anyone watch that movie and get it?
A few vocal and violent people are enough for me to want to strip their piss ant of a country of any US aid.
@marinm
For me, no more funding. Take just enough of that funding for one nice fat bomb for each diplomat killed, deposit bomb on city. The rest of the funding? Pay down the debt. And for God’s sake, don’t give that money to Obama, he’ll waste it on something silly.
@Lyssa
I watched part of the trailer. There is no actual movie. I couldn’t finish it because it was so hokey and awkward.
It was strange. I think you might have to be the target to understand it.
Oh, I understood it. Enough to even get the point of some of the satire, supposed humor, and political points. It was just freaking horrible and amateurish.
Why do you think the movie was satire? I suppose my problem is elevating it to the level of satire. I just thought it was vulgar and had one purpose…propaganda. I suppose if we use a real loose definition….. I think you flatter it though.
Based on the threads opening statement, then the peaceful majority must rise up against the violent minority. That’s the problem the violent minority always gets the attention. That seems to occur in all countries not just the middle east.
@Moon-howler
I call it satire, albeit poorly made satire, because it actually DID highlight actual abuses faced by Copts and other Christians in Arabic countries.
But let’s go with your definition…propaganda. Its still a political statement.
Was it insulting to Islam? Yes. But so are any number of things on the web, including scholarly treatises and videos that make the same point that the video did.
Also, is it propaganda if the presentations are actually truthful in an insulting way?
Muhammed was NOT a nice guy. He actually did act as a bandit. He actually did have a 9 year old wife. He did break treaties. And then those things are in the Koran and used as a basis for social and personal conduct. If the Muslims had ignored this, the video would probably have been lost in the background noise of the net. At most, a few hundred people would have seen it. Its a crappy film. The content is crappy. The quality is crappy.
Pointing and laughing is the proper response.
Cargo, cut it out. No one gives a rat’s ass about your opinion of Mohammad. Why fan the flames. You are being the ying to their yang…why? because you think you can.
I hate to bring this up, but you could make a strong argument that Abraham was not a nice guy. He was a polygamist, he endangered his child, yada yada yada.
We are back to the well so and so did it.
Don’t point and laugh here. It wont be the proper response.
Why? Because its rude.
Cargo,
You are demonstrating my point actually. This kind of propoganda was used against Jews and it won’t be tolerated. Are you a religious scholar too? Holy crap, you have access to top secret information AND now you are a religious expert. How DID Moonhowlings get so lucky?
@Moon-howler
I’m not trying to fan the flames. You ASKED ME why I thought that was satire. That’s why.
Do you NOT want me to answer truthfully?
What I described is HISTORICAL. It actually happened. That’s where the filmmaker got the basis of his little film. He just propagandized it.
Paul, of the early Christian Church, was not a nice guy. He persecuted Christians…. even killed them, before “seeing the light.”
Many people in the Bible were not nice. Mohammed is one of them.
Pointing and laughing at rudeness is a great way to defuse propaganda. Ridicule of such discredits it and takes away its power. As it stands now…that idiot that made this crap has succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. EVERYONE has seen the film. Entire countries are reacting.
And so, I predict OTHER films like this may appear.
Maybe historical, maybe not. Who knows what really happened. I don’t think it serves any purpose to go after someone else’s God.
This movie was NOT monty pythonish, at all, not remotely. The producer/director took all the worst stereotypes and put them into one movie to denegrate ISlam.
I used Monty Python as an example of using stereotypes and mentioned them as a reply to an earlier statement that no one uses stereotypes to make fun anymore.
But, yes. I agree with you. He did denigrate Islam. He intended to insult them.
Its a free world. You can do that. I’m not approving of his movie. I’m defending his right to make it. Just as I defend the rights of Muslims on Youtube to say insulting and inflammatory statements. The way to defeat opposing speech is with MORE SPEECH.
Has anyone asked WHY he made it?
Apparently the director is a coptic christian from Egypt.
@Elena
Nice of the guy to try to blame Israel.
I also heard he has been in trouble for running a meth lab and for financial malfeasance.
@Cargosquid
So you are saying that anyone has the right to come to the United States and do whatever it is that they want, regardless of consequences.
Are you that generous with illegal immigrants from Latino countries?
I absolutely don’t think Mr. Copic Chrisitan has the right to do any of those things. Let him go back to Egypt to strut his stuff. He would be on a plane before the sun sets in the west if I were king.
I’m that generous with all law-abiding people that come to this country. Apparently this guy is a citizen. Consequences? So people commit crimes due to a video instead of being civilized…and HE’S the one that should be penalized?
Since I have expressed opinions that these fanatics would find objectionable, where should I go? I too am a citizen. My people, too, have been killed by Muslims because of their religious beliefs.
I believe that he is a possible criminal for OTHER actions, but not free speech. Again, his content is reprehensible. But so is a lot of speech, some that I hear from supposedly good people. Where do you draw the line? who decides? Me? You? Maxine Waters?
If he is so offensive, let the Muslims take him to court. That’s fair. That’s the right thing to do. PROVE that he went over the line.
Why do you think he is a citizen? I read that he is an Egyptian. Citizenship can be removed from naturalized citizens. Let him and his meth lab go set up in Egypt.
When were your people killed by Muslims? During the Crusades?
If you want to go die for this douche bag free speech, have at it. I pity your family. Too bad you are would chose such a stupid cause to die for. I wish the 4 men at the consulate in Libya had had choices.
Sadly, unless I miss my guess, you would deport the valedictorian if she or he were from Mexico and the child of illegal immigrants. Please tell me I am wrong.
Seriously, is this the face of Conservative America?
Stop hate crimes!!
* Unless they are directed at Chrsitians.
Really, this movie set them off? Not just us being the infidels and having women in our country with rights? Hell, if they want to kill us for that piece of crap movie wait till they see Sex In The City 2..
“When were your people killed by Muslims? During the Crusades?”
1979, Iran
1982-1991 Terry Anderson and others
1983 Lebanon 263 killed, including 241 Marines
1984 Lebanon 4 Americans killed
1985 Achille Lauro, Rome and Vienna airports
1985 TWA 847 SW2 Robert Stethem
1986 TWA 840, Berlin Night club
1988 Lockerbie
1993 First World Trade Center Bombing
1995 car bomb Saudi Arabia
1996 Khobar Towers
October 12, 2000 Yemen USS Cole
2001 9/11
I stopped there because after that, we are at war.
Those are my people. And those are just the Americans. I consider ANY person killed by terrorists to be “my people.” World wide there have been over 19000 attacks since 9/11 by Islamic terrorists. I swore an oath to defend this country against enemies, foreign and domestic. That oath is still binding.
I would defend his right to free speech because MY free speech may need to be defended. I fight for the principles in the Constitution. Its not ONLY HIS right. Its everybody’s rights. And again, those savages are attacking because they hate us and it was 9/11. The film is a PRETEXT. The Libyan attack seems to be more and more likely to be a revenge attack. Muslims are already calling for making any criticism of Islam illegal, internationally. Its a “hate crime,” they say. We can’t set a precedent. What will we give up the NEXT TIME they find something to be offended about? They are perpetually offended.
I thought you meant personal family members. Hell, take it back to the crusades then.
Are you willing to pile on with Germans, japanese, Italians, Koreans, Viet cong and and yes, Yankees?
At what point do you let it go?
Why do you let them tweak you this much? I saw some AH in the street on one of tomorrow’s videos. He is an AH. There are always going to be AHs. I can’t respond to each one.
The Libyan attack was probably Al Qaeda.
You aren’t the only person who is entitled to outrage. I am outraged that some 1 term governor called my president a disgrace while he was responding to a crisis in the middle east. I am effen furious over it….more so than I was at that dirt bag who threw a shoe at my president.
I resent you extending American rights to foreigners that abuse our rights. i have seen no documentation that the filmmaker fool was an American. It doesn’t matter who he is/was. He got off on insulting and they are getting off by making everyone else pay. Why would someone be called an Egptian if they are an American? I mean which is it? If he is naturalized, then he can be stripped of his citizenship also. Lets do it for having a meth house. If he is a foreign national then his visa can be yanked. Let’s do that too.
Do you really think that the rank and file person on the street isn’t out there defending Mohammad’s honor? Of course they are. Its the rank and file who are causing the problem at the moment…not those who might be orchestrating for alterior motives.
I wouldn’t be surprised if all the film protestors weren’t a distraction and a cover for something bigger coming our way. So pretext all you want. Its out there and it is inspiring a lot of people who don’t know any better to get up out of bed and go throw rocks and burn flags. And provide decoy cover for something else….they just don’t know it.
“I resent you extending American rights to foreigners that abuse our rights.”
So, please extend that to EVERYONE that does that. Oh, wait…about those illegal aliens that you threw at me to deflect……
And so far, everything points to him being a citizen.
If they were still killing Americans…YEP. I’d pile on. I never said that I was the only one entitled. Have I said anything to say that you shouldn’t be outraged?
The rank and file THAT ATTACK US are the problem. Protests are fine. Attacks should be dealt with.
And the protestors ARE part of political power plays and cover for other attacks.
THAT’S MY POINT.
When Benedict became pope, our very own Manassas Journal-Messenger published a very poorly-drawn likeness of him covered in tacky and outrageous finery, complete with hooked nose and some unbelievably inappropriate caption. Our so-called “community newspaper” defended their right to free speech, and people who complained were basically told by the paper to shut up about it. Fine, they have a right to insult a large portion of the local community, and I have a right to cancel my subscription, which I did immediately.
Funny, I don’t remember a single Catholic burning anything or killing anyone over that hugely provocative insult.
The head of my church has been portrayed as a man-hating lesbian who is smiling down on drag queens. Am I insulted? No. I understand there are people who will not like her. She has made some controversail decisions–some so drastic that there is now a schism.
Why would I want kill anyone? It is what it is. I didn’t even want to kill anyone. I am certainly not comparing myself to some radical fundamentalist Muslim group. Emma, I don’t see why anyone would think you would/should want to kill anyone.
I guess I aam saying, I don’t compare myself or my religion to any fundamentalist muslim group (or Christian group eithr for that matter) I think any time you are dealing with zealots, regardless of “flavor,”you get unpredictable behavior.
Speaking of cong=troversial:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_Jefferts_Schori
Actually, given the director was on a very stringent probation, one that speficially said he could not use any alias, he may very well have violated his parole. He spend 21 months in federal prison on fraud charges.
Why is ANYONE trying to defend this DB? Furthermore, don’t we teach our children two wrongs don’t make a right? Why do people have to bring up “well, they did it to me too” as form of defense for ANY horrible behavior.
No one is defending him, at least as far as the content of his lousy and insulting video. What I see being defended here is the First Amendment, and discomfort with a government official calling a private citizen to express concerns about certain “speech”. Someone said here earlier that they felt that was “chilling.” I wholeheartedly agree. In the same way, I’d like to see someone beat the crap out of the Westboros and shut them the hell up–I just don’t want it to be the government.
I saw the video. It was stupid, incoherent and amateurish beyond belief. But I guess I’m in that small minority who found the agonizing video of Daniel Pearl’s beheading to be a lot more shocking and objectionable than this very weak, poor pretense for killing Americans. I wish more people would remember that video, and realize exactly what kind of people we are dealing with.
I am not sure we are dealing with the same kind of people. Just because they look like arabs doen’t mean they are motivated by the same issues.
I don’t think any of the amendments are without limits. Let’s discuss the first. Did your parents ever talk about the restrictions they were under during WWII? We were at war and individuals had to tie a knot in it for the good of everyone. I see nothing wrong with that when there is a security need.
Daniel Pearl’s beheading has nothing to do with a film made to insult and ridicule. Daniel Pearl’s beheading was evil and with intent to shock and bring a nation to its knees for a few moments. I refused to look just like I refused to watch that George Bush movie during his presidency. I find it insulting to imply that no one else was bothered by it.
Perhaps equally difficult to take was the night, many years ago, that our POWs were released and brought home. Some of those men were so beaten down. Animals don’t just live in the middle east. John McCain was in one of those first waves of men.