Only a Canuck could find a reason to "blame America"

Prophet Muhammad overlooking justice in
Washington DC Supreme Court since 1930s
By Judi McLeod, Canadian Free Press

Did a 1997 U.S. Supreme Court rejection of a petition from domestic Muslims to remove a then 66-year-old depiction of the Prophet Muhammad from its Washington, DC courtroom pave the way for Muslim violent protest over the Jyllands-Posten cartoons?

Riots broke out half way around the world in 1997 when Chief Justice William Rehnquist refused to remove the portion of a marble frieze representing the Prophet Muhammad.

Canadian "Free" Press.... almost an oxymoron, that one. Trust a Canuck to ferret a way to blame America - tracking the Mohammad cartoon/image hoopla back in time merely to imply that the current events are a result of an American action.

Another take on the same story is the more sane writings by Jocelyne Zablit, Washington correspondent for the Middle East Online. Ms. Zablit notes that "some" Muslim American leaders are concerned over the image of Muhammad in the Supreme Court, but in no way equate them to the demeaning cartoons published in the Danish press.

This, of course, is quite a stark contrast to the suggested "blame America... they did it first" tone to the Canuck's article in the not-so-free-Canadian-Free-Press.

Perhaps Ms. McLeod needs a reminder that the 1997 demonstrations didn't result in deaths, and were no where near as wide spread. Why? Perhaps for the same reason there were no violent riots when the cartoons were published back in September. Because there was no Muslim Islamo-facist engineering the protests as a war/fear strategic step. And I dare say, the depiction of Muhammad on the court walls probably wouldn't muster any terrorist recruits not already in line for their personalized bomb belt.

This credible notion that the delayed response to the cartoons is nothing more than another ploy in the Islamo-fascist anti-WOT is further explored in the no-byline article in the Morning Sydney Herald, "Acceptance of their intolerance - it's all part of radical Islam's plan". It is a scathing attack on the "feeble" response of the western world to the obviously uncivilized and intolerant behavior of violent Muslims, perhaps seeking their own part in a jihad.

The institutionalised weakness of the West is epitomised by its reaction to the riots over the cartoons: the apologies from governments, the sacking of an editor in France, the ready acceptance by newspapers of a limit to free speech, despite the fact the cartoons are so tame by the standards of Western satire. Two of the cartoons are comments on the "reactionary provocateurs" at Denmark's Jyllands-Posten who had commissioned the cartoons.

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But while we accommodate the intolerant, we seem ever more determined to ferret out any whiff of intolerance in ourselves. Witness the calls this week by a Victorian teachers union for cultural re-education of children after a survey of 551 high school students found a majority had negative attitudes towards Muslims.

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But while we accommodate the intolerant, we seem ever more determined to ferret out any whiff of intolerance in ourselves. Witness the calls this week by a Victorian teachers union for cultural re-education of children after a survey of 551 high school students found a majority had negative attitudes towards Muslims.

This well articulated commentary points out what so many citizens have been educated as the "norm" in the US ... that political correctness and acquiescence to the "offended" is cure all.

Apparently not....

Naturally, I could not wait to read any to be published reaction from one of my favorites, Irshad Manji. Her column in Haaretz today, "Impure Islam", aptly demonstrates the obvious dichotomy of Muslims demanding tolerance when reciprocating with none, echoing the tone of the MSH excerpt above.

At the World Economic Forum in January, I observed something revealing. In a session about the U.S. religious right, a cartoonist satirized one of America's most influential Christian ministers, Pat Robertson. In the audience, chuckling with the rest of us, was a prominent British Muslim. But his smile disappeared the moment we were shown a cartoon that made fun of Muslim clerics.
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Muslims have little integrity demanding respect for our faith if they don't show it for others. When have we demonstrated against Saudi Arabia's policy to prevent Christians and Jews from stepping on the soil of Mecca? They may come for rare business trips, but nothing more. As long as Rome welcomes non-Christians and Jerusalem embraces non-Jews, we Muslims have more to protest than cartoons.

None of this is to dismiss the need to take my religion seriously. Hell, Muslims even take seriously the need to be serious: Islam has a teaching against "excessive laughter." I'm not joking. But does this mean that we should cry "blasphemy" over less-than-flattering depictions of the Prophet Muhammad? God no.

In the case of hypersensitive Muslims - and mind you, I found the cartoons tasteless... but then I find most of the NYTs press coverage of just about anything tasteless too - a lack of condemnation and active reining in of violence by the peaceful Muslims and Euro-State gov'ts in response to a free press decision is a dangerous PC attitude. One that ultimately will only take us a step closer to a Muslim caliphate taking hold in the belly of Europe.

That said, I couldn't help peppering the "intolerance" of fanatical Islam by the below cartoon. And a HT to TrekMedic for the grin.