Mocking, Agitation and Religious Persecution

As predicted in the Holy Scriptures the world would see a time when a war would start in the land of the two rivers ( Euphrates and Tigris = know Iran and Iraq). Then children would stand up against their own parents and religions would go and fight against other religions. It are all things we can see today.

Muslims are not only fighting Christians. Hindus also get their share, already for a much longer time than Christians.

But since 9/11 a Muslimphobia has taken over the West and certain extreme organisations do like to put oil on the fire. Cartoons and other media stunts are attiring attention and generating lots of income for some, but lots of trouble for others. Those instigators are often not aware what their stupidities cause.

Controversial cartoons of Muhammad, first published in Jyllands-Posten in September 2005. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jyllands Posten published in 2005 stupid cartoons, the fanatic preacher Terry Jones, without any sense of his actions, burned what he should know to be a sacred book. Later more Koran burners wanted to come into the news and got others in the world more agitated.

The Onion humor website published a cartoon under the heading, “No One Murdered Because of This Image.” It shows Moses, Jesus, Ganesha, and Buddha in the clouds, engaged in what the caption delicately understates as “a lascivious sex act of considerable depravity.” As the Onion mock-reportingly but accurately goes on, “Though some members of the Jewish, Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist faiths were reportedly offended by the image, sources confirmed that upon seeing it, they simply shook their heads, rolled their eyes, and continued on with their day.”

Muslim cleric Abu Islam Burns the Holy Bible in front of thousands of Muslims at protest outside the US Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, on Tuesday, 2012/9/11. His action was met with applause and anti-Christian cheers from the demonstrators. Though in an interview the 16th of September with The Mohit newspaper, Abu Islam denied burning the Bible, saying, “I tore it apart and threw it to the demonstrators to step on it with their shoes.” He added, “Next time I will make my grandson urinate on it, as the saying goes, an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth and the starter is at fault.”

Violent demonstrations in Pakistan left at least 17 people dead and hundreds injured on Friday as fresh protests erupted across the Muslim world against a US-made film and French cartoons mocking Islam.

The French government, which had urged the magazine not to print the images had to shut down premises, including embassies and schools in 20 countries on Friday the 21st for the , protests after Muslim prayers.

Charlie Hebdo – charlie-hebdo-p11.jpg (Photo credit: Abode of Chaos)

Riot police were deployed to protect the Paris offices of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo after it hit the news stands with a cover showing an Orthodox Jew pushing the turbaned figure of Muhammad in a wheelchair. On the inside pages, several caricatures of the Prophet showed him naked.

In Middle Eastern and Asian countries tens of thousands took to the streets after the main weekly prayers to vent their anger, with little sign that the angry protests, which began last week, would abate.
Western missions were shut across the Islamic world, fearing a further escalation of the backlash over the low-budget film “Innocence of Muslims” that has spread across the world.

In Belgium the stupid film, which would have been left in the obscure when nobody would have made such an upheaval about it, and cartoons, got the extreme Muslims mocking with Jesus (‘Isha), though they seem to forget that it is also their prophet and that they also should recognise the Injil or New testament.

Sharia4Belgium in reaction on the cartoons about the prophet Muhammed wanted to play with the same weapons and offered as retort cartoons with Jesus in bikini and with Jesus with his personal armoury in the backside of an other man bend headlong but seemingly enjoying the satisfaction, this in response to the bearded figure crouching over to display naked buttocks and genitals, a star covering his anus in the French cartoons.

It are just little children wanting to shown the others, what you can do I can do better.

You could wonder what the Californian wanted to get with his so called ‘satirized picture of prophet Muhammad as a lecher. Did he want certain extreme groups give more weapons to get the fire burning harder? Or was he just so stupid he did not have an idea what this ridiculous amateur video could do in the world of modern media?

Naturally more than one group was going to make good use of such an occasion and use the amateur video as a pretext to oppose American influence in the Middle East.

Essam Erian, acting head of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, told Reuters: “We reject and condemn the French cartoons that dishonor the Prophet and we condemn any action that defames the sacred according to people’s beliefs.”

Calling for a UN treaty against insulting religion, he added: “We condemn violence and say that peaceful protests are a right for everyone. I hope there will be a popular western and French reaction condemning this.”

Muslim and Jewish guys in this French cartoon say: “You must not mock us!”

Charlie Hebdo editor Stephane Charbonnier said: “We have the impression that it’s officially allowed for Charlie Hebdo to attack the Catholic far-right but we cannot poke fun at fundamental Islamists.” and continued: “It shows the climate — everyone is driven by fear, and that is exactly what this small handful of extremists who do not represent anyone, want — to make everyone afraid, to shut us all in a cave.”

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius criticized the magazine’s move as a provocation.

“We saw what happened last week in Libya and in other countries such as Afghanistan,” Fabius told a regular government news conference. “We have to call on all to behave responsibly.”

Speaking at a September 21 news conference in the Mediterranean port of Marseille–France’s second largest city, known for its large immigrant population and proximity to bases of support for the fascist National Front, a leading source of vile Islamophobic rhetoric– Manuel Valls, a leading member of the Socialist Party, made it clear that attempts to violate the ban would be met with force: “Demonstrations will be banned and broken up,” he told reporters.

To intimidate any would-be violators, riot police were deployed over the weekend in big cities like Paris, where they detained several dozen people over two days, according to reports. Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada cited French news reports reporting that some of the detained were Muslim women who were “guilty” of nothing more than wearing headscarves.

French officials justified the ban as necessary to prevent unrest in the aftermath of worldwide demonstrations against the U.S.-made, anti-Islam propaganda film The Innocence of Muslims. Those demonstrations mainly targeted U.S. embassy buildings and other symbols of Western power in countries with large Muslim populations.

In an article, the The Wall Street Journal noted that the recent unrest in the Muslim world had shown that words could wreak havoc when spoken by the powerful as incitement to violence.

“In the debate over Islam’s soul, Mr Najib’s counsel of responding to provocation with peaceful protest is welcome,” said the opinion piece.

While Charlie Hebdo may not have broken French law in publishing the caricatures they for sure have crossed the line of decency. They also should have known the consequences of putting oil on the fire in this turbulent time of  civil war in the Arabic countries and giving those in charge over-there something in their hand to get the people again to feel united with their brotherhood of Islam.

All parties should look in their soul and question what their prophets wanted them to do. They all should question how they best can react or ignore those unethical actions of certain organisations or firms who seem to have a lucrative business in this religious dispute.

All over the world, Christians are persecuted for their faith. The murder of Coptic Christians in Egypt and the protests of radical Muslims against the appointment of a Christian Governor of an Egyptian province are recent examples of that oppression.

Native Christian Iraqis, in a nation where Obama still has American troops, have fled their ancestral homeland in droves to escape the brutal persecution of Muslims and the “blessings” of democracy without individual rights. Christians in China are arrested, their Bibles confiscated, and their churches ransacked — all for the state offence of practising their faith as they wish. In fact, no communist regime allows the free practice of religion.

Nations such as India, with an unmerited reputation for tolerance, allows attacks on Christians as brutal as anything seen in the Islamic world — almost especially upon those Dalits, or “untouchables,” who have converted to Christianity.

In the midst of growing anti-American rhetoric and rioting sweeping through the Muslim world Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi made it clear that his nation is not an outpost of American civilization, and has not any intention to be such. He suggested that Egypt would not be hostile to the West, but would not be as compliant as Mr. Mubarak either. but he is willing to envision the two nations as “real friends.”

In the aftermath of attacks on American embassies in several nations and at a moment when the Egyptian government was perceived to have been slow to protect the U.S. embassy in Cairo Obama told a Spanish-language network this month that the United States did not consider Egypt’s Islamist government either an ally or an enemy.

President Obama promised to continue supporting the jihadist rebellion with U.S. taxpayer funds until the Syrian regime surrenders. At the same time United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon called for an end to arms shipments to both sides in Syria’s brutal war between Western-backed rebels and the Bashir al-Assad dictatorship before the conflict spirals out of control.

Ban Ki-moon also said “The international community should not look the other way as violence spirals out of control,” calling on the UN Security Council to take action in the Syrian conflict. “We must stop the violence and flows of arms to both sides, and set in motion a Syrian-led transition as soon as possible.”

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who told American reporters that he wanted a “new world order” without U.S. government “bullying,” had a different proposal for dealing with the Syrian conflict. He suggested the formation of a “contact group” of 10 or 11 governments to help mediate a peace deal acceptable to all sides. “I will do everything in my power to create stability, peace and understanding in Syria,” he was quoted as saying.

But at the UN meeting nowhere something was said in front of the cameras, to take measures to get the dispute between Muslims and Christians under control.

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Statement by Secretary Clinton on the Attack in Benghazi

Press Statement
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
September 11, 2012

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I condemn in the strongest terms the attack on our mission in Benghazi today.  As we work to secure our personnel and facilities, we have confirmed that one of our State Department officers was killed.  We are heartbroken by this terrible loss.  Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and those who have suffered in this attack.

This evening, I called Libyan President Magariaf to coordinate additional support to protect Americans in Libya.  President Magariaf expressed his condemnation and condolences and pledged his government’s full cooperation.

Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet.  The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others.  Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation.  But let me be clear:  There is never any justification for violent acts of this kind.

In light of the events of today, the United States government is working with partner countries around the world to protect our personnel, our missions, and American citizens worldwide.

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Please do also find:

The Cartoons That Shook the World

The Danish Cartoon Crisis of 2005 and 2006: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About the Original Muhammad Controversy

With thousands taking to the streets in protest after a YouTube video mocked Muhammad, many pundits are comparing the situation to the mother of all Muslim controversies: the so-called Muhammad Cartoon Crisis of 2005 and 2006, which exploded after Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published a dozen cartoons under the headline “The Face of Muhammad.”

Hundreds of thousands of people protested the cartoons, leaving nearly 250 dead and 800 or so wounded. The new uproar over the “Innocence of Muslims” video — in which protests have left scores dead and relations shaky between the West and the Islamic world — is occurring almost exactly seven years after the old one.

“The Face of Muhammad,”

Offensive Speech and Hate Speech

Muslim cleric Abu Islam Burns the Holy Bible

French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo published a new Muhammad cartoon

France shuts down schools and embassies in over 20 countries over Mohammad pictures

Burning down embassies to get a basic respect for our religions?

17 dead in fresh film protests across Muslim world

Wall Street Journal praises Najib over stance on anti-Islam film, cartoons

Grumpy old man: Looking for trouble

Blaming the Muslim victims in France
contrary to Valls’ claims, it is Charlie Hebdo, and not the Muslims the magazine sought to provoke, that is guilty of “incitement to hatred.” Emphasizing the racism that underlay the decision to print the cartoons, one editor declared: “We’re a newspaper that respects French law. Now, if there’s a law that is different in Kabul or Riyadh, we’re not going to bother ourselves with respecting it.”
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Ignoring the racist police harassment that touched off the riot, Valls denounced residents and quickly found himself the object of jostling and catcalls by locals furious with his refusal to recognize their grievances. For his part, President Hollande used the opportunity to announce: “Our priority is security, which means that the next budget will include additional resources for the gendarmerie and the police.”
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All too often, self-described leftists in France, like those at Charlie Hebdo, have promoted reactionary and bigoted conceptions of Muslims. But recent events should further clarify the meaning of controversies like the current one. Fights like this have nothing to do with free speech or atheism–rather, the key question that must be confronted is the racism that plagues French society and serves to divide workers of European descent from their non-European sister and brothers.

Egyptian President: U.S. Not Our Ally

Obama’s U.N. Speech Hits and Misses the Mark

In President Obama’s speech at the United Nations yesterday, he sent a message to the Islamic world: We, like you, fear the critics of Islam. Though he stood against the Islamic blasphemy laws that punish real and imagined insulters of Islam, he reinforced the Islamist narrative that a war on Islam is underway.

“The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam. Yet to be credible, those who condemn that slander must also condemn the hate we see when the image of Jesus Christ is desecrated, churches are destroyed, or the Holocaust is denied. Let us condemn incitement against Sufi Muslims, and Shiite pilgrims,” President Obama said.

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Related articles

• Protests against anti-Islam film hit Muslim states (worldbulletin.net)
  About 10,000 people gathered in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, after Friday prayers to chant anti-U.S. and anti-French slogans.
  World Bulletin / News Desk
  Demonstrators clashed with police in the Pakistani city of Peshawar on Friday as anger over insults to the Prophet Mohammad boiled over despite calls from political and religious leaders across…
• Mocking Muhammad Is Not Hate Speech (jewishpress.com)
  When attacks on Muslims take place, they occur in response to terrorism by Muslims; that’s no excuse, to be sure, but it does indicate that violence against Muslims has no connection with lampooning Muhammad or desecrating Korans. Muslims need to grow thick skins like everyone else; this is one of the by-products of globalization. The insulation of old is gone for good.
• All this Muslim business (vridar.wordpress.com)
  Sam Harris, Jerry Coyne, and no doubt many other atheists have landed especially hard blows against the Muslim religion recently, prompted specifically by the recent wave of deadly protests over the trailer for the film Innocence of Muslims.
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  What has happened, it seems so clear to me, is that the earlier popular political movements among Muslim nations (not only Arabs — Iranians have been key targets, too) have been snuffed out by Western backed dictators. With the demise of socialist movements the void has been filled by religious leaders. Not unlike the replacement of the union and workers’ movements in the United States in the nineteenth century by the churches — the one major remaining meeting and sharing point many people had after the bloody suppression of popular secular political protest by business magnates.
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  Condemning the Muslim religion as worse than the others is not helpful at a time like this. It can only exacerbate the tensions and make it more difficult for the Muslim majority leaders to influence their volatile minorities.This is a critical moment in history for Muslim peoples. In past history Christians have had their critical moments, too — and acted just as murderously. Salem, persecutions, lynch mobs, wars, ethnic cleansings.