.god.voor.dommen

An interesting piece appeared in a Dubai on line newspaper yesterday. It was written by Aijaz Zaka Syed. This is the same Aijaz Zaka Syed who, in 2007, was awarded ‘the Lorenzo Natali Journalism Prize for the Middle East’ by the European Union. Back then, he commented on the humanitarian situation in Sudan’s Darfur region and especially on how the Arab and Muslim countries should play a more active role in ending the conflict.

Yesterday he thought it wise to share his opinion with us on the events surrounding the Danish cartoons and, of course, Geert Wilders’ upcoming movie. And an interesting piece it is, showing exactly where the boundary lies when it comes to Western morals versus Islamic morals.

Giving voice to the fury of their people, Muslim leaders and heads of states have protested against the growing Islam-bashing in the West warning of “serious implications for global peace and security”. The warning articulates the outrage over the republication of the Prophet’s caricature by 17 Danish newspapers and the film attacking the Holy Quran by a Dutch lawmaker.

Because isn’t this exactly the point we make such a big fuzz about in the West? Is it really sensible to go around and threaten countries and people with violence because of a silly cartoon you can choose to disregard? Is it really a good thing for religious leaders and heads of states to go around and implicitly – and mostly actively – approve of burning flags and embassies? Of course it is not. But this doesn’t seem to bother these kind of Muslims, does it? Everything goes when the quran or the prophet ‘has been insulted’. If you won’t show the necessary ‘respect’ by shutting up and obey the wishes of the Muslim community, all consequences are on your head.

When the Jyllands-Posten first published that despicable caricature three years ago, our friends in the West had explained it as a necessary phenomenon of a free Press. So even as the agitated believers around the world came out on the streets burning Danish flags, the West shrugged off the protests as something of a minor nuisance. More than a hundred innocents died in those protests that rocked the world from Morocco to Malaysia as well as Europe and the West.

The same is true for the killings that took place amongst their own people. Killings that would not have happened if they had taken a more sensible view on the matter of a couple of simple cartoons. The writer seems to deem it perfectly reasonable that people do violent things because of a couple of pencil strikes. And above all every casualty of these riots is on the head of the cartoonist. Not on the heads of the muslim leaders and heads of states who called for this idiotic reaction in the first place. They are protecting their own when it comes to shifting the blame, whilst ignoring the actual damage being done to embassies and foreigners.

But the Western establishment went to great lengths to defend the Jyllands-Posten’s freedom – the freedom to mock other people’s beliefs and sensitivities. And in a classic case of adding insult to injury, 17 Danish dailies and several other publications across Europe have now reproduced the caricature. Why? Apparently to express ‘solidarity’ with the Jyllands-Posten that is allegedly facing threats from ‘the Islamic terrorists’.

Which is exactly what you can see the writer do here. The ‘alleged threats’? Is this man insane? Is he one of those people who also talks about the ‘alleged’ holocaust? Isn’t it convenient to deny the threats to the artists life and to overstate the consequences of his work?

What’s going on people? What’s it that the West is trying to prove? Why does Islam repeatedly become the target of the Western freedom? And why are its own religious icons spared this creative licence? Is it because Denmark’s laws and those of other European states strictly prohibit any attack on Christian beliefs and icons?

I’ll tell you what’s going on. The reason muslims think their religion is continuously being mocked is because they are bare faced liars. Our ‘own’ religious icons have been the continuous targets of attack over the last centuries. There is no such thing as organized muslim ranting. When muslims decided that ‘the West’ was a nice place to live and practice their believe, they put themselves in the same position our ‘own’ religions have been for ages, they just didn’t realize it. You have the freedom to practice it, as long as everyone else has the freedom to question it. Mocking religion is, as luck would have it, nothing more then questioning its foundations. There is no mocking. Mocking is how an uneducated and undeveloped individual would characterize it – or a believer, for that matter.

While Islam and Muslims are the world’s favourite punching bag, you could be imprisoned for so much as questioning the Jewish Holocaust. If this isn’t a case of double standards, what is? And what’s the difference between these newspapers and some of those misguided young men targeting the West? Those behind the 9/11 and 7/7 strikes were also driven by their sense of solidarity – however misplaced – with fellow believers. Why were those people then called terrorists and those applying the same logic are being lionized as the defenders of the freedom?

There you have it. The alleged holocaust. I feel no need to enlighten this person about the massive quantities of evidence that show us the truth about this massive genocide whilst at the same time i do feel the need to enlighten him about this evidence lacking when it comes to his religion being true and factual. I also seem to have to educate this godfearing and respect demanding muslim that the big difference between people who kill thousands of others and a person that draws a picture of an alleged prophet is this: Religion kills, criticism doesn’t. I can’t help but noticing the fact that the writer seems to empathize to a great extent with these terrorists his religion brought forth. Which is, of course, perfectly understandable. They were muslims after all, were they not?

But the West knows as well as we do that this has nothing to do with the freedom of speech. There is something really rotten in the state of Denmark, as Shakespeare put it. In fact, this is not confined to Denmark. This sickness pervades the whole of Europe and the Western world. While there has always been deep-seated animosity and hatred against all things Islamic in the West, of late this is acquiring alarming proportions. More worryingly, these are not isolated incidents of some fanatics going berserk. There’s a clear method in the madness. From the Jyllands-Posten cartoon to the numerous books and movies targeting the Prophet, Islam and Holy Quran, just about everything we believe in seems to be fair game.

Indeed. Everything people believe in without evidence is fair game to criticize. If not by a cartoon, a movie would certainly do. The point of interest here is that these people seem so obsessed by their prophet and their religion that they cannot see that this criticism is not limited to their faith only. As i said earlier, all faiths are fair game in ‘the West’. This is not even restricted to religious faiths. Everything people assume to be true without being able to provide the necessary evidence is justly subjected to questioning. Be it by a short film or a cartoon, the point is that it is not restricted to Muhammad, the quran or the islam and a further point is that non-violence cannot be countered by violence while being called just.

Right now, at least two films attacking the Book are ready for release. Despite angry protests from Muslim countries, Dutch MP Geert Wilders is going ahead with his movie on Quran. In the past, Wilders has demanded a ban on the Holy Book likening it to Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

I have to agree here. Books should not, and never be, banned. Neither the quran, nor Mein Kampf should be kept from the publics eye. Ignoring historical fact, however, should be unlawful. The holocaust is a fact and should not be called alleged.

The movie is not the first of its kind. Another film, Submission, by another Dutch filmmaker, Van Gogh, featured Quranic verses against a naked female body. The film was supposed to be a protest against the ‘mistreatment’ of Muslim women. It touched off a storm of protests across the Islamic world. Yet no lessons were drawn from the episode. Not even after Van Gogh was assassinated by an agitated young Moroccan immigrant.

Ah, yes, the poor young Moroccan immigrant. Pushed to the limit by the blasphemous Western society. Targeting only islam whilst kneeling for its own religious icons and demanding respect for them from everyone and every country in the world. The truth is, yet again, very different. A movie such as submission can never be a justified cause for murder. It is exactly this medieval moral – sprinkled with the putrefied odor of religious madness – from people like this young Moroccan immigrant that moves people to take to the streets and start burning flags and embassies. This is not a moral mistake on our side. It’s a moral mistake on your side, dear writer. You do not, ever, in any case, murder a person because his opinion doesn’t suit you. EVER. Why don’t you start by learning this simple rule we non-believers like to call ‘the golden rule’? You will find that life is much nicer when you need not fear for you life when venting your opinion. But, wait. This is not what islam teaches at all, is it?

And now we have another film targeting the Book. Can you then blame ordinary Muslims if they see a grand, never-ending conspiracy against their faith? Yet our friends in the West turn around and ask: “Why do they hate us?” Well, this is why they hate you! When will the West wake up to the fact that it is its utter contempt for everything they revere that infuriates ordinary Muslims? How many innocents have to die before the European governments decide to rein in the sickos who have made a career out of their pathological hatred for Islam and Muslims?

I speak for myself when i say that i do not hate. Hate takes time and consumes resources and it never amounts to anything but casualties. Hate is for the religious who are well known for not trying to come to an agreement by means of discussion, but who seek total dominance by means of violence. There is no hate against islam. There is a healthy criticism towards religions who find it totally acceptable to follow the horrid teachings of iron age societies and alleged prophets without questioning. The same holds true for our own silly religious people, calling themselves Christians. They have learned to put up or shut up. You will learn too.

And what will it take to convince the liberated, anything-goes West that it really hurts us when you target the Man who we love more than our own parents and children?

It will take nothing less then a miracle to convince any of us to accept this ridiculous premise of loving a dead prophet above your parents and children – what about your wives?

This is particularly unfair to a Prophet who repeatedly taught his followers to respect other people’s beliefs. He warned us you are not a believer if you do not respect and believe in the messengers of God – including Moses and Jesus – who came before him. Which is why it’s such a shame that the West should tolerate these disgraceful attacks on Islam and its Prophet.

Your prophet means nothing to me. Respect that. Just as Jesus and Moses mean nothing to me. If you would like to change this, then convince me with your words. If you kill me, i will die unconvinced. But that doesn’t really matter to you, does it? You do not want to convince anyone, you want ‘the truth of your faith’ to be evident from the lack of criticism. Therefore, you wish to eradicate criticism. Whether the criticism is just or not.

But this has gone far enough. It’s time the Western governments are told in unambiguous terms that this vicious campaign against Islam must stop and stop right away. Not because it really hurts the Muslims everywhere, which it does, but because it is not in the West’s interest. Successive generations of young Muslims are growing up loathing the West for this pathological campaign against their faith.

In other words: the West is responsible for any actions taken against it. Be it violence, be it protesting or be it – yes, he means business – economical sanctions:

Apart from the historical Western doublespeak and double-dealing in the Middle East, it is the endless demonisation of Islam and Muslims that is fuelling the clash that Samuel Huntington promised us. It’s about time the West got this message – loud and clear – from the Muslim states that Islam-bashing is JUST NOT ACCEPTABLE. And this should be done by going beyond those regulation OIC, UN and Arab League resolutions. It’s time for more meaningful and concrete steps. Just stop doing business with countries like Denmark and the Netherlands. That will teach them the lesson they refuse to learn, hitting ‘em where it hurts the most. And there will be quick results — quicker than you could say Jyllands-Posten.

What does this pathetic excuse for a muslim think he can establish by calling for this kind of action? Does he not show his hidden agenda here? Has he no shame when he gleefully admits that he only wants the criticism to stop? No matter what? Does he not show, i put it to you, that he does not care about the right of others to think and speak about the alleged truth of his religion? He demands the right to do whatever he pleases in the name of his silly god. And if violence and terrorism and murder do not do the job, then economic sanctions are all that he is left with. The West is making progress! They have learned that violence will get them nowhere and now they try to employ a different tactic.

How did Samuel Jackson put it in Pulp Fiction – ever seen it? – again? Ah yes: I dare you. I double dare you, motherfucker. ANY losses the West has to put up with because of you stopping buying tulips and cheese is made up in tenfold by stopping humanitarian aid to your alleged civilized corner of this planet.

Via: GeenStijl, met excuses voor het matige Engels.

Tags: Column, moslims