There is no doubt about it. Muslims are enraged (too toned down a word) about the cartoons (you know the ones), as they should be.
And the issue is blown way out of proportion (which was expected), with people, intellectuals, mobs and parasites, from both ends, banking on the situation, building on the insecurities, concerns and prejudices, which some of us - hey, we could be carried away with our optimism at times - thought would be mend by education, understanding and tolerance.
Hehe .. try explaining these words to the mob. Oh no! An angry bull sees only red, the colour of blood and the sweet agony of martyrdom. Who said bulls were colour blind and that they get agitated by movement. Must have read that somewhere long ago, but I, like many, read a lot, and never sit back to seep in all the verbal diarrhea out there. But there is time for this later.
Why is the mob so angry? The cartoons. Yes. And some other things as well...including internal affairs, a feeling of great helplessness at the international wave threatening their ago-old traditions and way of life - the life Allah had decreed upon them and us, and of course, the lack of a voice in international affairs.
Remember we (well most of us except the notorious Bin Laden and his sleezy niece) have always been spectators, with internal and external bombarding us daily and literally shaping our destiny.
And now we get the chance to get angry and angry are we, mostly at the Danish cows and cheese. Papers in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, New Zealand and even Jordan published the cartoons, but we still didn't have the stomach to ban Ferraris, Chanel, Dior, Mercedes, Zara, Armani and all the sheep which make their way to the Arab and Islamic world from New Zealand.
Talk about a lactose senstive nation!
5 February 2006
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3 comments:
Hey, I'm from New Zealand. Two newspapers from here published the pictures, and one major paper refused to and published their (very good) reasons not to. That's freedom of the press for you, I guess.
The two that did publish the pictures said they did it because they were reporting on the issue and needed to show the cartoons. I understand that a bit better than deliberately publishing the cartoons with an intent to offend. The NZ papers certainly did not mean to offend. The Muslim reaction to it here has been quite subdued, so I think they understand that.
I still agree with the paper that refused to publish the cartoons, although at the same time I wanted to know what they were so I could see what the fuss was about and if it was justified. But I, and most of the other New Zealanders I know think they should not have been published here, all the same. Part of living in a multicultural society is having tolerance. I think the Muslim community here is showing a lot of tolerance, but the papers didn't show very much at all when they published the cartoons.
To be honest I don't understand the incredible overreaction to the cartoons.
Whatever the reason for the cartoons, there is a lot of concern over the violence and killing that has occurred.
Incidentally, why now? Why was there no protest in September when they were published?
The future is sunny (thanks to global warming) and silly (thanks to the world's exploding population)!
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