Why "Everyone Draw Muhammad Day" Is Nothing But Bullying
I got woken up by some stuff, so I until I get to sleep, I figure this needs saying here.
Regarding a US cartoonist's "Everybody Draw Muhammad Please, Please Link To My Website, I'm So Edgy and Important Oh God Please Make Me Cool Day"
Wow. I'm a UU atheist, and my first, second and thrid thoughts were "Offensiveness for offensiveness' sake? What a a jerk."
I don't think anyone is seriously saying that artists don't understand the difference between editorial decisions and censorship. Human beings should also understand how to be sensitive about the world around them.
Lemme be clear: I support and defend the right of anyone to publicly say racist, obnoxious, or something-I-don't- agree-with things. Freedom of speech blah blah patriotcakes. But while we're talking about cartoons, there was a cartoon wall-crawler who talked about great power and great responsibility. Even if that's the responsibility not to be a flaming asshole to people that don't deserve it.
This day? It's not a thumb in the eye against radical violent fundamentalists, or terrorists. It's not even a wet fart.
What this does is just insult a lot of other Muslims who aren't terrorists. It adds more fuel to a fire of Othering and discrimination and rage that is stoked for...
...for what, actually? Hell if I know. Most people don't really think that terrorists will be seeing it. So if you don't think any terrorists are seeing this, it's more likely that by drawing insulting pictures of the Prophet you're just doing something jerkish to everyday Muslims here in the US. What are you really getting out of it? This isn't sticking it to fundamentalists or terrorists.
Do you know how I like sticking it to the terrorists? What I frigging love seeing in this country, every day, that would piss them off ?
It's not the celebration of my right to harass people from the safety of my computer. Nope, it's seeing women have the right to vote. It's people of all races and creeds interacting togetther. It's kids going to school and learning about positive AND negative aspects of our nation's history.
Also, if you think you're being edgy and cool by drawing this, well... it's not forbidden for non-Muslims to make images of Prophet Mohammed because you aren't bound by the shariat. So, you're just added to the great big steaming pile of stupid.
Especially because the "controversy" you think you're responding to wasn't really there to begin with until it was stirred up by people with thier own agenda. There was an in depth essay that was just released a little while ago available here:
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/article_2010-04-22-malik-en.html
The most relevant bits, I'd say are:
"Far from Islam having always forbidden representations of the Prophet, it was common to portray him until comparatively recently... Even today, few Muslims have a problem in seeing the Prophet's face. Shortly after Jyllands Posten published the cartoons, the Egyptian newspaper Al Fagr reprinted them. They were accompanied by a critical commentary, but Al Fagr did not think it necessary to blank out Mohammad's face, and faced no opprobrium for not doing so. Egypt's religious and political authorities, even as they were demanding an apology from the Danish Prime Minister, raised no objections to Al Fagr's full frontal photos.
So, if there is no universal prohibition to the depiction of Mohammad, why were Muslims universally appalled by the caricatures? They weren't. And those that were, were driven by political zeal rather than theological fervour. The publications of the cartoons in September 2005 caused no immediate reaction, even in Denmark. Only when journalists, disappointed by the lack of controversy, contacted a number of imams for their response, did Islamists begin to recognise the opportunity provided not just by the caricatures themselves but also by the sensitivity of Danish society to their publication."
"Bluh bluh SOUTH PARK!" you blubber? Well it turns out that Revolution Muslim, a group that had been ostracized by every Muslim group in the NYC area they tried to speak at, is very likely a false flag operation.
the whole group that started the supposed south park uproar is just shifty and without credibility. How shifty and without credibility?
"The founder of the group goes by the name of Yousef al-Khattab, but his real name is Joseph Cohen. He was born and raised in the United States as a Jew, and holds both American and Israeli citizenship. In the late eighties, Cohen embraced an ultra-orthodox interpretation of Judaism, and began attending a yeshiva (rabbinical school). In 1998, Cohen hearkened to the Zionist call, and packed up his bags to relocate to the Israeli Occupied Territories where he became an Israeli settler. As an ardent and extreme Zionist, Joseph Cohen fell in with the Jewish fundamentalist group Shas, an extreme right-wing political party that believes in flouting international law based on their religious beliefs. Less than three years later, Cohen “converted” to Islam, moved back to the United States, and founded the most radical Islamic group in the country.
...
[he also]claimed that the Quran commands terrorism, something that no sincere Muslim would ever say (and a claim that is patently false); those are words that an Islamophobe (or extreme Zionist) would agree with, not a Muslim. "
So congratulations! You just fed the trolls!
Seriously, people. Our country has enough anti-Muslim fervor running rampant. For fuck's sake, we live in a country where Dunkin' Donuts pulled an ad campaign because a racist blogger didn't like Rachel Ray's scarf: http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2008/05/24/if-you-wear-a-black-white-scarf-the-terrorists-win/
Don't ADD to it.
Satire is a weapon to be used by those without power against those WITH power. Oftentimes, it's the only weapon a marginalized group has to use.
When the weapon is turned against a minority or marginalized group-- Muslims are in the US ARE--, it not combating anything. It's the stronger picking on the weak. It's bullying. Don't be a bully.
Regarding a US cartoonist's "Everybody Draw Muhammad Please, Please Link To My Website, I'm So Edgy and Important Oh God Please Make Me Cool Day"
Wow. I'm a UU atheist, and my first, second and thrid thoughts were "Offensiveness for offensiveness' sake? What a a jerk."
I don't think anyone is seriously saying that artists don't understand the difference between editorial decisions and censorship. Human beings should also understand how to be sensitive about the world around them.
Lemme be clear: I support and defend the right of anyone to publicly say racist, obnoxious, or something-I-don't- agree-with things. Freedom of speech blah blah patriotcakes. But while we're talking about cartoons, there was a cartoon wall-crawler who talked about great power and great responsibility. Even if that's the responsibility not to be a flaming asshole to people that don't deserve it.
This day? It's not a thumb in the eye against radical violent fundamentalists, or terrorists. It's not even a wet fart.
What this does is just insult a lot of other Muslims who aren't terrorists. It adds more fuel to a fire of Othering and discrimination and rage that is stoked for...
...for what, actually? Hell if I know. Most people don't really think that terrorists will be seeing it. So if you don't think any terrorists are seeing this, it's more likely that by drawing insulting pictures of the Prophet you're just doing something jerkish to everyday Muslims here in the US. What are you really getting out of it? This isn't sticking it to fundamentalists or terrorists.
Do you know how I like sticking it to the terrorists? What I frigging love seeing in this country, every day, that would piss them off ?
It's not the celebration of my right to harass people from the safety of my computer. Nope, it's seeing women have the right to vote. It's people of all races and creeds interacting togetther. It's kids going to school and learning about positive AND negative aspects of our nation's history.
Also, if you think you're being edgy and cool by drawing this, well... it's not forbidden for non-Muslims to make images of Prophet Mohammed because you aren't bound by the shariat. So, you're just added to the great big steaming pile of stupid.
Especially because the "controversy" you think you're responding to wasn't really there to begin with until it was stirred up by people with thier own agenda. There was an in depth essay that was just released a little while ago available here:
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/article_2010-04-22-malik-en.html
The most relevant bits, I'd say are:
"Far from Islam having always forbidden representations of the Prophet, it was common to portray him until comparatively recently... Even today, few Muslims have a problem in seeing the Prophet's face. Shortly after Jyllands Posten published the cartoons, the Egyptian newspaper Al Fagr reprinted them. They were accompanied by a critical commentary, but Al Fagr did not think it necessary to blank out Mohammad's face, and faced no opprobrium for not doing so. Egypt's religious and political authorities, even as they were demanding an apology from the Danish Prime Minister, raised no objections to Al Fagr's full frontal photos.
So, if there is no universal prohibition to the depiction of Mohammad, why were Muslims universally appalled by the caricatures? They weren't. And those that were, were driven by political zeal rather than theological fervour. The publications of the cartoons in September 2005 caused no immediate reaction, even in Denmark. Only when journalists, disappointed by the lack of controversy, contacted a number of imams for their response, did Islamists begin to recognise the opportunity provided not just by the caricatures themselves but also by the sensitivity of Danish society to their publication."
"Bluh bluh SOUTH PARK!" you blubber? Well it turns out that Revolution Muslim, a group that had been ostracized by every Muslim group in the NYC area they tried to speak at, is very likely a false flag operation.
the whole group that started the supposed south park uproar is just shifty and without credibility. How shifty and without credibility?
"The founder of the group goes by the name of Yousef al-Khattab, but his real name is Joseph Cohen. He was born and raised in the United States as a Jew, and holds both American and Israeli citizenship. In the late eighties, Cohen embraced an ultra-orthodox interpretation of Judaism, and began attending a yeshiva (rabbinical school). In 1998, Cohen hearkened to the Zionist call, and packed up his bags to relocate to the Israeli Occupied Territories where he became an Israeli settler. As an ardent and extreme Zionist, Joseph Cohen fell in with the Jewish fundamentalist group Shas, an extreme right-wing political party that believes in flouting international law based on their religious beliefs. Less than three years later, Cohen “converted” to Islam, moved back to the United States, and founded the most radical Islamic group in the country.
...
[he also]claimed that the Quran commands terrorism, something that no sincere Muslim would ever say (and a claim that is patently false); those are words that an Islamophobe (or extreme Zionist) would agree with, not a Muslim. "
So congratulations! You just fed the trolls!
Seriously, people. Our country has enough anti-Muslim fervor running rampant. For fuck's sake, we live in a country where Dunkin' Donuts pulled an ad campaign because a racist blogger didn't like Rachel Ray's scarf: http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2008/05/24/if-you-wear-a-black-white-scarf-the-terrorists-win/
Don't ADD to it.
Satire is a weapon to be used by those without power against those WITH power. Oftentimes, it's the only weapon a marginalized group has to use.
When the weapon is turned against a minority or marginalized group-- Muslims are in the US ARE--, it not combating anything. It's the stronger picking on the weak. It's bullying. Don't be a bully.