Bruce The Psychic Guy ([info]bitpig) wrote,
@ 2008-05-23 01:38:00
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Current mood:chipper
Current music:Radio Yé-Yé — les plus grands succés francophones des années 1960-1970

the happening world / je me souviens


I'm in a good mood tonight. No special reason; this is the mood I'd be in all the time if the Bad Chemicals didn't exist in my brain. Je ne suis pas mon cerveaux.

***

TOLERANCE ALERT!

CAIRO — A popular Japanese cartoon is sparking off outcries in the Muslim world where some fear it could fuel a backlash not seen since European papers carried cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed and a Dutch lawmaker released a controversial film earlier this year.

Shueisha Inc, a Japanese publisher involved in the production of the cartoon ‘‘JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’’ and its animation version, suspended sales of some of the original comics and the DVD series Thursday, but said the material was not intended to be offensive.

At issue is a 90-second segment from “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure,” which depicts Dio Brando, a villain, picking up a Quran from a bookshelf and apparently examining it as he orders the execution of the hero and his friends.

The animated movie is based on the wildly popular comic book by Hirohiko Araki, which has been carried in Shonen Jump, a weekly magazine, from 1987 to 2003. The cartoon series’ pirated version with Arabic subtitles has been distributed on websites since March 2007.

After a viewer posted negative comments and the still scene, it sparked off more protests. Eventually responses were carried on more than 300 Arab and Islamic Web forums with some accusing Japan of insulting the Quran.

Sheikh Abdul Hamid Attrash, chairman of the Fatwa (religious edict) Committee at Al-Azhar, the highest Sunni authority based in Cairo, dismissed the cartoon as an insult to Islam.

‘‘This scene depicts Muslims as terrorists, which is not true at all,’’ he said. ‘‘This is an insult to the religion and the producers would be considered to be enemies of Islam.’’ Source
LALALAALLCULTURESAREEQUALIMNOTLISTENINGWECANLIVE INPEACEWITHISLAMLALALA

***

The government of the Canadian province of Quebec has rejected a proposal to remove a crucifix from above the speaker's chair in the parliament.

Good.

Say what you will about the Quebéquois — at least they still have a few tatters of culture left to cling to.

***

New post up over at the ol' blog. It's kind of ranty.

***

ENDE

(Post a new comment)


[info]footyfoot
2008-05-23 08:46 am UTC (link)
Y'know, were I ever to actually run for elected office, your blog would have The People tearing me into little chunks on my front stoop. Oh, wait- they don't read.

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[info]kigutsu
2008-05-23 01:59 pm UTC (link)
Yes the crucifix is a great symbol of the catholicism that has existed through all of Quebec, but what people have forgotten is that it wasn't JUST the French that settled here. The Montreal flag has depictions of the Scots, English, French, and Irish on it for gods sake. They keep the crucifix not for "the history" but more to say "We have a FRENCH heritage, it is nothing else."

The Charest government will throw away every idea from the Bouchard-Taylor report just like they did taking down the crucifix. I'll admit that Quebec is a little more "Catholic" than other provinces (all their swear words are things you'd find in a church, I had a student ask me yesterday if there was a swear word in English for "Tabarnak," there isn't) but what I find so funny is no one I know is devout Catholic OR even goes to church. My husband thought that there was a division between Christian and Catholic for a long time until I had to tell him he was thinking of protestantism, both Protestants and Catholics are under the umbrella word Christian.

Quebec will always have culture, it's own culture. But when that culture includes keeping immigrants out of jobs by giving them an impossible French test that only a first language acquisition person can pass, I really don't want to be any part of it. This society is so xenophobic, it almost rivals Japan.

(Reply to this)


[info]tohoscope
2008-05-23 02:07 pm UTC (link)
You're not gonna have Robert Asprin to kick around anymore!

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[info]bitpig
2008-05-23 03:20 pm UTC (link)
LOL

(May God rest his soul, seriously)

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[info]tohoscope
2008-05-23 03:27 pm UTC (link)
It goes without saying: No disrespect intended.

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[info]requiemessence
2008-05-23 03:22 pm UTC (link)
When it comes down to it, a devout adherent to any religion could get cracked out over a small thing like that and denounce it as a slight against their beliefs. Granted, the Muslims have a trigger finger when it comes to slights like that (Bad blood with Western cultures in general, Crusades, more wars, etc), but Christians have done the same thing.

When books/movies like Harry Potter and His Dark Materials were released, the Christian Right in this country went berserk, accusing the authors of teaching children of witchcraft and atheism, and OH LORD WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHITLINS?

Irregardless of religious inclination, you'll find crazies like that everywhere Bruce, not just in the Middle East :/

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[info]bitpig
2008-05-23 03:47 pm UTC (link)
Comparing the Christian reaction to HARRY POTTER to the typical Muslim reaction to (insert example of free expression here) is ludicrous. The Pope never issued a fatwa calling on all Christians to kill Philip Pullman; Billy Graham never sent howling mobs into the streets to burn cars and buildings as a protest against J.G. Rowling. Sure, there are some individual "Christians" who might advocate that sort of thing, but no orthodox Christian leader, church, denomination, or congregation ever would. Look at Fred Phelps — all he does is make an ass out of himself in public, yet he is loathed by Christians of every stripe, including me.

Any Christian (or Christian group) advocating violence or disorder on the basis of blasphemy (real or imagined) is going to be shunned by other Christians, period. On the other hand, calls for violence (and violence itself) are not only tolerated but approved of by the leaders of mainstream Islam. To deny that is to deny reality, and we do no one good by denying reality.

Islam is an intrinsically violent religion that cannot coexist with other religions. For the Muslim in the West, cooperation is something to be practiced until a Muslim majority is achieved; then, it's Sharia time for all. As Hussein Massawi of Hezbollah once said "We are not fighting so that you [Westerners] will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you."

PS - The Crusades came after the Islamic Caliphate invaded the Christian Near East; in other words, they were defensive wars.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]kigutsu
2008-05-23 05:21 pm UTC (link)
Most religious leaders of Islam would NOT condone the violence that has happened. I have a friend I work with who is a Muslim and I think he would find your view of his religion in bad taste.

How are you using the word Sharia? I believe the word Sharia just means "body of law" (ie how to borrow money, what to eat and how to prepare food, how to live ones life). What do you mean by "Sharia time for all"?

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[info]rikkisimons
2008-05-23 11:21 pm UTC (link)
Say what you will about the Quebéquois — at least they still have a few tatters of culture left to cling to.

Secularism is culture too, and it specifically the culture of allowing all other cultures to exist in harmony together. And it does this better than Christianity. It's true that the enlightenment can thank Christianity for some of it's origins, but no more than Greek democracy. Like every single culture in existence, sometimes it goes too far in trying to enact its edicts. But that's why we in the West double check each other, why we have checks and balances.

I wouldn't like the United States to become a majority Muslim country, no — I'm a secularist — but it's not even a concern anyway. The majority of this country will be reading the Christian bible in Spanish before the majority will ever will be reading the Koran in English. It's just not happening. I don't understand why you think it is.

Christianity is NOW in this century and the last, preached as a religion of tolerance by the majority of its advocates. This is only because the more dangerous elements written into its doctrine, the Bible, are now being ignored. Otherwise, stoning would still be taking place for many sins. It's in there. Death is the required method of punishment in the Old Testament for adultery, homosexuality, etc. But people have decided in this century to pick and choose which parts of the Bible they are to take literally. If it were still taken literally, the Bible is ever so much a brutal, unsophisticated, book of intolerance as the present day Koran can be.

As far as every single Muslim country enacting Sharia law, this isn't true either. It comes up in many of them, like Malaysia. But is is often turned away in democratic societies (like Malaysia). And like Huckabee here in the states stating that he would amend the constitution to fall in line better with the Bible, learned secular societies say no to that too, because we know that favoritism of any religion leads to repression of the rest. Yes, Sharia law is worse than what Huckabee would want, but again, that's only because many of the people who worship the Christian Bible are ignorant of what's in it, due to the picking and choosing that has gone on in the last two centuries. I've seen enough of the kind of people who support Huckabee to understand that what he represents is a slippery slope. They are fine with living with a kind of cognitive dissonance when it comes to their intolerant beliefs and doing business with the world at large, and they are also fine with the deterioration of those beliefs to the point of reactivating some of the more dangerous passages in the Bible.

The majority of Muslims are just people who happen to be born into their religion and the majority are just trying to make a living. In western, secular countries, the majority become more secular and do as the Christians do, they pick and choose what to believe in the Koran. Yes, there are dangerous, awful muslims out there who want to kill us. But they are not the guy working to feed his family in Burbank, California, or the woman with the headscarf in Glendale shopping for makeup at the very gay beauty shop. And if, by some bizarre miracle, the influx of Catholic mexicans stopped and were replaced by Muslims, yes there would be those would would say, we have the majority, lets do Sharia, and it would probably be voted down. But that's not going to happen. I hope your Spanish is good.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]bitpig
2008-05-24 06:36 pm UTC (link)
Hablo solamete el idióma de Tejas...

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