Mihow

I Have Another Question. (Plus, More Carlooneytoons.)

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Mihow
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If an Islamic newspaper published a comic featuring something as equally as offensive to a fundamentalist Christian, (unfortunately, I am not enough of a religious scholar come up with such a comic) said fundamentalist Christian might retaliate using violence against the first “Muslim” person they see? (That word is in quotes because, well, American’s have a way of ignorantly deciding who is who and where they come from or which religion they adhere to.)

Are fundamentalists all inclined towards violence, whether Muslim of Christian? Or is there something in Islamic fundamentalism that lends itself more to violence than Christianity? Is it slanted reporting, popular prejudice, or accuracy that contributes to the growing idea that Islam is more violent than other faiths?

Apparently, a cartoon featuring Anne Frank with Hitler has been created in retaliation. read about it here.

The cartoons on the Arab European League’s website are certainly not for the faint-hearted. One shows Adolf Hitler lying in bed with Anne Frank, the Dutch diarist who hid from the Nazis before being killed in a concentration camp. ‘Write this one in your diary, Anne,’ says a half-naked Hitler, reclining against the bed-head.

This whole mess, makes me think about a personal favorite of mine: The Butter Battle Book. (Which, incidentally also features comic-like drawings). Only this is real and Dr. Seuss created that.

This isn’t real, is it? Is James Frey in on all of this?

Comments

26 responses to “I Have Another Question. (Plus, More Carlooneytoons.)”

  1. zac Avatar
    zac

    Im still confused about it being against the Muslim religion to depict allah in a drawing..If this is true, then how does anyone know what he looks like to draw him in the first place? And if no one knows what he looks like, then how can anyone be offended if they “see” a picture of him? If I was a super computer, my circuits would be fried..
    As to your question, I think that they (Muslim & Christian fundamentalists) are equally as bad. Muslim fundamentalists use bombs to get their point across and Christians use the 700 Club.

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  2. tobyjoe Avatar
    tobyjoe

    It’s not about it being a faitful representation, zac. It’s about the act of trying to represent God. In fact, it’s the act of trying to represent ANY living creature, as doing so is mocking God as the one and only creator.

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  3. mihow Avatar
    mihow

    I think trying to recreate the image of God in Islam is like the Christian equivalent to comitting murder or having sexual intercourse with one’s neighbor. I’m just saying, that’s the best way I am trying to “get” it and how awful it is.

    I had to ask TJ what the 700 Hundred Club was. He said: “A TV show created by P. Robinson. It’s older than God.”

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  4. mihow Avatar
    mihow

    Sorry, robERTson.

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  5. zac Avatar
    zac

    did he mention that its equally as deadly?
    Kinda makes you wonder if Muslims secretly get off drawing cartoons of Allah, the way Christians cheat on their wives…
    “It was a moment of weakness! I swear I’ll never pick up a pencil again!”

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  6. greg Avatar
    greg

    burger king in england was pressured to remove their ice cream cone swirls from all of their restaurants because it offended muslims. the swirl looks like the arabic script for “allah” burger king caved.

    here’s the difference, christian fundementalists(say abortion doctor murders) are breaking both the law and christian ethical/moral commandments…..muslim fundementalists are breaking national law when killing but they are not breaking the law of islam. sharia law which was The law of islam (world of)up until the early 20th century when their caliph(religious/military successor to muhammad) disbanded the world of islam after world war I. since then muslims have been trying to re-create an islamic state and re-instate the idea of the caliph to the world of islam. where they can show the world that there can be a islamic state with sharia law above all other law. they’re running into pressure from the west and from moderate muslims. i’ve read today that syria may be sponsoring the unrest in many of these riots and that many rioters may be syrian military…so is it political, maybe more than i thought. i also read that there is anislamic prophecy that state world unrest and confusion allow for islam to take it’s place as the religion of the world. (but i read that off the internet, we all know what that means, could be crap.

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  7. mihow Avatar
    mihow

    I’m sorry, but please tell me you’re kidding about the ice cream part.

    That’s gotta be some kind of joke, no?

    If it’s an accident, however, and no one is specifically trying to create Allah, can’t that be seen as Allah trying to show himself? You know, like the Virgin Mary did in that storefront over in New Jersey that one time? Or the time she showed up on a cracker?

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  8. zac Avatar
    zac

    ha ha ha ha.
    I just remembered that Jesus showed up in a piece of toast last year. And unfortunately the Virgin Mary showed up in a local Fort Worth lady’s front window. Then when her church came by to remove it so they could worship it, they accidentally broke it into a bunch of pieces. Maybe Islam has it right. At least they aren’t worshiping grilled cheese sandwiches and oil stains..

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  9. greg Avatar
    greg

    to an islamist, why would God show himself to an unbeliever? they feel God will show himself only to a True Believer so the ice cream thing would be impossible

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  10. mihow Avatar
    mihow

    Why? Is iced cream off limits to muslims?

    (I just wrote TJ, asking him this questions. He wrote back: “Who am I, Malcolm X?”

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  11. mihow Avatar
    mihow

    What if he showed up in some Tofuti? Still bad?

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  12. greg Avatar
    greg

    it’s the idol thing and i’m sure it was offensive that a non-believer was seen eating allah

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  13. greg Avatar
    greg

    michele,can i post something that i find interesting about the difference between jesus and muhammad? it’s both shock and somewhat unbelievable

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  14. aimee Avatar
    aimee

    I got stuck in a car repair shop today when the 700 Club came on TV. If it hadn’t been 25 degrees out, I might have opted to just stand outside but instead I had to bury myself in a two month old Sporting News. However, I was still afraid of Pat Robertson creeping into my brain and poisoning it but I felt that covering my ears would look a little weird to the other waiting customers. Hopefully there will be no long term effects.

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  15. mihow Avatar
    mihow

    Greg, what is it? Is it a picture or something to explain? My initial reaction is sure. But how bad is it?

    I hadn’t thought about the whole eating Allah thing. That’s bad. But, you could just freeze the cone and sell them all on Ebay, no?

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  16. mihow Avatar
    mihow

    Aimee, did they know they were watching the 700 club? Weird.

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  17. greg Avatar
    greg

    hehehe it’s not that bad, just sorta off topic. but relevant at the same time.

    jesus had visions, i call them halucinations…muhammad had visions, his mother his grandfather and 2 of his uncles called them halucinations. his mother died when he was 9 and she too suffered from halucinations.

    one major difference between J and M i see is, muhammad was a religious man and a military general until his death….jesus was a religious man and pacifist.

    muhammad ordered the heads of 27 people and he got them because his people did what he asked. this doesn’t count how many people that were killed in his many raids on surrounding cities, or the deaths from resistance to forced conversion to islam.

    muhammad raided his home town of mecca when he was 52 years old. in this battle, he killed members of his family and got the head of his rich uncle brought to him. he fought them because they didn’t believe he was the messenger of God and they kicked him out of the city, he moved to Medina. he took over mecca which was the center of all worship for all tribes of arabia. there he consolidated the beliefs, some monotheist and some polytheist into the belief of one supreme God allah…and this is essencially where islam took hold and the people were converted and many were slaughtered.

    so to bring this back to your question of “Are fundamentalists all inclined towards violence, whether Muslim of Christian?” i would say no. we have to start from one place and look at the books. since islam is not just a religion but also a way of life, the book is infallable and muhammad is infallable because he was given the Word, then islamist who live the life as close to muhammad, they are closer to God. once again, it’s back to the book

    just a thought

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  18. aimee Avatar
    aimee

    they seemed to be watching attentively. However, whether they were aware of what they were watching I don’t know. I guess that’s one way people get inadvertently brainwashed. But it is entirely possible they just like the 700 club. I do live in the south.

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  19. mihow Avatar
    mihow

    Clearly, I know very, very little about religion (particularly, Islam) however, I am finding it more and more strange and bewildering that so many religions seemed to have started due to severe violence and a personal persecution.

    Why is this? What’s the underlying desire to hate and kill and preach violence to anyone unlike ourselves? I find the whole thing bizarre. Faith confuses me and scares the shit out of me, quite frankly.

    Wow, it’s just now occurring to me, based on that realization, I could have founded one heckuva religion in High school.

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  20. Meghan Avatar
    Meghan

    That whole ice cream thing I believe was in England and basically a non-issue. The ad looked like the word allah if you squinted your eyes and held your fingers in front of your face while turning the ad at a 42 degree angle…. check out Religious policeman’s Sept 17 entry. he shows the ice cream lid in question plus examples of the word allah. Sorry Mihow, I keep referring to this other blog but really he illustrates these images so well.

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  21. Henry Avatar
    Henry

    The ice cream thing happens pretty regularly. It’s an effect of the alphabet used and gravity. If you do an image search for “allah” you will find pictures of it in tomatoes, clouds, the sides of cows, just about anything viscous or helical . . .
    image of name of Allah

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  22. Meghan Avatar
    Meghan

    michele,

    I have the butter battle on video! My kids love it. I am indoctrinating them, I will admit it. Great story. Not many people have heard of it though.

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  23. Charlie Avatar
    Charlie

    The name of Allah looks a little like the Java logo on its side.

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  24. mihow Avatar
    mihow

    Meghan, it’s probably the book I reference the most. Scary, but true.

    Charlie, hilarious. Can’t wait to show TJ.

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  25. mihow Avatar
    mihow

    Oh, Henry, thanks for the information. I had no idea, to be honest.

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  26. tobyjoe Avatar
    tobyjoe

    Charlie, Allah would only show himself in an interpreted language. He’s dynamic like that.

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