There is no risk in mocking politicians, now matter how intensively the abuse is served. There is no risk in mocking any establishments of American or Western culture- no harm will ensue. ... Every artist alive today now knows the limits: you can do this, which is as brave as taunting a stuffed teddy bear, or you can do that, which amounts to taunting a very hungry very uncaged bear. Bravery, to an artist, is now an all or nothing thing. Leave the repressive regimes alone, and all your efforts, no matter how avante garde, provocative, or just plain offensive your work is, and you are just pretending at courage. Cross the line and say something about Islam, and your life is one the line.
Quite so, but there is a problem: Muslims keep redefining what is objectionable. They "dumb down" offensiveness. Such as Valentine Cards: A radical Kashmiri Islamic group, Dukhtaran-e-Millat, sent nearly two dozen black-veiled Muslim women to burn Valentine's Day cards and posters showing couples together in the main city of India's Kashmir. They women protested that the day imposes Western values on Muslim youth.
"We will not let anyone sell these cards or celebrate Valentine's Day," said Asiya Andrabi, the group's leader, as she held a burning poster in her hand. "These Western gimmicks are corrupting our kids and taking them away from their roots." She said that the raids were carried out "not to harm anyone but to make them realize that this is against Islam's teachings."
Now, just who's imposing whose values?
I don't find it surprising that some Muslims are objecting to Valentine's Day again (they've done it before) because the day is, after all, a Christian celebration (Saint Valentine's Day, ya know). It is a day set aside to commemorate wholesome love, intended in its pre-secular form to call celebrants to remember and emulate the love of Christ for humankind.
But love does not figure in Islamic theology much, if at all. The Muslim author of a now defunct but still online blog pointed out a couple of years ago in an essay called, "The Distance of Allah from His Creatures:"Allah seems more distant in Islam than in Judaism and Christianity; there is more of an emphasis on His might and His power, His inapproachability, the fact that He has no need of His creation and says, "I have only created Jinns and men, that they may serve Me." (51:56) Note the word serve, not love. In Islam one submits to Allah; in Judaism (repeated in Christianity) the Shema says, "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might," a concept totally lacking in Islamic prayers. Men and women are slaves of Allah in Islam; in Christianity they are children of God. Children are a source of love and worry for their parents; slaves exist merely to serve. Allah lets it be known in the Qur'an that if a people or nation rejects His message, He will simply wipe them out and put another people in their place who will serve Him better. Islam means submission; this does not leave much in the way of personal interaction. Allah orders, you obey. No debating or bargaining, like when Abraham got God down from fifty to ten righteous people to save Sodom and Gomorrah from destruction. Moses speaks directly with God; Allah communicates with Muhammad via the angel Gabriel, since "it is not fitting for a man that Allah should speak to him except by inspiration, or from behind a veil, or by the sending of a messenger to reveal, with Allah's permission, what Allah wills: for He is Most High, Most Wise." (42:51)
So Does Saint Valentine's Day "impose Western values on Muslim youth," as the two dozen protesting women claimed? Well, I devoutly hope so. Is observing the day really "against Islam's teachings?" I don't know and I'm not persuaded that the protester really knows, either. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Either way, I don't care.
Cross-posted at DonaldSensing.com
This post is actually by my co-blogger "Ben," although I posted it. Just to give credit where credit is due.
"Islam" comes from the word "to submit."
"Israel" literally means "one who wrestles with God." (From the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel.)
The last word in Valentines Day messages has now been spoken.
Website Something Awful has been running a contest for photoshopped Star Wars Valentines. 6 pages of images. It is quite funny. Go and look at it. You know you want to.
Islam exerts tight control on the minds of young men, by using homosexuality as a tool to do this :
1). They force women to cover themselves head to toe in cloth, to the extent you can't tell if she is 18 or 60. No straight men would make a rule like that, as it is designed to crush out all thoughts of male-female attaction.
2) They way they pray in the Mosques is questionable to say the least. Have you seen how all men kneel in tightloy packed rows, so that one man's face is inches from another man's butt, as they kneel?
3) Abu Nuwas was a famous Islamic poet, known for homoerotic poetry.
4) The Koran says that when you go do heaven, you will be greeted by 'boys as fair as pearls'.
5) John Walker Lindh, who joined the Taliban since Marin County and SF were not gay enough for him, did have an affair with a Pakistani BusinessMAN. Look it up.
6) Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, etc. export oil because it is a by-product of their main industry. Their main industry is the production of petroleum jelly (vaseline) for homosexual purposes. They are lucky that other countries are willing to take the byproduct, oil, off their hands.
OK, I made the last one up for humor. But you must admit that I am on to something here. No other religion is so obsessed with blocking something as benign as Valentine's Day, and so bothered by seeing a woman's skin (even a face, hands, toes, etc.).
Comment #4 above is inappropriate.
Why? It is not vulgar, and is taking an academic tone.
While I do think the claims are speculative, some of 'heterosexual's' point do have merit.
"She said that the raids were carried out "not to harm anyone but to make them realize that this is against Islam's teachings."
What most muslim protestors seem to fail to realize is that hurting someone's business and bullying others is harm. They seem to have a very narrow definition of harm, these women. Here they were out in front of this store burning the storeowners stock. Did they buy them first I wonder? Somehow I doubt it. Even if they did, they just enriched both the store owner and the makers of the cards. In which case they are not very bright either.
About the comment on islam not being big on love there are surely people who would insist that on the contrary its all about love of God and getting close to him without priest or intercessor etc.
However actual practice belies that claim. Its seems that loving God is also an act of obedience. God demands love in islam and love is equated with obedience. Obedience earns the muslim reward. Disobedience earns them hell. So they had better work up a feeling of love for God or else! They had better obey or else!
I had a Sufi convert tell me once that allah would not accept good works done in hopes of reward. Yet muslims are told over and over that it is good works that earn them heaven. I guess they are just supposed to forget all about that part when they do nice things for others or else its hell for them.
Its all based on threat and reward. Obey or else!
I'm glad the fellow came to see it. How I wish everyone could.
BTW, does anyone ever know what happened to that blogger. I remember coming across her site before and being impressed by her. Does she blog anywhere else now?