The Oil Drum

When asked: "But you depicted Muhammad with a bomb in his turban, armed with a knife and with a broken halo that resembled satanic horns."

Flemming replied: The cartoon with horns didn't arouse special criticism; it was the other two. The one with the bomb in his turban doesn't say, "All Muslims are terrorists," but says, "Some people have taken Islam hostage to permit terrorist and extremist acts." These cartoons do not treat Muslims in any other way than we treat other citizens in this country. By treating them as equals, we are saying, "You are equal."

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Holocaust Cartoons
On 8 February 2006, Flemming Rose said in interviews with CNN and TV 2 that Jyllands-Posten planned to reprint satirical cartoons depicting the Holocaust that the Iranian newspaper Hamshahri planned to publish. He told CNN "My newspaper is trying to establish a contact with that Iranian newspaper Hamshahri, and we would run the cartoons the same day as they publish them". Later that day the paper's editor-in-chief said that Jyllands-posten under no circumstances would publish the Holocaust cartoons. [1] and Flemming Rose later said that "he had made a mistake".[2] [3]. The next day Carsten Juste, the editor-in-chief of Jyllands-Posten, stated that Flemming Rose was on indefinite leave.[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flemming_Rose

Flemming Rose, cultural editor of Jyllands-Posten, who has "has clear ties to the Zionist Neo-Cons." Rose "traveled to Philadelphia in October 2004 to visit Daniel Pipes, the Neo-Con ideologue who says the only path to Middle East peace will come through a total Israeli military victory.

http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=211

Secondly, let us examine the venue - a newspaper that today describes itself as "liberal" in the classical sense, but yesterday openly supported fascism - and particularly the man most responsible for starting this ruckus: Flemming Rose, the "cultural editor" of Jyllands-Posten, who commissioned the cartoons and now is at the center of a rapidly-escalating controversy.

The Iranians have come up with a novel answer to Rose and his fellow provocateurs: they have announced a contest for cartoonists to make light of the Holocaust.

"'It will be an international cartoon contest about the Holocaust,' said Farid Mortazavi, the graphics editor for Hamshahri newspaper - which is published by Teheran's conservative municipality. He said the plan was to turn the tables on the assertion that newspapers can print offensive material in the name of freedom of expression. 'The Western papers printed these sacrilegious cartoons on the pretext of freedom of expression, so let's see if they mean what they say and also print these Holocaust cartoons,' he said."

Of course, the publication of such cartoons would be illegal in most states of the European Union, as well as Canada, and the publishers, as well as the artists, would probably be thrown in jail and forced to issue a groveling apology. Rose is supposedly against any religion demanding "special treatment," but apparently there is at least one exception.

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=8512

Back in the 30s it was another branch of the semitic family and another religion that was demonized. It too was demonized to a purpose, it was too was funded. It's so easy to see something after it has happened, so hard to see it while it is happening. But what is happening right now is a replay, mutatis mutandis.

Back in those days it was easy to find some unsavory financier or slumlord or whatever who happened to be Jewish and put the spotlight on that. Now it's easy to put the spotlight on extreme reactions to provocations to make a whole group seem humorless or worse.

It's completely wrong to fall for this created division. We are heading ever deeper into an endless war that has absolutely nothing to do with a war of civilizations, nothing to do with religion, nothing to do with anything but oil/gas, money, and hegemony. These incitements, these provocations are an absolutely integral part of the military and diplomatic campaigns that are unfolding in front of our very eyes. To think otherwise is very naive.

Tens, if not hundreds, of books have been written about the Holocaust, the anti-semitism that preceded it, and so forth. I've read many during my life, many on Hitler Germany. But I never really understood until now. It takes a great of money and effort to get people to hate other people, people they have no or little knowledge of, but who are no different from themselves, who just want to live, eat, reproduce, make jokes, etc.

The end result is that we are hardened to the fate of those who are bombed, detained, tortured, and killed. The end result is that we say, better them than me. The end result is we find outselves in the predicament Pastor Niemoller found himself in.

It is not only their religion that was insulted.  You see in those countries, the "Islamic" Republics, there is no distinction between religion and state, nor is there any distinction between your personal life and religion.  Its all in one and one and the same and all things together.  It cannot be separated.  You insult one and you insult them all.  Solidly and wholely melded together.  There is no distinction between what the law says and what the Koran say.  There is no difference between what you think and what the Koran says, and they don't understand you no matter how many times you tell them.  Its one, the same and all things together.  You can't even speak of the concept of having anything different.  

The number of times you hear something in language as it is spoken every day, is a direct indicator of the function that the idea of the word represents to the culture.  How many times do Muslims say, "God willing"?  or "if God wants", or "thanks to God".  I'd give you a WAG of about 30-40 times each day.  They say that every time, yes EVERY time they refer to an event that may happen in the future, or any possible event that they do not have direct control over.  When they say, "it might rain today" it is followed by "God Willing".  Anything.  To me even saying it that many times is amazing, never mind actually believing it.  How many times did you hear that phrase today in your office?  And IMHO, when a Muslim tells you, or says this, he means exactly what it/he implies and he/she believes it.  Really, I can't possibly tell you how different the concept and influence god has between them and "us".  Now, I still don't understand the concept of jihad, and suicide bombing that goes with it, and a number of other things, so I'm not saying its all so fantastic... but I will say, we in the west don't "Get IT".  When I say, "I'm going to cross the street", I don't say "God willing" at the end of it.  And when I think you will read this, I don't say "God willing" either.  If somebody drew the same cartoon with Jesus Christ, well I'd use my sense of humor, as would 850 million other people.  He just doesn't have any influence on me anymore.  Do you understand what I'm "getting at"?  Well, I guess its just different.  Get to know a moderate but devoute Muslim.  If they live in the west, they're moderate, no matter what they say or think. You'll notice something different about them.  Maybe you'll like whatever that difference is and you'll begin to understand a little more about Muslims and their religion.  I don't mean to sound so NUTS by writing such a long response to such a short comment, but for some reason, I couldn't help myself.  A sense of humor just has no relavence in this case.  Should I post or not????... maybe... yes.

"The Clintons started the mess"

I cannot even begin to fathom such historically ignorant statements.  The present situation is the result of hundreds of years of history, but the animosities we see today stem mostly from Western actions of the 20th century.  

Yeah, Bill never should have talked the British into invading Iraq in the early 1900's, and if he had only refrained from supporting the establishment of Israel, the sabotaging of the elected Iranian government, not had the CIA pay that punk Saddam to assassinate the Iraqi leadership, not meddle with the Iraq/Iran war, etc.  Seriously, how can you post such nonsense on a public forum?

Yes, it will be hard to put the genie back in the bottle.  So what the hell, they hate us now, lets just kill `em all.