E-mail of the day
"My personal opinion is that the cartoons in question are rather silly and in general bad taste, but that if certain cretins hadn't decided to start stirring things up (and adding into the mix three *TRULY OFFENSIVE* extra drawings that were *NOT* among those published by Jyllands-Posten), nothing would have happened. Goodness gracious me, these things were published in *SEPTEMBER* ! There was a bit of a stir then, which was limited to Denmark, and which by now was pretty much blown over. Instead, what have they obtained? Huge diffusion of those drawings, and (sadly) a rather stupid "competition" among certain rather disgusting elements in the net to draw the most offensive and horrid things about Mohammed imaginable and post them. I am not a Moslem, but I don't like that. At all. And I am sorry to say that, very possibly, this is a direct consequence of the actions of certain cretins who decided to start stirring things up. I am afraid of what may happen afterwards. I can tell you that people in Europe feel very deeply about freedom of the press. And I can tell you that people in Europe are feeling really pissed off about all this. The general feeling is: "I am *not* going to *stop* saying X because *you* tell me that it offends *your* religion". And this pissed-off-ness may well end up being expressed at the ballots in the next elections. I don't want to think it may happen, but I am afraid that, in the next elections, parties like the FN in France or the Vlaamse Blok in Belgium or the party of Geert Willems in Holland or the Danks Folkeparti in Denmark (the latter is already the third biggest in the Danish parliament) may well win *very* substantial gains, by capitalising on a wave of anti-islamic sentiment. And then everybody will be worse off. And mark my words: They will not fail to try and use all this mess! They will campaign by saying: "Remember what happened when...". The only good exit for this would be for all this ... stupidity ... to blow off and calm down *quickly*, in the next few weeks (at most), so that, in not more than a few months, it is forgotten. Otherwise, I have truly no idea of what the world will be like in the following years." I know what he means!
posted by The Sandmonkey @ 2/02/2006 12:39:00 PM
18 Comments:
Hallo! I am the author of the above email. Wow... I feel flattered that you put it in your blog, like that...
Just one comment: I made a mistake in my email to you -- The name of the Dutch politician in question is Geert Wilders, not Willems.
Thanks for your blog!
JoseB
He or she said in the email"in the next elections, parties like the FN in France or the Vlaamse Blok in Belgium or the party of Geert Willems in Holland or the Danks Folkeparti in Denmark (the latter is already the third biggest in the Danish parliament) may well win *very* substantial gains, by capitalising on a wave of anti-islamic sentiment. And then everybody will be worse off."
Am I wrong or doesn't this mean they'd be reacting to an overreaction by an irrational overreaction, by willingly overlooking any real important election issue and gravitating towards incompetent right wings extremists just because they're expressing their anti moslem sentiment.
Can someone tell me here where are the idiots and where are the more sensible ones, or is it all sides are idiots?
Mohamed: Indeed, I am afraid of the possibility of an emotional overreaction to an emotional overreaction.
There is no monopoly of stupidity in the world, and I am scared of escalation.
And I know that, even if this ends up becoming "water under the bridge"... Those extremist parties will campaign, come election time, by saying: "Remember when...?", and will try to scare voters by taking them back to our present days. And possibly they will get somes votes that otherwise they wouldn't have had. And that definitely worries me.
How I wish I could move somewhere quiet... Like Mars.
Mohamed, the Europeans are not going to back down. If they did, they might as well surrender their sovereinity and become vassals in the islamist's new Caliphate.
The Arabs are going to back down, or nobody is going to back down. If nobody backs down, it's relgious war until one of the religions loses. Religious wars are just like race wars... they're violent, emotional, hateful and both sides feel (rightly!) that the other is out to destroy them.
Incidentally, the "religion" I was talking about just now that is in opposition to Islam is western secular democracy. Not Christianity.
It is disrespectful to depict a person's prophet in the manner these cartoons do, but until some Muslims start seeing the hypocrisy of their outrage, there will be no apology because these same people -Muslims cannot be offended by cartoons and at the same time sanction the killing of Christians and other Muslims because they have determined them to be infidels.
Joanne
Lol. Muslinms whining about silly cartoons.
Meanwhile, where is the protest over:
Honor killings.
Islam's intolerance of other religions (Hello Sodomy Arabia)
Suicide Bombings.
Subjugation of Women.
Dictatorships.
Lack of Free Elections.
Low GNP.
Over-reliance on Oil Revenues
and a lack of a diversity of economies.
Human Rights Abuses.
Prison Abuse.
Corruption.
Lack of Basic Freedoms.
Poor Leadership.
Fenmale Genital Mutilation.
Use of Sharia Law.
wow!
Cool blog!
I am surprised to see a pro-America/Bush arab citizen
That is very good!
I am afraid that things are heading in the way of escalation. Last night I watched Al Jazeera's news bulletin, and they are fanning the flames big time. Repeatedly showing images of burning flags and burning Danish products, interviwing Al Qardawy who was calling for today (Friday) tovbe a day of global muslim outrage at the cartoons, and focusing on every single newspaper and news outlet that reprinted the cartoons. Not onlly that, but their presenters were all presenting the story from the angle of "why would Europeans want to provoke muslims like that?".
Contrast that to Al Arrabiya's approach, which focused on the Danish PM's apology. I think Al Arabiya is trying to cool things down. And since Al Arabiya is Saudi owned, this makes me think that the Saudi government have decided (maybe too lately) that this whole thing is not in anybody's interest.
Well its Friday morning and so far no one has been killed...
I think that is a very good sign.
If we can make it through today with no one seriously hurt there is a very good chance this will all go away peacefully!
Well,I am a MUSLIM and I am proud to be one and I respect Christianity and jeudism,and I respect the prophets of these religions,and I expect the same from the more civlised more democrate free socities of europe and america.Prophet Mohamed PBH is our leader and we respect him and follow his sunnah but he is not our god,not as jesus is for christians,but we will not accept any crossings to the line regarding him and thank allah that we do not have a photo or picture or some kind of a portrait to show he looks like so its a pure sick twisted imagination of some wackos who try to show how democrate the countries they live in is,so hurray to all europeans,and hope they feel more free and democrate now.
Jordan, there's been a major disaster at sea between Egypt and Saudi Arabia. A ferry apparrently sank with 1300 people on board. No details on the US news yet, they just say it "vanished" - whatever happened, I imagine it is over-shadowing any other news in the region right now. I've been up late watching the Egyptian blogs hoping for some news.
Global
It was never in anyone´s interest in the first place.
Emotions flare up because of some silly cartoons & nearly everyone wants to boycott the whole country. Now Muslims & Arabs have been trying since 9-11 to argue, rigfhtfully, that not all arabs or muslims are terrorists & that the world shouldn´t judge an entire people on the actions of a few, but now they are doing exactly the same, what do danish products have to do with the newspaper that started it all? Why were ALL FOREIGNERS asked to leave the palestinian territories when they are mostly there to help the palestinians?
Saudi Arabia will have to cool things down because it is getting out of control & will only harm Arabs & muslims more than Europeans. Those who say the Boycott will work, it will not..all it will do is prove how irrational hypocritical the muslims are.
A potential solution for all this: All the Islamists who want to return to the 7th century should just set up a giant Caliphate theme park. Then they could charge money for people to come see them be perfect reactionaries.
A tweak of perception is needed for the Umma to realize that
THIS IS NOT PROPHET MUHAMMED (PBUH)
How can this be done? LSD anyone?
progammer craig,
Nobody is going to back down. Europeans will continue to print what they want. And the boycotters will continue to be offended and to boycott and to call for boycotts - although their numbers will be be reduced over time because not everyone has the energy to stay angry indefinitely. I doubt that the boycotters have the power to declare a religious a war. What religious war?Do you mean Saudi Arabia is going to declare war on Denmark for not apologizing?Or that the EU is going to declare war on the entire Islamic World from Indonesia to Algeria because some European products are being boycotted by some Muslims?
First I want to say how sad the news is from the red sea. May g-d comfort the families of these poor souls.
On cartoons how offen have arab news papers shown anti semitic cartoons? I remember seeing in the offical state newspaper of Saudi Arabia a cartoon saying jews use the blood of children to make matzoh. The reaction seems a bit hipcrital to me.
Yea right. Even if this particular event calms down, there will be more and more coming...let's not try to imagine them because I predict they'll be really meaningless.
Why doesn't everyone make a big fuss about the real problems that we're facing in our countries everyday by the people manipulating us.
Hate to make a fuss, but Geert WILDERS is more of an economic libertarian who's big on law and order than a radical islamophobe or racist.
This matter is quite simple: it's western secularism and its values (freedom of speech foremost) against primitive religious fascism. It has nothing to do with traditional political polarisation. This whole affair migt even cause elements from the left and the right to untie to protect wetsren civilisation as we know it in Europe. At least, I hope so.
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