Offensensitivity in our time

Gotta love a country that offers so much Maher room to Breathed.

"Offensensitivity" Only a die-hard Bloom County fan would remember that one!

My Gosh the world is offensive! :)

Whew! For a second, it looked like you wrote "Courtesy of Satan," which is perhaps what some folks would think!

Rod, you are soooooo lucky you got to work for William F. Buckley. I hope you appreciate what a rare treat that was.

For the rest of us in "flyover" territory, managing editors (and probably more significantly, the corporatist publishers to whom managing editors are answerable) are seldom the broadly educated intellectual giants we might hope for them to be. I think c.y.a. is more often the guiding principle for these folks than p.c.

Be that as it may, there is a "progressive crusader culture" that seems to permeate newsrooms, and in the strangest markets. I have been amazed, for instance, at how often The Roanoke Times editorial staff completely misjudges its regional readership by pandering to a tiny audience of would-be urban cosmopolitans at the expense of the moderate majority within its circulation area.

Rod, you're right: if this cartoon is offensive to anyone, it's the self-centred, blind-to-any-other-ways sort of American who should take offense, and then maybe think a bit about what just happened in the cartoon. The character said in plain language what most my-way-or-the-highway sorts try to dress up a little bit: "I know what's best for you better than you do, so you should do what I say". Not to mention, "If you don't feel like flaunting yourself in a tiny bikini, you're anti-freedom and un-American".

But offensive to Muslims? No way. If anything, Fatima (the Muslim character shown here) is a good role model for anyone trying to be counter-cultural or stand up to social expectations.

"The People v. Larry Flynt," as you recall, dealt with a cartoon published in Hustler Magazine in which the late Jerry Falwell is depicted having sex with his mother. Falwell, of course, fought Flynt through the courts in a legitimate fashion. Falwell lost. He did not call for a fatwa; he did not decapitate Flynt; he did not even fly his private jet into Hustler headquarters. He became friends with Flynt and exhibited to him Christian charity. In fact, when Falwell passed away Flynt showed great respect and affection for the late university chancellor.

Although I had my disagreements with Falwell--rhetorical, political and theological--he understood his Savior to be a practitioner of agape and philos, not jihad and fatwa.

If CAIR is concerned about religious intolerance and persecution, it is perhaps time for the organization to open an office in Riyadh, where it can fight for the rights of the citizens of Saudi Arabia to convert from Islam to Christianity without fear of imprisonment, torture, or decapitation. CAIR can perhaps redirect its efforts to decrease the number of headless Arab Christians in Islamic countries rather than expending its precious resources fighting humorous comic strips about Muslims in free countries where Christians and Muslims get to keep their heads.

"If CAIR is concerned about religious intolerance and persecution"

Accordingly to Islam, if you are not Muslim you are intolerant and you are persecuting Islam. For that you must die or convert.

There is a website address shown in cartoon,
www.ahiida.com.

Take at look, you will have more fun than with cartoon itself.

CAIR is just like the ADL or the Catholic League then, right?

CAIR is just like the ADL or the Catholic League then, right?

Nah. Maybe the ADL and CL sometimes resemble CAIR in similar reflexively over-the-top alarmist tone, but CAIR is sui generis.

ADL and CL each have a broad support base with donor membership in the tens of thousands. CAIR is supported by a handful of rich Muslims.

More importantly, neither ADL nor CL have had people indicted on terror charges, nor has either organization been named as an unindicted co-conspirator in anything.

OK. You don't like unindicted co-conspirator status. Fine.

But what about the indictments of CAIR personnel? Throw in the links to HAMAS and the Muslim Brotherhood, and the gulf between CAIR and ADL/CL should be clear. You can't show a link between ADL/CL personnel and violence. A link between personnel and overheated-to-deeply stupid statements, yes. Violence, no.

Dale's right: the brief against CAIR is far longer and more substantive than what's been presented in this Dallas case.

Charles: Muslims are made to be mocked. That is why God created them.

That's an ugly statement, Charles. Nobody is "made" to be mocked, certainly not for their religion. If that's your attitude, what do you have to say to Muslims like Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, who really is a good guy taking serious personal risks to stand up to the Islamists in sheep's clothing? Why would you alienate a good man like that who is on your side, by making fun of his religion?

They're all human, and therefore all morally equivalent.

Unless you are under the impression that some sinners are better than other sinners?

Yes. This is fascinating.

As far as CAIR refusing to condemn violence by Hamas and Hezbollah, when was the last time the ADL condemened violence by Israel? How about the last time the GOP condemned violence by Americans in Iraq?

Yes. I do see moral equivalence. Aiding and abetting murder is criminal. Why again are they unindicted? Co-conspirator is not unlike Dreher stating that CAIR sought to shut down his argument by bringing up the "Nazi" canard. Our government wishes to shut down any pro-Muslim organization by calling them "unindicted co-conspirators." It's meaningless. I'll say it again - meaningless.

I submit that the status of CAIR as unindicted co-conspirators is nothing more than a smear-tactic designed to dupe the public into discounting their work. Part of that work, like the ADL and CL, is to ensure the the public is aware of fallacious representations made in the media.

Prove to the public that CAIR is a terrorist organization if that's possible, but please don't think that "unindicted co-conspirator" is supposed to make us care about CAIR.

Franklin, some people who aren't fictional have said the same thing about Islam. Ayatolloh Khomenei is said to have uttered this gem: "There is no humor in Islam. There can be no humor in what is serious." However, the Ayatollah is also reported to have laughed when Oriana Fallaci ripped off her headscarf during her interview with him, which she did not once, but twice.

Alicia, in general I try to avoid unqualified statements. I don't mean this as a criticism of your post; I'm quite sure I understand your intended meanings.

But, my reaction to statements like Khomenei's is to edit it in my mind: "There is no humor in [my version of] Islam."

My spiritual path is based on the neverending search for balance. I find laughter in the most serious, and sober wisdom in the most refined humor. I should qualify that by saying that if I failed to look for each complementary aspect, my life would be many times less rich, and quite a bit more boring.