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Tuesday, 4 Apr 2006
Dr. Sanity decided to analyze the cartoons the egyptian cartoonists used to "strike back" at the danish cartoons . While I don't agree with everything she said, there are things I agreed with, and I will post them right here:
One thing they are not (except unintentionally) is funny. The anger and rage shine through quite clearly.
True that! You gotta agree, the egyptian ones kinda sucked. At least the danish ones had 3 that were funny and smart ( The no more virgins, the sultan in the castle, and the kid at the drawing board ones). Those were neither.
Healthy coping options in Muslim society are thus severely limited by
the fact that as a culture, their growth has been stunted by the
inflexible template of their religion.This reminds me of the
lack of humor about one's self that is so typical of young children.
Most often, very young children are completely unable to appreciate the
healthiest kind of humor simply because they are too immature and their
egos too fragile to be able to enjoy self-deprecation and subtlety.
They are unable to step outside themselves and objectively evaluate
themselves or their behaviors. I discuss this issue and its
applicablity to the Muslim world in this post.
This I find also to be true. Muslims, as a group, have serious problems with self-depreciating humor. And any attempt at poking fun of them or satiring them is taken as an insult of the highest degree, with big words such as diginity and honor thrown around. This is why I thought the Jewsih anti-semetic cartoon contest was brilliant, because it highlighted something that the Jews are capable of doing that the muslims- who are now fond of calling themselves " the world's new jews" to hihglight the persecution they feel in the west- are not able to do: We can not make fun of ourselves. To put it simply: We suck at it. Big time.
Hell, we are hypersensitive all the time. We whine that people don't seem to like us without asking ourselves why that is? We get really mad at the slighest rediciule or criticism, and run taking about Islamophobia, if not advocate violent reactions against those who did that. The majority of us do act like children, wanting the whole world bending to our will and whim and are not satisfied when things don't go our way. And we never criticize our actions, or the actions of those who claim to speak in the name of Islam and muslims. We view such a thing as shamefull, because we believe that any such criticism or attack will only "serve Islam's enemies" or "prove them right" and that's the last thing we want to do. Ignore reality, and demand that the rest of the world ignores it too-they seem to say- and be mad when they don't. Blame them for not ignoring the reality of the situation and for not living in the same denial you are living in. It's all their fault.
This needs to change, people. We need to be more self-critical. We need to stop being so sensitive. We also need to have a bigger sense of humor about ourselves. It's healthy. It helps. Trust me on that one!
April 4th, 2006 at 11:41 am
This is a common trait of all humans, not just Muslims but it is people who have a religious fervor that raise it to a high art. I have often read comments by Christians, Hugo Chavez style socialists, and countless other “true believers” and they all demonstrate the principle that those who talk the loudest laugh the least.
April 4th, 2006 at 12:28 pm
While we are very good at making fun of - and laughing at - ourselves, we Americans are second to none at playing the blame game. Blame anyone but yourself! Take responsibility for nothing! -sigh- We all have a lot to work on.
April 4th, 2006 at 2:13 pm
Interesting, the first two comments actually prove SM’s point. It was also my first instinct to point out that the West doesn’t always criticize itself as much as it should, but look at us. We’re all here criticizing ourselves. Yes, there are humourless fundamentalists in all cultures but it seems that the problem in the Muslim world is a bit more endemic.
April 4th, 2006 at 4:06 pm
I’ve mentioned this in the past, but here is the cite to the article by Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid which declares ‘excessive laughter’ to be haram.
http://63.175.194.25/books/shakawa/english.html
The Testaments — with all their faults — have a humanity, a charm, and even touches of humor that the Qur’an totally lacks. Can anyone imagine, for example an Islamic equivalent to the story in ACTS where Paul raises a young boy from the dead, because the reason he died was that Paul kept on talking so long that the boy went to sleep and fell off a third story windowsill where he’d been sitting and fell to the ground?
Add to this two factors. First, that like any fundamentalist/literalist, strict Muslims are afraid to discover critical thinking because they MIGHT slip and use it on their own sacred text and the tenets of their religion. Second, that Muslims have an equivalent to the ‘thin blue line’ police mentality. That they are fighting such an important war against an evil enemy that they dare not accept criticism of one of their own because it might strengthen the enemy and weaken their forces.
April 4th, 2006 at 6:03 pm
What Prup said reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend a few weeks ago…I asked a Muslim friend if she was going out for Valentine’s Day and got a very interesting answer. Not only was she not doing anything special (I’m sure there’s a club for that), but she informed me that we have too many holidays here. She said Muhammed said that a nation with more than one or two holidays is a nation that will fall. And she is always worried about laughing and “having too much fun”. Apparently, it doesn’t take much to be decadent.
April 4th, 2006 at 10:24 pm
Self-humour…can you really laugh at others, if you can’t laugh at yourself.?
The very _worst_ of the Danish cartoons, y’know the bomb-in-turban, actually made me chuckle, because it revealed the stupidity of westerners who think Islam= terrorrism…… Westerners are the ones made fun of. But it seems I’m the only one who saw it that way.
Any comments ?
April 8th, 2006 at 10:30 pm
Top marks monkey and Dr Sanity