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Tuesday, 26 Sep 2006
You know, after 2 weeks of the "Pope crisis", I have noticed something: The death toll and the violence has calmed down dramatically ever since our last crisis (cartoons, anyone?). Hell, this time we only killed like 3 people and firebombed 5 churches. That's it! Even the islamic rage day passed without anyone even injured. Compared to the cartoon crisis, where everyday someone was killed or injured, and a week wouldn't pass without us torching an embassy down, I have to say that we were extremely well behaved this time. Well, relatively speaking of course.
Anyway. My point is this: I give the muslims of the world shit when they act badly, and i figure i should also give them credit when they behave themselves, or at least try to behave themselves. And I have to say, compared to the cartoon crisis, they were very well behaved this time. I mean, only 3 people dead, when you used to have people getting set on fire on the street in Nigeria for being christian? If that's not one of life's little victories, I don't know what is.
So muslims of the world, I salute you for not going apeshit crazy this time and sticking to being moderately violent. At least you are trying, and that's all I could ask of you!
September 26th, 2006 at 2:57 pm
LOL.
Dick
September 26th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
As far as I can remember, the bloodiest incident during this stupid cartoons thing was the death of 10 Libyan protestors on the hands of their police forces!!!!!
The business of torching the followers of other religions seems to be common occurrence in hot countries. I read some report of the Hindus using it on the Sikh.
September 26th, 2006 at 3:25 pm
No shit SM!! Muslim will not act violently at least not as much as u mentioned. As a matter of fact, Christians are doing their role again of killing innocent people in places like Russia. We are not surprised to see Christians killing other people because of their race or religion especially if you are a Muslim. I mean its not shocking because this is what they always showed to the world.
Remember? God, King, Christians and any other race is just inferior to them. Well after all Christianity justified slavery in the US and serfdom in Russia. Nothing is surprising all is happening again and again. Do not forget what the Nationalist in Britain are doing to the Pakis because they believe Christians are the “superior” race and any other religion are so not recognized that they simply kill them and I mean Muslims by that.
Check it out your self, this is what Christians are doing to Muslim and that’s just one example. Of course SM will not acknowledge with some facts of Christians, he is cool dude though! Christians, please stop violence and killing us, we are good people and we make good TEA! Here is the link for Christian Russians. PEACE
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3892E32D-56F4-4C10-B523-665222B5E63E.htm
September 26th, 2006 at 4:36 pm
i luv Egypt -
The West has always been worried about this sort of thing happening. Legal systems are followed and respected by most of its citizens, even in Russia: “A police officer was also wounded when trying to stop two armed people in the street.”
Also, we might put this into some context.
Christianity justified slavery in the US and serfdom in Russia. So did Islam. (Tons more if you want to Google it) Can we move into to 21st century, now?
September 26th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
Death to Russia!
And China too while we’re at it! They’ve been treating muslims like dirt for decades! Maybe centuries!
September 26th, 2006 at 5:45 pm
Extra! Extra!!!
Pope in manufactured scandal!
Not many dead.
September 26th, 2006 at 5:57 pm
I luv egypt
Why are we supposed to assume anything about the religion of the unknown assailants? Are we supposed to take it on faith that they were Christians?
September 26th, 2006 at 6:15 pm
“slavery”
Americans bought all their slaves from - AHEM! - Arab slavers.
I’ve seen recent fatwas noting slavery is just as Islamic as it ever was. In 2003 the head cleric of Saudi Arabia said as much. A guy in Colorado just used it as a defense in his slavery case, noting he was just “following traditional Muslim values.” Slavery was supposedly made illegal in Saudi Arabia in 1962. Yes, nineteen.
If you’re going to make up crap, at least try to make up crap which can’t be disproven with a simple Internet search.
September 26th, 2006 at 6:20 pm
I think that there is a pattern here: decreasing violence is a food thing. Maybe Muslims are getting used to having uppity kafirs refuse to accept second class dhimmi status. I suggest we need a rotating pool of world leaders who will go around saying rude things about Islam or Muhammed as a test case. Perhaps even the radicals will get used to it and grow up. Perhaps not. Either way how can we lose? I suggest next month Bill Clinton ought to give a speech on Muhammed’s influence on his sex life. Perhaps the month after that Bush on how he learnt so much from Muhammed on the pre-emptive invasion of other countries based on false evidence (c.f. the Battle of Tabouk).
September 26th, 2006 at 7:01 pm
HeiGou -
LOL, you’re funny
September 26th, 2006 at 7:07 pm
This is getting out of hand. Mormons in Utah (U.S.) were reported giving 3 Muslims a dirty look while a group of Sufi’s in Egypt were seen waging their finders at Christian tourists while making a loud tsk, tsk sound.
Reign in your radicals, people!
Meanwhile the Dahli Lama’s cousin Fernando was quoted as saying he really didn’t see what all the fuss was about!
September 26th, 2006 at 8:33 pm
A hilarious post, SM, and funny, witty comments!
September 26th, 2006 at 8:51 pm
HeiGou;
You mean like allgery shots? Keep giving doses of it until you become immune.
September 26th, 2006 at 8:56 pm
Do you think that is because they are beginning to realize how they are being perceived by the rest of the world?: as wild-eyed crazed and senseless hotheads?
Are they coming to grips with the novel concept of “shame” for socially unacceptable behavior in a global village?
Just curious.
September 26th, 2006 at 9:47 pm
Inoculation.
September 26th, 2006 at 10:19 pm
I should have mentioned a terrible example of child slavery in the ME: that of camel jockeys. Granted, there are many parts of the world in which children are treated as slaves - not just Muslim. But this is something so blatant, I’m surprised it hasn’t been brought up before.
i luv Egypt, I don’t mean to pick on you. I remember when many in the US were prejudiced against Iranians during our Hostage crisis - often unfairly. With decent people, it doesn’t come from claims of superiority so much as distrust and fear. There will always be bigots, but our laws do not favor them. Certainly not in “Eurabia,” that’s for sure!
Europe is more concerned with the perception that they favoring Islamic bigots these days. As for Russia? Well, Russia is Russia.
HeiGou - I’ve thought this very thing! Desensitize them, you know. Maybe they’re getting tired? I did wonder about the petering out of rage after the Pope incident. Even some of the Lefties thought the reaction was bizarrely illogical. Of course, it’s still just the beginning of Ramadan…
September 26th, 2006 at 11:08 pm
LOL, SM.
I think Ramadan and all, our Jihadi friends just are too hungy during the day to do anything
September 27th, 2006 at 2:18 am
It is sort of like kind of like certain schools of thought for treating phobias. If long periods of slow gradual desensitization to the emotional trigger (in this case Western and global culture) is not an option (due to time constraints) the subject is confronted full on with the worst exposure to the trigger one can produce in an attempt to overload the emotional response to that trigger. Maybe it is time for an international day of blasphemy. It will either cure extremism or else cause such a white hot rage that the continents will be melted. Either way it should be an interesting show.
September 27th, 2006 at 3:50 am
What next can we do to offend the Muslim world at large? Any creative ideas?
September 27th, 2006 at 3:57 am
“Maybe it is time for an international day of blasphemy.”
I cannot see the word blasphemy without cringing in horror…when I was in school a teacher asked us all for an example of a blasphemous statement, which she would then turn around and show how pathetic it was.
I was all wound up as she went around the room. I could not think of anything - or nothing that another child had not already said. My turn came around and I said…well, I said something I thought was pretty topical…and the lady just blinked at me with her mouth open.
After we all thought she was going to faint, she just went to a chair and sat down. And stayed there for the rest of the lesson, saying nothing - just staring into space.
I guess that is off-topic, hey. Although I think I would be against a day of blasphemy. I would probably win. And be shamed yet again.
September 27th, 2006 at 8:11 am
Islamist violence as a function of time? Interesting!
Now, we need a third crisis, and when it happens and we obtain the death toll and other parameters of violence, we’ll have the 3 points needed to draw the graphic of a function. Then we can extrapolate it to the future to see when (if at all) we expect to have peace.
September 27th, 2006 at 8:49 am
[...] I was going to blog about this but Sandmonkey went ahead and did it before me. Have you noticed that this Pope crisis didn’t generate as much violence as the cartoons did. No. seriously you’ve got to admit that. I was expecting the Day of Rage that Sheikh Qaradawi declared to be… well, a serious and gigantic day of rage. It didn’t turn out to be that “ragey” after all. Yaaay, we’re improving and becoming less violent. Or maybe it’s just Ramadan. Owwww we’re all too hungry to go all “jihady” on the Pope are we? [...]
September 27th, 2006 at 9:35 am
It would be good to turn these demonstrations into ceremonies.
In England, every November 5th we let off fireworks and burn effigies of a Catholic terrorist from 400 years ago. Generally a few people across the country get injuries from the fireworks.
But nobody takes it seriously as a violent religious demonstration. Roman Catholics join in like everyone else. It is just a fun party.
Don’t forget that riots are fun.
September 27th, 2006 at 10:15 am
Well, as I said at BP’s place the other day
http://www.bigpharaoh.com/2006/09/23/on-combos/
the Germans have troubles getting rid of their flags. Since the reaction over the pope wasn’t as violent, we have submitted a new application for Moslems burning our flags. Yesterday a Mozart opera - that hasn’t been played for three years - was taken off the program.
The reason for this phantom move is fear of muslim reactions. In the end of this particular show Idomeneo pulls four heads out a bloody bag: Poseidon, Jesus, Buddah and … yeah, no, I won’t mention the M-word.
The opera house said, a ‘risk analysis’ of Berlins criminal police had alerted them. Today for breakfast, we were confronted with a huge coloured picture in our newspaper. Unfortunatly the online version is tiny:
http://www.welt.de/data/2006/09/27/1052025.html
Just in case we offer a second Mozart opera for flag-burning-purposes: ‘The Abduction from the Harem’ depicts Muslims!
Please do me a favour and spread the word. I can’t stand these ugly pictures for breakfast, so let’s have the flag-burning-party soon. Otherwise the world might recognise the real news in this thing: German cultural live has gone down the drains, particularly in Berlin.
PS: don’t tell them, that the particular scene has absolutely nothing to do with Mozart’s intentions, but is the stupid idea of a stupid unfamous so-called artist who claimes to follow the route of enlightment against religion.
PPS: don’t tell them that the pope might dislike the scene just as well
PPPS: don’t let them read this:
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=OA0892D
PPPPS: Don’t tell them that Mozart is Austrian!!!
September 27th, 2006 at 11:18 am
Sandmonkey you sure did come a looooong way bro… I just read this for the first time…
http://www.sandmonkey.org/2004/12/19/my-first-entry/#comments
I didn’t know Twosret was in the opposition since the beginning. Nice! LOL
Man, I salute you for this blog. I’ll raise a toast for BP too since he’s the one who got me into blogging… BP thanx wherever you are bro…
September 27th, 2006 at 2:36 pm
Drima! Thanks for the tour down memory lane at Sandmonkey’s. Wish I could have been here then, too. Better late than never.
Katrin - thanks for the info on Idomeneo. I heard a little blip about it on the news a couple of mornings ago and meant to look it up. I thought I was familiar with Mozart’s operas and was surprised to hear about this one. His first? Sounds like he didn’t have much artistic control over it in several ways.
Urugan - what horrible blasphemous thing did you say? I’m dying of curiousity!
Don Cox - an equivalent Guy Fawkes Day? Hmm. That is sort of “in house,” though…
September 27th, 2006 at 2:54 pm
Now, come on, Katrin! We all know it was those violent Buddhists and Christians the opera house was really worried about.
September 27th, 2006 at 2:58 pm
How about if I film myself wiping my ass with torn out pages from the Qur’an and put it on YouTube? I could title it “Fudging the Qur’an.”
Do you think I’ll get my own fatwa? Will I get my own peaceful (or not so peaceful) “Day of Rage?”
September 27th, 2006 at 4:23 pm
Bec:
Idomeneo is his 12th opera. It is not very popular for two reasons:
1. it is an opera seria –> heroic tragedy. Usually Mozart is known for his comical, easy going operas.
2. it lasts more than three hours. –> labour unions!
The original greek story of Idomeneo ends up with Idomeneo killing his son for the sake of peace. Mozart and his writer changed this end. When the son’s girlfriend offers to sacrifice her life instead of his, the God acknowledges the triumph of love. Typical for Mozart, who was a devout catholic btw.
After having Idomeneo singing to the God: ‘thank you’ and ‘love has triumphed’, this tiny German director had the idea of Idomeneo taking the bloody heads out of the bag. He (the director) wanted to demonstrate that Idomeneo had gotten rid of religion and found his own self.
Being familiar with Mozart, maybe you can imagine my fury after this: my daughter is now interested in operas. So I thought we might start with The Magic Flute. We saw a boyish Pamina with dingy black pants and a gay Papageno in pink stockings. When the Queen of the Night starts her famous aria, I close the eyes and listen. Because most of them aren’t able to manage the higher part properly. Suddenly, I hear the audience laugh and open my eyes: a screen behind her showed her mouth and at that moment the camera was zooming until you saw her vibrating uvulas. She missed the high tones, but who could blame her?
Nothing against gays or anatomy, but the director had managed to eliminate any fantasy from the entire piece. I know operas can be directed in a more intelligent way, thanks to Vienna and Switzerland.
Back to Idomeneo: it is beautiful music, but not as easy to digest as his other operas.
tommy:
I am not saying that Muslims are peaceful all over the world. But somehow they were not as violent as expected last Friday. Even though the New York Times talks about an anonymous thread, there were no threads. Just a nervous German lady who had anonymously called the police.
Instead we had the first Islamic conference in Berlin today. No Muslim outcry up to now. German politicians talking in the papers this morning about the incident and what we have to ask from ‘our’ German Muslims. And a minister of the interior who could tell them they have to be German before feeling as a Muslim.
September 27th, 2006 at 5:19 pm
Is the definition of a moderate muslim someone who reacts violently to insults only *some* of the time??
September 27th, 2006 at 7:34 pm
Katrin -
Thanks for the further elucidation of Idomeneo. I kept finding it listed as his first opera for some reason.
I saw a beautifully done Magic Flute on television several years back - I think it was done in Sweden. They hit the proper tone and it was truly comical, moving and inspiring (in that Masonic sort of way). Operas should be done in the spirit of the composer and done well, or not at all. There’s nothing more painful and silly if it isn’t done right! I can’t stand the way people fool around with them these days.
I’ve always wondered if anyone might animate some of them one day. Could you imagine a well done animation of Das Rheingold? Talk about trippy! I happen to love Russian opera best, though. Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov and Khovanschina in particular - but Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakoff as well and I’m sorry to ramble, but this is a favorite subject of mine and I rarely get to share it. I’ll stop.
September 27th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
Urugan? #20? “International Day of Blasphemy”? You didn’t make that up, did you? The whole idea of one is soooo silly!
September 28th, 2006 at 3:53 am
Mozart a devout man? Somehow this sounds wrong.
Talking about modern opera staging - regretfully, I saw a Dutch TV version of Il Trovatore with gangsters, drugs and prostitution, integral nudity and copulation. The sleeze culminated when the duke was singing ‘La dona e mobile’ while peeing. I gagged and wept for Verdi. The poor guy must rotate in his grave. There is also a cheap topless staging of Aida filmed in Sweden. I wouldn’t mind if someone stuck a knife into the directors responsible for this torture of a great composer.
September 28th, 2006 at 10:53 am
Bec & Eva
Operas should be done in the spirit of the composer and done well, or not at all.
Yep! I was surprised about how many opera lovers suddenly appeared in the http://www. How about freeing operas from bad directors and just as unqualified commentators with a movement? We should call it ‘Operas for peace’ though - nowadays you have to declare yourself peaceful before stabbing or torturing someone
This peeing thing seems to be very much at vogue - I just learned that Lessings ‘Nathan der Weise’ has to pee as well. The opera next to my place favors nudes. A male model for Händel - I wondered whether steroids might have changed his voice from tenor to baritone.
http://www.store-by.com/images/anabolic_steroid.jpg
In another Haendel opera the chorus was naked and covered with blood. I don’t remember where I saw this female singer who wouldn’t have been allowed as a model in Spanish fashion shows. (The Spanish just banned models who are too thin).
I wonder what this marketing concept is aimed at… Pulling peep-shows out of the dark corner?
The poor guys from the Islamic Conference in Berlin ended up vowing to visit this beheading opera thing all together.
September 28th, 2006 at 11:50 am
“Mozart a devout man? Somehow this sounds wrong.”
Why? He wrote a good deal of religious music.
As for stupid productions, I think I will stick to CDs, where you can imagine your own scenery and costumes. Directors who think their ideas are important are a menace.
September 28th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
Uragan -
Awwwww, cm’on, what was the blasphemy? I can’t sleep now until I find out
September 28th, 2006 at 5:07 pm
Mozart was a devout catholic but was in controversy Church’s representatives.
He believed that love was above all and somehow his understanding of Christianity didn’t match with some of the officials point of view.
Just as Dandash’ love for sexy Jewish boys might not match the theological understanding of some Islamic representatives right now.