Friday, September 15, 2006

Week In Review

What a week.

We've already discussed the fifth anniversary of 9-11 but we're back at -- grrr, searching for better, less hackneyed term here -- ground zero in the war of words and swords with Islam.

Brace yourselves: We're on the cusp of another set of torchings, lynchings and wanton terrorist activity as "the religion of peace" rallies against Catholicism over "incendiary remarks" made by Pope Benedict about Islam.

Says the AP: Across the Islamic world Friday, Benedict's remarks on Islam and jihad in a speech in Germany unleashed a torrent of rage that many fear could burst into violent protests like those that followed publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

Oh boo-effing-hoo! Are you kidding me?? Where is the Islamic community defending the defamation of its faith by terrorists on the anniversary of 9-11, the attacks on London and the attacks on Madrid? Oh wait! The Islamic community thinks we DESERVED these things to happen to us. Duh! Their faith is "under attack" so of course they have a right to be offended when a public figure makes the following remark:

The pope quoted from a book recounting a conversation between 14th-century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II and a Persian scholar on the truths of Christianity and Islam.

"The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war," Benedict said. "He said, I quote, 'Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.'"

Umm, if the shoe fits....

Of course imams from Ankara to Jakarta are calling the faithful to make themselves "heard" (nothing screams "faithful Muslim" like the sound of a plane slamming into a skyscraper).

About 2,000 Palestinians angrily protested Friday night in Gaza City. Earlier, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, of the Islamic militant group Hamas, said the pope had offended Muslims everywhere.

The nerve. I LOVE how the Islamic community feels so entitled to respect and understanding. They have shown themselves to be nothing more than the worst epidemic to hit our planet since AIDS.

Someone who didn't back down from this position was Oriana Fallaci, whom I wrote about a few months ago in honor of her courageous affront to the threat of Islam in the West, has died today.

Says the New York Times:

[...] after she ended years of silence following the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. In three books beginning with “The Rage and the Pride” (Rizzoli: 2002) and many interviews after the world-changing events, she attacked not only Islamic extremists but Islam itself, as well as a West that she said had become too complaisant and tolerant to realistically understand the threat.

Saying that the “sons of Allah breed like rats,” she strongly condemned the growing immigration of Muslims in Europe, including her native Italy.

“Europe is no longer Europe, it is ‘Eurabia,’ a colony of Islam, where the Islamic invasion does not proceed only in a physical sense, but also in a mental and cultural sense,” she told the Wall Street Journal in 2005. “Servility to the invaders has poisoned democracy, with obvious consequences for the freedom of thought, and for the concept itself of liberty.”
Ms. Fallaci’s warnings endeared her to conservatives — and won her an audience in 2005 with Pope Benedict XVI, although she was a lifelong atheist — but she also faced accusations of racism.

In other news, I'm deeply troubled by the fame-seeking ways of one "Dr." Nancy Heche, mother of the formerly-homosexual Anne Heche. Dr. Heche lost her gay husband to AIDS and a bunch of other kids she had died too. The real blow, however, came when her daughter Anne took up with Ellen (guess Nancy is in the Rosie camp). She reveals all of this in her new book, snarkily entitled When the Truth Comes Out.

[...]Nancy continued to face trials. Fourteen years after her husband’s death, she was confronted with her daughter’s, actress Anne Heche, highly publicized lesbian affair. Anne announced that she was in love with Ellen DeGeneres and wouldn’t hide their affair. Nancy says Anne’s lesbian affair was, “Like a betrayal of an unspoken vow: We will never have anything to do with homosexuals.” She couldn’t believe that her daughter could walk into the same lifestyle Anne’s father had lived, that had taken ended their fairytale life.

Oh give me a break. Nancy went on Bill O'Reilly's show this Monday to talk about how she feels "wronged" by the homosexual world. YOU AND ME BOTH, HONEY! Do you know how many jerk queens I had to date before I wound up with James? You don't hear me axing for restitution!

Lord alive. Of all the weeks when the pitiful can shine from whatever platform they like it is appalling that these miserable nobodies are coming out of the woodwork as the world mourns one of the greatest terrorist attacks in modern history.

Can't wait for the weekend!


9 comments:

Red Tulips said...

We are totally in agreement here on this one!

I find it especially ironic that the head of Hamas speaks of offense to religion.

Talk about hypocrisy!

At this point, I am finding the news oddly comedic!

Jason said...

Its stupid to honor Fallici. Even someone as brain dead as Christopher hitchens said her writings on Islam were a primer on how NOT to write the subject.

Unknown said...

It's to the good that the Pope has raised the issue of conversion at the point of a sword.

The Western perception seems to be that is a true statement (albeit it dates from the 14th century). If it isn't true, let's have some scholarship which proves it to be false. If it is true, then let's have some discussion about how/whether that "conversion" technique should be abandoned.

My position is that there should be a re-reading of all monotheistic writings to understand metaphorical elements. If metaphor were more clearly established, then some of the more questionable humanistic dogma would lose force.

Maybe.

Jason said...

My position is that we get rid of all theistic elements, mono or otherwise.

Anonymous said...

My position is that we get rid of all theistic elements, mono or otherwise.

A better idea would be for people to grow some balls and not let people "offend" them. Seriously. Why would you want to grant someone the power to effect you?

Another idea would be to kick the asses of the douchebags who pretend to be offended so they can get on TV. I'll guarantee you they wouldn't be protesting and burning if there were no cameras present.

Gay Conservative Liberal said...

I should also point out that Christianity wasn't spread through fruit baskets and rosary beads. Christianity has it's own checkered past and the hulabaloo surrounding Madonna's crucifixion sequence on her current tour shows that fanatics are an easily riled bunch. My point in this post, however, is that Islam is re-emerging as a terrorist faith, much like Christianity was in the Middle Ages and through the Inquisition.

Red Tulips said...

GCL:

I completely agree with you re: Christianity and the way it was spread. But that was hundreds of years ago! However, the difference is that Christianity's violent past is opposed to what Jesus was about, whereas Islam's violent present is very much in sync with Mohammed. Also, the Koran is supposed to be the literal word of God, and hence is not open to change.

Christianity is intolerant in the present in its treatment of gays and sexuality, but it has nothing on Islam.

All this is very troubling...hmpf...

Jason said...

Rt, I think you're wrong on several things here.


""""However, the difference is that Christianity's violent past is opposed to what Jesus was about, whereas Islam's violent present is very much in sync with Mohammed. """"

Jesus also said he came not to bring peace but a sword, and any man without a sword should sell his garment to buy one. He seems to have been unable to make up his mind about this stuff.

Which is all moot to me anyway. I'm tired of hearing people whine about how the religion isnt bad and those that do bad things aren't following its true teachings.

People say it about Islam too.

I think the teachings of a religion are less important than what the followers are actually DOING.

Thats the REAL substance of a religion.

How people act on it.

Xians act with legislative theocratic grandstanding and muslims with violence.

To me, they're both terrible religions, because the actions of their adherents are what really speaks for them.

Not what some fictional characters in a book said.



"" Also, the Koran is supposed to be the literal word of God, and hence is not open to change.""

So is the bible, according to most xians.

Red Tulips said...

Jason:

I don't want what I said to be construed as an endorsement of Christianity. I am an atheistic Jew, so of course I do not endorse Christianity. But Christ did not lead the slaughter of tens of thousands of Jews. His followers did, sure, but Christ did not. Mohammed did.

So that is why I wonder how a religion that is based on a man like that can reform and become peaceful. But we shall see.

As far as the pope goes - he said far worse things about gays and sexuality - things which rather angered me. But I didn't riot and pillage. My gay friends didn't riot and pillage. I don't understand why we have to treat Muslims with kid gloves.