You knew they had to go there!
“Are cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad as a terrorist the moral equivalent of using the n-word when speaking to an African-American?
Ihsan Bagby, a University of Kentucky professor of Arabic and Islamic studies, says a deep racism is behind the cartoons that have sparked riots and deaths throughout the Muslim world.
“This is simply another manifestation of racism that they have decided to cloak in freedom of speech,” he said.
Bagby was one of three featured speakers yesterday as more than 150 people filled a meeting room at UK’s W.T. Young Library to discuss the cartoons. Violent protests of the cartoons have resulted in at least 45 deaths, the latest 15 just the day before the event.”
Hold up! Wait a minute!!
Apparently Bagby has not been in this country long enough!
For starters:
#1- Black folk don’t blow things up or kill folk if someone call us the n-word.
#2- Our own songs contain the n-word. I didn’t know that there was an acceptable way to defame the name of Mohammed.
#3- Those cartoons are no more related to racism than Don Knotts to Murder Inc.
Later in the article, Bagby is quoted saying…
“They are not at all funny, and they are deeply, deeply offensive,” Bagby said.
That’s because Muslims think that the image of Muhammad should never be shown, he said.
Then why in the world did they not raise all this hell way back when?
The Islamic Prayer rugs play an important role in prayer and involve many factors. The first actual prayer rug was made around the fourteenth century, but it is said that the prophet, Muhammad, was depicted in many painting sitting on a prayer rug at an earlier date (Calatchi 39). (Source)
And this…
Portraying prophet from Persian art to South Park
By Anthony Browne and Ruth Gledhill
DESPITE the outcry, the Danish cartoons of Muhammad are just the latest in a long line of depictions of the Muslim prophet, both in the West and in Islamic countries. From Ottoman religious icons to market stalls in Iran, from the US Supreme Court building to the South Park cartoon, Muhammad has been frequently portrayed in flattering and unflattering lights. (more…)
Bagby also said this:
“He compared the climate that allowed the cartoons to be published to the climate that existed in America when it was considered acceptable to use slurs against blacks, Jews, and Italian and Irish immigrants. And to the growing feeling toward Hispanics today.”
Watch Comedy Central for at least a day and you will see that they cover all the bases.
Yeah, racism is wrong, but there is something afoot in this case–Bagby and others that share his opinion know full well that Americans for the most part have been kept out of the fray in this situation (other than what we see in the media). Because of this, the American opinion (which does hold a lot of weight in international affairs) has been pretty neutral. Bagby knows that the only way he can sway that opinion his way is by making it into a racial issue. Despite Comedy Central and other similar outlets where racial stereotypes are “acceptable” , religious tolerance is not as high on the totem pole in this country as racial sensitivity—and folks like Bagby know this!
My guess? This will not be the last time we hear this issue being framed as a racial debate.
I disagree that with your notion that racism isnt playing a part in the depiction of their islamic leader MOHAMMED.
Furthermore there is one crucial period we blacks can revisit in our own history to shed light on the hyprocisy of free speech in the American Media ..
Do you remember
On one occassion in brooklyn New York a former Mayor by the name of Rudolph Gullianni had removed a depiction of Jesus Christ? Let me refresh your memory.
One particular picture was singled out for having used elephant feces in its depiction. the media went ballistics learning that others like it also depicted a black man as Jesus Christ!
In the name of free speech the show lost its funding and subsquently removed by the brooklyn muesuem.
A public domain in a black community!
You do known,
similiar events have occurred regarding this so called practice of freedom of speech on American soil by its majoriative citizens?
for instance, the discontinuation of a Broadway show where Jesus is play by a black man are you reminded yet?
Its not freedom of speech its racism.
Its so simple that only the media can hide the simplicity of right and wrong.
Could you imagine the outcry if buddha or its people of china were depicted as fat slimy men holding a mc donald cheesburger? How would you feel seeing the god of your people depicted in such a fashion?
would you call that an attack on your culture or an expression of a people with good intentions?
Could you imagine Hare krishna and its mythical 2 face and eight hands holding eight condoms? How would you explain that?
Please lets not assume a position of neutrality and then point fingers if we are to be fair, we should never forget our own struggles and appreciate the awareness of unfairness no matter who it is.
The problem with this war is that its perpertrators-have travelled down a path of disrespect and refuse to acknowledge it.
In my opinion an over emphasized strategy on technological communication has devalued the compulsions of civility by means of men sitting at a table face to face and solving their problems.
drones machines and cartoons can never express fully the desires of man.
if a machine is to hae its own revenge, it is to defrock man and mangle every word of peace from its mouth.
Our country, These states, has forgone human diplomacy for machination.
This policy of talking machines be it guns bombs cameras voice clips internet, and tv. will do nothing but peace that old fashion human contact can do for it.
It’s time we end this nonsense in our global community by cutting the wires that employ it, agitate it and circumvent it ,and come to the table like human beings!
Comment by spacemanwalkth | February 21, 2006
Thanks for your comment!
On your first example, people were outraged because the depiction was made out of crap. I don’t recall anyone drawing the conclusion that the pile of crap also look like a black man—that is a faaaaarrrr stretch.
As far as your other examples go, you are still missing my point here. ALL OF THE CARTOONS (at least the ones that I have seen)WERE AIMED DIRECTLY AT MOHAMMED. Where does the race factor enter into that fact? While it is wrong to “make fun” of anybody’s religion, this still does not grant these radicals free reign to kill and destroy. It is the later that I am not hearing being acknowledged by those that want to make this Denmark’s fault.
Comment by Duane | February 21, 2006
I see that you do not understand that the only reason those cartoons surfaced in the first place was because of the anti-Muslim sentiments that have been going on in the west.
I feel sorry for any black person who can not draw a parallel between what’s being done to Muslims and the way black people have been and continue to be treated.
I’m not an African American but I am a Black Canadian and I can see the blatant racism in those cartoons. You don’t see the main stream media calling us niggers because it is socially unacceptable. This has nothing to do with free speech.
I guess it’s socially acceptable to degrade Muslims.
You said,ALL OF THE CARTOONS (at least the ones that I have seen)WERE AIMED DIRECTLY AT MOHAMMED. Where does the race factor enter into that fact?
Well the best way to insult any people is to attack the thing they hold closes to their hearts.
Try doing this to the Jews and see what the result will be.
Open you mind to what’s really going on.
Comment by Errol | February 21, 2006
I feel sorry for any black person who can not draw a parallel between what’s being done to Muslims and the way black people have been and continue to be treated.
(as I grab a chair)
So tell me, how ARE black people being treated these days?
While you are putting your thoughts together, also keep in mind of the REAL racism that is being applied by Arab Muslims on dark-skinned Africans in the Sudan.
Comment by Duane | February 21, 2006
RELIGION IS BLIND AND BACKWARDS THINKING. A DISEASE OF THE MIND WE CAN CURE. eXAMPPLE : I SAW A KKK MEMBER PRAYING TO GOD FOR A WHITE NATION. SO ONCE AGAIN PEOPLE ARE MURDERED OVER AN ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY WHICH IS VERY EMPTY WHEN COMPARED TO THE WORLD WE LIVE IN TODAY EVEN CHRISTANITY WITH ALL ITS BIBLE REMIXES. IN ORDER FOR THE WORLD TO CHANGE WE HAVE TO ALL REALIZE IN A TRUE WAY THAT GOD LIVES WITHIN AND THAT HE DOESNT CARE IF WE ARE SINGING HIS PRAISES IF WE ARE NOT LEARNING ABOUT HIM.
Comment by Brian | February 22, 2006