Stop the Presses: Muslims Offended!

Embedded photo from the Internet Haganah

This week has been awash with accusations of Western Nations intentionally insulting the Islamic religion. Or are Muslims just a little too sensitive over their religion? I'll let you decide.

- The US gives out free footballs (soccer balls) to kids in Afghanistan. These balls had pictures of many nation flags on them, to make them look more festive and promote a spirit of worldwide unity. Unfortunately, since the Saudi flag includes the name "Allah" on it, I guess it would be disrespectful to kick "Allah" around, so here is another excuse to protest against the evil Americans (several flags contain Christian crosses on them too, but so far the Pope has been silent on the issue). Of course, the locals were about to do the usual: get outraged, violently protest, burn cars, threaten death, etc, until the province governor calmed them down (I guess it does, in a sense, show the government is working there). Of course, the infidels apologized, as usual. Meanwhile, three Canadian soldiers, three German police, one Polish soldier, and one British soldier were killed by bombs or gunfire from the Taliban this month. No apology for any of these deaths has been publicly announced.

Incidentally, where did the insensitive Americans buy these blasphemous soccer balls? In Kabul.

Incredibly, Little Green Footballs racks up nearly a thousand comments over this issue.

- Cartoonist Berkely Breathed's "Opus" is pulled from several publications because of fears of offending Muslims. To their credit, Salon.com, who have often been loathe to criticize Muslims, reprints them on their site (here)

One of the title characters decides to go "burkah". I don't really see what is so offensive about this, but apparently Muslim staffers at the Washington Post (which syndicates the strip) reacted "emotionally". Strangely, earlier strips mocking George Bush, Christianity, and recently, Jerry Fallwell, were allowed to remain.

- In Sweden, Lars Vilks, an artist and a former professor of art at the Academy of Art in Bergen, Norway, entered an art exhibition having dogs as its theme. Lars decided to do something provocative, and draw dogs with the head of Mohammed (dogs are unclean animals in Islam). His drawings were called "roundabout dogs" (a "roundabout" is a traffic circle, much more common in Europe than the US), which refers to the wooden dogs that people set up in the middle of roundabouts, as sort of prevention against the ugly artwork that is sometimes put there instead. Some art galleries pulled Lar's work, but the illustrations were printed in some newspapers. As usual, there were protests, and of course, there were death threats as well. Even the Iranian government was involved:

Iran summoned a Swedish diplomat to its foreign ministry on Monday to protest against a cartoon in a Swedish newspaper depicting the head of Prophet Muhammad on a dog's body, Sweden's foreign ministry said.

"Gunilla von Bahr, Sweden's charge d'affaires, was summoned to the Iranian foreign ministry today where she received a protest from the Iranian government," foreign ministry spokeswoman Anna Björkander told AFP.

The Iranian government told Von Bahr the cartoon was "offensive to Prophet Muhammad,"

I hate to tell you this Iran, but unlike your country, Europe is not governed by Shariah law. If I have to put up with disrespectful depictions of Christ or the Pope, then I think you will have to put up with the same thing over Mohammed...

Earlier this week, to avoid offending Muslims, the villains of the opening episode of a new BBC Series "Casualty" were changed from Islamic terrorists to animal-rights extremists, and earlier this month, Gwen Stefani agreed to avoid wearing skimpy outfits during her Malaysia concert, after a protest by the "National Union of Malaysian Muslim Students".

Michelle Malkin says:

As we’ve learned from Rushdie Rage, MoCartoon Rage, Burger King Ice Cream Cone Rage, Koran Flushing Rage, Valentine’s Day Rage, Veil Rage, Pope Rage, Fallaci Rage, Miss World Pageant Rage, and Rushdie Knighthood Rage, they’re pretty damned “sensitive” (read: ready to riot) about everything.

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