The Boston Globe
May 19, 2005

Why Islam is disrespected
By Jeff Jacoby

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/05/19/why_islam_is_disrespected/

IT WAS front-page news this week when Newsweek retracted a report claiming that a US interrogator in Guantanamo had flushed a copy of the Koran down a toilet. Everywhere it was noted that Newsweek's story had sparked widespread Muslim rioting, in which at least 17 people were killed. But there was no mention of deadly protests triggered in recent years by comparable acts of desecration against other religions.

No one recalled, for example, that American Catholics lashed out in violent rampages in 1989, after photographer Andres Serrano's ''Piss Christ" -- a photograph of a crucifix submerged in urine -- was included in an exhibition subsidized by the National Endowment for the Arts. Or that they rioted in 1992 when singer Sinead O'Connor, appearing on ''Saturday Night Live," ripped up a photograph of Pope John Paul II.

There was no reminder that Jewish communities erupted in lethal violence in 2000, after Arabs demolished Joseph's Tomb, torching the ancient shrine and murdering a young rabbi who tried to save a Torah. And nobody noted that Buddhists went on a killing spree in 2001 in response to the destruction of two priceless, 1,500-year-old statues of Buddha by the Taliban government in Afghanistan.

Of course, there was a good reason all these bloody protests went unremembered in the coverage of the Newsweek affair: They never occurred.

Christians, Jews, and Buddhists don't lash out in homicidal rage when their religion is insulted. They don't call for holy war and riot in the streets. It would be unthinkable for a mainstream priest, rabbi, or lama to demand that a blasphemer be slain. But when Reuters reported what Mohammad Hanif, the imam of a Muslim seminary in Pakistan, said about the alleged Koran-flushers -- ''They should be hung. They should be killed in public so that no one can dare to insult Islam and its sacred symbols" -- was any reader surprised?

The Muslim riots should have been met by outrage and condemnation. From every part of the civilized world should have come denunciations of those who would react to the supposed destruction of a book with brutal threats and the slaughter of 17 innocent people. But the chorus of condemnation was directed not at the killers and the fanatics who incited them, but at Newsweek.

From the White House down, the magazine was slammed -- for running an item it should have known might prove incendiary, for relying on a shaky source, for its animus toward the military and the war. Over and over, Newsweek was blamed for the riots' death toll. Conservative pundits in particular piled on. ''Newsweek lied, people died" was the headline on Michelle Malkin's popular website. At NationalReview.com, Paul Marshall of Freedom House fumed: ''What planet do these [Newsweek] people live on? . . . Anybody with a little knowledge could have told them it was likely that people would die as a result of the article." All of Marshall's choler was reserved for Newsweek; he had no criticism at all for the marauders in the Muslim street.

Then there was Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who announced at a Senate hearing that she had a message for ''Muslims in America and throughout the world." And what was that message? That decent people do not resort to murder just because someone has offended their religious sensibilities? That the primitive bloodlust raging in Afghanistan and Pakistan was evidence of the Muslim world's dysfunctional political culture?

No: Her message was that ''disrespect for the Holy Koran is not now, nor has it ever been, nor will it ever be, tolerated by the United States."

Granted, Rice spoke while the rioting was still taking place and her goal was to reduce the anti-American fever. But what ''Muslims in America and throughout the world" most need to hear is not pandering sweet-talk. What they need is a blunt reminder that the real desecration of Islam is not what some interrogator in Guantanamo might have done to the Koran. It is what totalitarian Muslim zealots have been doing to innocent human beings in the name of Islam. It is 9/11 and Beslan and Bali and Daniel Pearl and the USS Cole. It is trains in Madrid and schoolbuses in Israel and an ''insurgency" in Iraq that slaughters Muslims as they pray and vote and line up for work. It is Hamas and Al Qaeda and sermons filled with infidel-hatred and exhortations to ''martyrdom."

But what disgraces Islam above all is the vast majority of the planet's Muslims saying nothing and doing nothing about the jihadist cancer eating away at their religion. It is Free Muslims Against Terrorism, a pro-democracy organization, calling on Muslims and Middle Easterners to ''converge on our nation's capital for a rally against terrorism" -- and having only 50 people show up.

Yes, Islam is disrespected. That will only change when throngs of passionate Muslims show up for rallies against terrorism, and when rabble-rousers trying to gin up a riot over a defiled Koran can't get the time of day.

Odd.  For the first time in my life I have a small area of agreement with the Boston Globe.

THE END IS NEAR!

Ramming jets into office buildings doesn't help the image, either.

neither does shitting in your pants looking for a sign from the man for a week very impressive......

All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9/11.

Quoted: All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9/11.

Thats a sigline.

Quoted: Ramming jets into office buildings doesn't help the image, either.

Yeah does not help the religion of peace and love all that much.  

nuke 'em all.

They got their disrespect the old fashioned way; they earned it.

Quoted: All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9/11.

I've been warned by Staff to never utter such words here.

Quoted: Quoted: Ramming jets into office buildings doesn't help the image, either. Yeah does not help the religion of peace and love all that much.

+1

Oh yeah, I B T

Quoted: Quoted: All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9/11. I've been warned by Staff to never utter such words here.

I am sure you were never that indirect.

That story does say a lot about the problem.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9/11. I've been warned by Staff to never utter such words here. Well, couldn't what you learned on 9/11 be that there were 1.1 billion Moslems who were NOT on those four planes? I mean, that is one lesson that could be derived from 9/11. Eric The(AreWeDoomed?IsThisThreadDoomed?)Hun

Well, they can speak up if they'd like.

Sigline below.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9/11. I've been warned by Staff to never utter such words here. Well, couldn't what you learned on 9/11 be that there were 1.1 billion Moslems who were NOT on those four planes? I mean, that is one lesson that could be derived from 9/11. Eric The(AreWeDoomed?IsThisThreadDoomed?)Hun

Actually it was the tens of thousands of Mulisms openly cheering in the streets all around the world and the continued call for more death and destruction from their highest Muslim religious LEADERS that says so much about them too.

Quoted: Odd.  For the first time in my life I have a small area of agreement with the Boston Globe. THE END IS NEAR!

+1 VERY DISTURBING

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9/11. I've been warned by Staff to never utter such words here. I am sure you were never that indirect.

Actually it was that EXACT quote that I was told by Staff was verboten here.

Quoted: Quoted: Well, they can speak up if they'd like. Now, see? That's another goup of lessons to be learned from 9/11. Moderate Moslems don't get out much. They are shy. They hesitate to speak in public. They don't rush towards the news cameras, but away from them. Eric The(Reticent)Hun

I'm not asking they all blow off a prayer session to march.  A simple letter, and a few thousand beheadings of certain 'unfriendly' Muslims would clear up that whole "with us/against us" thing.

Quoted: Quoted: All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9/11. I've been warned by Staff to never utter such words here.

Really?

EVERYTHING you need to know about those pigs you can learn right here Muhammad was a thief, rapist, and terrorist.

Prophet Of Doom

Quoted: Quoted: Actually it was the tens of thousands of Mulisms openly cheering in the streets all around the world and the continued call for more death and destruction from their highest Muslim religious LEADERS that says so much about them too. I actually accounted for that when I said 1.1 billion Moslems NOT on that plane. There are likely 1.2 billion Moslems in the World. Eric The(See?I'mVeryFairminded)Hun

Well obviously they can't ALL fit on those planes.

But if even HALF of all Muslims opposed the hijacking of their religion by MoslemMaggot terrorists, that would be the end of Al Qaeda. But they don't.

The reason that so many Clerics, Imams and Ayatollahs can publically spout such calls for genocidal jihad against Western Civilization is because they are SUPPORTED by the vast majority of Muslims around the world.

Quoted: Eric The(See?I'mVeryFairminded)Hun

Personally, I just think it's kinda cool that Eric (can think of a new name for himself with every post)Hun
And...IBTL

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9/11. I've been warned by Staff to never utter such words here. Really?

Yes. That exact quote is verboten here.


Or maybe it's just verboten if posted by me.

To answer the original question: "Why Islam is disrespected?"


Gee... I have absolutely NO idea.

Quoted: But God would have spared Sodom and Gomorrah had there been just ten righteous men! {Well, we know how THAT turned out.} Surely there are ten righteous men in all of Islamdom?

There may have been 10 righteous Japanese in Hiroshima and Nagasaki too - but that didn't stop us from raining hellfire down upon them to utterly destroy their will to wage war against us.

It's way past the time we mustered up a similar will to win this war.

Quoted: Quoted: All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9/11. I've been warned by Staff to never utter such words here.

then I will, All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9/11!

Quoted: To answer the original question: "Why Islam is disrespected?" Gee... I have absolutely NO idea. Mac, after posting "All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9/11. "

Maybe you shouldnt post that pic. It's too inflamatory.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Actually it was the tens of thousands of Mulisms openly cheering in the streets all around the world and the continued call for more death and destruction from their highest Muslim religious LEADERS that says so much about them too. I actually accounted for that when I said 1.1 billion Moslems NOT on that plane. There are likely 1.2 billion Moslems in the World. Eric The(See?I'mVeryFairminded)Hun Well obviously they can't ALL fit on those planes. But if even HALF of all Muslims opposed the hijacking of their religion by MoslemMaggot terrorists, that would be the end of Al Qaeda. But they don't. The reason that so many Clerics, Imams and Ayatollahs can publically spout such calls for genocidal jihad against Western Civilization is because they are SUPPORTED by the vast majority of Muslims around the world.

The mainstream Islamic head Muslim leader of the Palestinians called for the extermination of Jews worldwide last Friday.  His words are almost identical to words of Hitler.  He is not a member of Al Qaeda -- he is representative of muslims in his country.  It is a Neville Chamberlain fantasy to preach tolerance out of the naive belief that mainstream Muslims are "good, peaceful" people.

Quoted: Quoted: All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9/11. I've been warned by Staff to never utter such words here.

It's in my heart and mind, thats good enough for me.

Quoted: Quoted: But God would have spared Sodom and Gomorrah had there been just ten righteous men! {Well, we know how THAT turned out.} Surely there are ten righteous men in all of Islamdom? There may have been 10 righteous Japanese in Hiroshima and Nagasaki too - but that didn't stop us from raining hellfire down upon them to utterly destroy their will to wage war against us. It's way past the time we mustered up a similar will to win this war.

I had a dream. A dream in which this planet was a burned out cinder. Only one person remained. A simple soul from what use to be America's heartland. Standing over the graves of his family in a destroyed wasteland. A strange ship appears from the fallout filled sky and lands near the lone human. A being exits and greets the human in his native speak. "What has happened to your beautiful planet?" The human looks at the visitor and starts to weep. In the human's hand is a piece of newspaper. The headline reads; "Islam (Antichrist)". The visitor says, "They did this?" The human sobs, "Yes, they destroyed it all because they could not control us. My leaders knew them to be evil but the rest of the world embraced them and were decieved by them." The human pulls a small piece of cloth from his pocket. "What is that?" Asked the visitor. "The human said, "A symbol of freedon and liberty." The human began to weep again. The visitor saw in the human's hand a flag. A flag of the United States of America.

I'm not one for dreams but this one freaked me out. I gota lay off the JD...

Save the planet, Burn Korans for fuel......

I plan on descecrating some Korans just for grins this weekend.   Fuck the ROP.

Quoted: Oh yeah, I B T www.MetalSchnitzel.com/images/ForumFodder/lockd.gif

heh. Thought that said "In Before Terrorists"

Quoted: Quoted: To answer the original question: "Why Islam is disrespected?" Gee... I have absolutely NO idea. img.photobucket.com/albums/v409/shield13/radicalposter20031.jpg Mac, after posting "All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9/11. " Maybe you shouldnt post that pic. It's too inflamatory.

"Inflammatory"?
That's an actual pic / flyer post from Britain's resident jihadis. Al Mujahiroun is a HUGE problem in Britain.
How can the literal Truth be "inflammatory"?

This is why I stay away for months at a time.

Quoted: This is why I stay away for months at a time.

Stay away from what?

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: All I need to know about Islam I learned on 9/11. I've been warned by Staff to never utter such words here. Well, couldn't what you learned on 9/11 be that there were 1.1 billion Moslems who were NOT on those four planes? I

Would those be the same 1.1 billion Muslims that said nothing after the attack? The widespread lac of condemnation for 9/11 by the Pan Arab nations speaks volumes. Even more so that the hundreds of thousand who danced in the streets after the attacks.. How about Saudi Arabia's refusal to even acknowledge the vast majority of the 9/11 hijackers were their citizens.........Ever wonder why the constant and echoing cries of Jihad, Holy War and the murder of infidels by muslim clerics is never condemned by their host Govt? Hint: Its because they and their citizens support them!

When the RoP gets off its collective ass and condemn the widespread advocation of the murder of non-muslims I may take notice. Until then, I consider the RoP to be nothing less than a murderous cult.....