"...their primary point was that you can make fun of anyone in a free democracy—except Muhammad. The threats and violence that have dogged anyone who dares even represent the prophet—from Salman Rushdie to Danish and Swedish cartoonists—have created a kind of fear-fueled exception to free-speech laws even in Western democracies. The episode addressed this hypocrisy clearly, even as Parker and Stone took care to obscure the actual image of Muhammad with everything from a black “censored” bar to a U-Haul truck to a bear mascot suit because South Park’s animated townspeople wanted to avoid having a fatwa placed on them. This wasn’t just provocative satire—it was both smart and brave. Unfortunately, South Park’s network, Comedy Central, seemed to cave into the threats to a degree when the second episode of the two-part series was aired this week, bleeping out even the mention of Muhammad’s name. This was cowardly and provided evidence that coercion could be successful... The group’s homepage—which is now down—featured the “warning” over audio from radical clerics and also showed the picture of the author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who was threatened alongside Van Gogh. I contacted Ayaan to get her take on the incident. “It is obviously a very clear threat and it echoes the same threats that were used against Theo van Gogh and me when he was alive,” Ayaan said. “It is an invitation to murder, a way of inspiring other people to kill. And how disgusting that they are using the image of an innocent man who was killed—he has a son and a mom and dad and friends. When you grieve, you get closure. For them, there's no closure this way. I don’t know if I can legally stop them from using my image, but I feel threatened by them and, according to the Netherland's Radio 4, the Dutch Secret Service say they are concerned for my safety. The images and audio on their website make it clear that they are in cahoots with [Al Qaeda cleric and propagandist] Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen and consider the Fort Hood shooter—Nidal Malik Hasan—a hero.”"And a good thing to support (different incident, but the same cause):
Recently, I asked you to put your names on a petition to support the 12 signatories of the Manifesto Against a New Totalitarianism. The manifesto signatories included me, Salman Rushdie, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Taslima Nasrin. We and eight others received a serious death threat from the British-based Islamic website ummah.com. (See a screen grab of the forum entry where the death threat was issued.)
Your signatures of solidarity with us would show that we are not afraid to defy Islamist radicals. More than 4,800 of you have already signed - and most of you have opted to name your city or town. I love your guts.
Only one person emailed a disconcerting message. Norman Finkelstein wrote to say, "Is there a petition supporting the death threats?"
Below are the opponents of the death threats. Thank you for going public. Remember that there's strength in numbers, so please forward this link to like-minded friends and family.
1 comment:
I acknowledge that she has the zeal of a convert when it comes to the modern secular West. Her knowledge of Catholicism and of the religious heritage of the West definitely requires some fine tuning.
Her critiques of Islam in "Infidel", at least, were all uncited--I grant. But in the course of reading it, I was not ever confused into believing that her grandmother's brand of Islam in any way represented mainstream Islam. Nor that her experiences were true across the Muslim world. Rather, it seemed very clear, especially in the context of her travels, that certain beliefs and traditions flourished in certain parts of the world which did not find equal favor elsewhere (FGM, for example).
I think she can definitely be criticized for her wholesale embrace of the modern, post Enlightenment secular project. But I also think her criticism of the lived experience of Islam in the places she lived ought to be take seriously, within and without the Islamic community.
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