It certainly is a symptom of a more serious disease; but what disease is that? When Aydin says that the problem stems from "ignorance, arrogance, insensitivity and festering political differences that fuel hostilities," clearly he is placing the responsibility for cartoon rage on the West: if only the Danes and others had been more sensitive and knowledgeable, all this wouldn't have happened.
No one seems to have had the common sense or courage to explain that free societies allow for the giving of offense and require peaceful responses to such offenses. Or that to kill people across the world who had nothing to do with the cartoons because of those cartoons is sheer madness.
"Tutu: Muslim Anger Not Just About Cartoons," from AP, with thanks to all who sent this in:
DOHA, Qatar - The furor over the Prophet Muhammad drawings is a small part of an expanding divide between Islam and the West, or what international leaders such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu described as the "symptom of a more serious disease."Attending a U.N.-sponsored conference aimed at healing the deepening rift, Tutu and 19 other delegates agreed that key ways to bridge the chasm were reaching out to young people and providing more education. Even then, they agreed it would take years of dialogue and practical steps before the rift can be healed.
More education about what? Which young people will be educated? Will Muslims be taught that peaceful responses to offenses are a requirement of pluralism, and that pluralism is a requirement of the modern world? Or will Westerners be educated about the necessity to put Islam and Muslims in a privileged position, and not to criticize or denigrate them in any way?
"What we face nowadays is not a clash of civilizations but a clash mostly caused by ignorance, arrogance, insensitivity and festering political differences that fuel hostilities," Turkish minister of state Mehmet Aydin said...."What has happened and the aftermath has been seen as a symptom of a more serious disease," said Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner. "Had relationships been different, one, the cartoons might not have happened, or if they had, they probably would have been handled differently."
Handled differently by whom? Let's remember why the cartoons "happened" in the first place: a Danish author couldn't get anyone to illustrate his book about Muhammad. A Danish newspaper decided to print the cartoons, nine of which were completely inoffensive and three of which mildly noted the connection between Islam and violence, which Muslims around the world have been making every day. The intention was not to provoke people to irrational violence, but to reassert Western principles of free speech, which -- as cartoon rage itself shows vividly -- are being threatened by the intimidation and intransigence that some Muslims are now bringing to the West.
The European Union on Monday said that although it regretted the cartoons were "considered offensive" by Muslims, freedom of expression "is a fundamental right and an essential element of a democratic discourse."Opinions like that angered former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, who complained at the meeting that "we already have enough misunderstandings in our world today."
"Insulting the beliefs and customs of people and religions is not freedom of speech. This is not only related to Islam. We must respect the beliefs of other nations and religions whether we believe in them or not. If we don't believe or approve of them, we must challenge them through discussion and intellectual undertakings," he said.
Khatami's words ring hollow in light of the manifest lack of respect the Iranian regime has for Israel and for the West in general. In any case, "insulting the beliefs and customs of people and religions" is precisely freedom of speech. Freedom of speech must be guaranteed because when a powerful group is insulted or threatened by it, it seeks to suppress it. That suppression thus becomes a cardinal protection for tyranny. Western nations have, in the course of history, determined that it is preferable to put up with insult and offense than to acquiesce to tyranny. This is nothing to apologize for, and is a principle that should and must be defended, for it is under attack:
Tutu noted that freedom of expression also came with some obligations."Imagine if the subject had been the Holocaust and it had been treated in a way that the Jews had deemed offensive and the reaction of the Danish government and international community had been as it is now," he said.
In this Tutu descends to a new low, and echoes the likes of murderous thugs like Ahmadinejad. Holocaust denial is illegal in Europe. I do not approve of such laws, but in any case denying a manifest fact and spreading falsehoods is not equivalent to noting that Muslims have been violent, which is a daily fact of life. Moreover, insulting Jews and Christians is not illegal, and happens all the time in Europe and America. But because Jews and Christians never react violently, there has never been a UN commission about these insults, and never will be, and Desmond Tutu has never seen fit to pontificate piously about the responsibility that comes with free speech when faced with the likes of "Piss Christ."
He lamented the negative stereotyping of Muslims and wondered why North Ireland's Protestants and Catholics, the Oklahoma City bombers or even the Nazis had never been labeled "Christian terrorists."
Oh for pete's sake, Desmond. It sounds as if you have been handed, and studied well, the jihad apologists' handbook. The differences between these examples and Islamic terrorists are numerous. For one thing, Islamic violence is a constant of Islamic history. And throughout that history, up to today, violent Muslims have justified it by recourse to Islamic teachings about the necessity to make war against and subjugate the infidels. Christianity has no such teachings. Certainly Christians have been violent throughout history -- human nature, of course, is everywhere the same. But there is no organized global movement of Christians dedicated to imposing the Christian social order by force, and never has been. The violence in Ireland, although conducted by groups identified by their religion, was not justified by Christian principles even by those who carried it out. The Oklahoma City bombings were perpetrated (probably) by avowed atheists who are routinely mischaracterized as fundamentalist Christians. The Nazis were operating according to the racial and genocidal principles of Hitler. Yes, he was baptized Catholic, but was not observant and formulated a German neo-paganism that was deeply hostile to Christianity. Certainly he exploited Christian anti-Semitism; he also spoke of his desire to crush Christianity. Hardly a Khomeini figure.
Desmond Tutu should know better.
"Look at the Ku Klux Klan, who use a cross as their symbol and propagate hatred against others and encourage lynching. And yet we never hear someone say, 'There's an example of how Christianity encourages violence,'" Tutu said.
And why not, Tutu? Because no Christian church or sect or group outside of the Ku Klux Klan endorses what it does. In fact, every Christian church and sect abhors the Klan's principles. Where are the Muslim groups renouncing jihad and the idea that Sharia must be imposed on the world by violent or peaceful means? Can you name even one, Desmond?
The group, which was meeting for the second time, said the divide also manifested itself in discrimination against immigrants, social and economic inequality and negative stereotyping....
Not that those immigrants have any responsibility for how they are perceived and treated.
The group was created by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan last year to act as a vehicle to promote moderation and dialogue between Islamic and Western nations. It still has two more conferences — or at least a year — before it will offer concrete proposals to Annan....
OT: Saudi Arabian satellite launch "failure":
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/proton/arabsat4a/
A Russian-made rocket booster malfunctioned during launch today, leaving an Arab telecommunications satellite below its intended Earth orbit
ARABSAT 4A is the first in a new generation of spacecraft for the Arab Satellite Communications Organization of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The satellite would have provided direct broadcast television, data relay, Internet and telephony services across the Middle East, North Africa and Western Europe
The U.N. has lost all credibility as a defender of human rights. What "human rights" are violated by presentation of the cartoons? These cartoons are not an incitement to hatred and violence against people, but the Koran is. Behaviours, beliefs, and ideas are fair game for criticism and lampoon. The cartoons contain legitimate social commentary--on women's rights, free speech, and terrorism that is conducted in the name of Mohammad. But Tutu and Annan want to block commentary on these important human rights issues--and safety is the most basic right--in order to appease the Islamic hard-liners.
Tutu and Annan are completely naive; they are irresponsible to be commenting on this issue without knowing the facts. They obviously know nothing about Islam beyond some public-relations statements.
Increasingly, it looks like the U.N. must be dismantled. It was supposed to be a force of good in the world; now it is being used as an instrument for imposing Islamic blasphemy law on all non-Muslims. The U.N. has now fully embraced its role as errand boy for the Islamic dictators, criminals, anti-Semites. We need a league of nations that is united on basic issues of democracy and free expression, and which are united in protecting human rights. This obviously cannot be achieved with the U.N. It needs to be scrapped. We should not be paying bureaucrats to fumble around figuring out how to impose elements of sharia law on the world's population.
And shouldn't Tutu and Annan also be aware that Islam is already well-protected from criticism, namely by the implicit sword at the throat of everyone in the world who would like to publicly express legitimate criticism and lampoon of Islam?
The fact that Tutu and Annan are commenting on cartoons, when there are actually slaughters and rapes being conducted every day in the name of Islam, is disgusting. This is moral relativism run amok.
Annan actually said to the delegates that Denmark still needed to learn how to adapt to the muslim community. This has triggered an outrage here in Denmark; why is it the Danes that need to make changes? This is absurd! We Danes will NEVER change our way of life because of muslim immigration! Before, Annan was respected in this country, but now people are shaking their heads in disbelief.
But Annans remarks is just underlining the fact that many of Denmarks so called friends have spent their time trying to show their "solidarity" by distancing themselves from Denmark; Close "friends" like Sweden and Finland are the worst examples! Pure Dhimmitude from them!
But we have made new friends: The Netherlands are standing on our side an so are most of the Eastern European nations. We now know who we can trust in the fight for European values. The UN is certainly not among them!
Desmond Tutu should know better.
"Look at the Ku Klux Klan, who use a cross as their symbol and propagate hatred against others and encourage lynching. And yet we never hear someone say, 'There's an example of how Christianity encourages violence,'" Tutu said.
And why not, Tutu? Because no Christian church or sect or group outside of the Ku Klux Klan endorses what it does. In fact, every Christian church and sect abhors the Klan's principles. ~ JW
Exactly right. Eh, Nariz?
The UN needs to be dismantled.
What a waste of money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
These conferences must cost millions, and to what end? So a bunch of Muslims and dhimmis can all say that the West is unsympathetic to Islam. Which, in itself, will just encourage thuggish Muslim youths to continue to blame and hate the infidel for all their woes. "It is true Abdul, the UN said so, the West is against us - we have no choice but to bomb another train!"
They talk about "discrimination against immigrants, social and economic inequality and negative stereotyping"... meanwhile Christians get hacked to death with machetes in places like Indonesia & Nigeria, and they don't give a damn.
In England in the 90's they let Muslims say anything they wanted, they got their own schools, community centres, every freedom was granted them, they were free to rant and rave to their hearts' content and anybody that stood up to them was deemed a racist or culturally insensitive - and what was the UK's reward for such incredible tolerance? .... bombs, riots, sedition and bloodshed that was the bitter harvest! And what's the UN's golden solution? .... more tolerance! Oh excellent, and this pathetically predictable and deeply flawed conclusion comes with a multi-million dollar price tag, paid for mostly by Western governments, who are funded by the taxes of people like YOU AND ME. Somebody pass me a bucket to spew into.
Oh, for Pete's Sake! Tutu besides being a complete idiot, Tutu is also a rather staunch anti-Semite. See this article from the Zionist Organization of America, which cites Tutu likening Israel to Nazi Germany.
Seymour Paine (PBUM)
Eh, tu, Tutu?
Archimedes:
The Nobel peace prize-awarding committee is looking pretty clueless these days with their nominees, too.
Archi,
you're making a good start at getting rid of the UN. First, it has to be totally discredited. And Kofi Annan and the rest of them are helping to do just that. By the way, what happened to the oil-for-food scandal.
Second, people have to go to their national govts to ask them to stop funding this bloody [bloodthirsty?] farce which operates out of the glass house in Manhattan. But would Dubya agree to stop funding the UN?
"What we face nowadays is not a clash of civilizations but a clash mostly caused by ignorance, arrogance, insensitivity and festering political differences that fuel hostilities," Turkish minister of state Mehmet Aydin said....
What BS! Islam is nothing but a cult of murder, rape, pedophilia, and violence. And the UN is nothing more than a giant vacuum sucking money from everyone to pay extremely high salaries (and kick-backs) to a bunch of useless individuals who can't get a job elsewhere
Pity that only now are people seeing Tutu for what he really is. A demagogue.
Amazing how he can distort Apartheid under which he lived, in relative luxury compared to the masses, as a minister of the Anglican Church, by using it to defame Israel.
Anyone seeing Israel must then wonder if Apartheid was so bad.
Like the Nobel Peace Prize for Arafat, Carter, and political ilk so was the Archbishopric for Tutu.
What he wanted was an Oscar for his "Truth and Reconciliation" role.
I am afraid I have long since fallen out of love with Archbishop Tutu. He is a fully-paid-out Anglican left winger, grown in the superstition of the extreme European left and wholly unrepresentative of African Christianity. And as Melanie Phillips pointed out, that kind of folks take to anti-Judaism like ducks to water. To ignorant Western lefties, he is the most famous African Christian; to real African Christians, he counts for a whole lot less than his ideological opposite Peter Akinola, whom we met in these columns a few days ago in a wholly different posture. Whatever moral courage Tutu may have expended in resisting apartheid, nobody can say that he is a defender of liberty as such. And at any rate, that was long ago.
Is Tutu a Muslim?
If not, shouldn't he, as a Christian, be opposing their radical anti-christian heresy?
The fellow has no clue about his own faith.
And runs into the negative zone about Islam.
He needs a marzipan cream pie in his silly puss.
The cross dangling Archbiship Deshmond Tutu is in reality,a Arch rival of Christianity. I don't know how the extramly Religious Black Christians tolerate this Anti-Christian siren,who always criticise Christins,in the midst of Muslims.When he came over to Canada last year,,he went on attacking White Christians in his speaches, for the present day ills of the world.He gave an interview to one Muslim- Haroon Siddiqui.a hate columnist in the Daily Toronto Star,and a equally Anti-Christian,and White hater.In that interview,Tutu degraded the Christians of the West so much,it was a hay day for Haroon Siddiqui.
We tolerate too much for these Idiots. Will this Tutu have ghuts to speak against Muslims? He knows it is OK to talk about"cheek turning "Christians. Western nations should not invite him for any lectures,as he is a nobody.
I am longing to see the day,when we all wake up from our deep slumber,and take some action to protect what is ours in our own lands
Desmond Tutu is a jackass!! Always has been, always will be!
It seems relevant that the KKK hasn't lynched anyone since the 1960's and was bankrupted through litigation. Comparing the KKK to the global jihad is like comparing my car to an M1A2 Abrams tank.
And of course by 1960's I mean 1920's.
God, what a mess the UN has become. Totally useless. Remember, you can't spell unethical without "UN."
And Tutu, it's appalling that such an idiot is considered a man who should be paid attention to. The fact that McVeigh never claimed to be doing it for Christianity, unlike the Islamic terrorists who proudly proclaim their piety to Islam as they take credit for the latest atrocity in the name of the Prophet, seems to escape the fool. Also, he forgets that it was other Christians who eventually reduced the Klan to irrelevance.
Tutu isn't just an idiot, he's a dangerous, useful idiot.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=un
Usage Note: The negative prefix un- attaches chiefly to adjectives (unable, unclean, unequal, unripe, unsafe) and participles used as adjectives (unfeeling, unflinching, unfinished, unsaid), and less frequently to nouns (unbelief, unconcern, unrest). Sometimes the noun form of an adjective with the un- prefix has the prefix in-, as in inability, inequality, injustice, and instability. A few stems appear with both prefixes with distinctions of meaning. Inhuman means “brutal, monstrous,” while unhuman means “not of human form, superhuman.”·When used with adjectives, un- often has a sense distinct from that of non-. Non- picks out the set of things that are not in the category denoted by the stem to which it is attached, whereas un- picks out properties unlike those of the typical examples of the category. Thus nonmilitary personnel are those who are not members of the military, whereas someone who is unmilitary is unlike a typical soldier in dress, habits, or attitudes.
He lamented the negative stereotyping of Muslims and wondered why North Ireland's Protestants and Catholics, the Oklahoma City bombers or even the Nazis had never been labeled "Christian terrorists."
Gee, being a dumbass African commie must be a stupefying experience, Bishop, or Archbishop, or whatever then hell your exalted title is these days, but let's have a go at it.
SWT SWT SWT SWT SWT SWT SWT SWT SWT SWT SWT SWT SWT SWT SWT SWT SWT SWT
Allah’s Apostle said, "I have been made victorious with terror."
--- posted by the most Holy and Sacred of the Holiest Prophets, the rotten-ass Mohammed in Bukhari:V4B52N220
I shall terrorize the infidels.
--- posted by the awful and disgusting piece of crap fake God who goes by the personal name Allah in the Noble Koran 8:12
PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH PBUH
Now, Archibishop, I would never question your stupidity, cuz I've looked into your eyes. But, about the two quotes above?
Duh. May I introduce you to Sean Hannity? He's so intense. Or maybe Michael Savage, lately he's been prattling on about how beautiful Islam can be. Make you a great boyfriend, Bish.
We're surrounded by Unicorn watchers. They've gone blind, and they are our visionaries. We have sunk to a new low called Foggy Bottom.
What else is new?
It is not suprising that the UN is sponsoring this conference. They are doing just about anything to repair their reputations which is in tatters.
Ignorant atheist, we are on your side. I have sent numerous emails preaching about the March for Free Speech and guess what - only two replies! Who from? From ...2 out of 3 Polish free weeklies published here in the UK - promising to advertise the demo and the chief editor of one of them has declared a wish to join as well! We want to show that we are not only Polish plumers, builders and cleaning ladies, we are also freedom loving dissidents.
The cartoons have been published in Czech, Bulgarian, Lithuanian, Russian, Polish and ..even Byelorussian media - everywhere with more or less dire consequences for the "guilty" ones, perhaps with the exception of Czechs (I have always admired them for their cool and unintimidated attitude to religion, the black Czech sense of humour would not allow them the folly of religious bigotry).
Your are not alone. We are all Danes!
I don't know how to respond to your ignorant strawman attack Gary except to take note that you are still the infant.
When will you ever grow up?
Tutu is a complete dhimini! A totally worthless jackass! While the Arabs plunder the Sudan and the blacks in that country are brutally persecuted under Arab rule, Tutu doesn't have anything better to do that criticize the State of Israel. Apparently, Tutu doesn't have a problem with Arabs taking black people as slaves, Arabs raping black women or Arabs stealing black people's land!!!
The U.N. is as irrelevant a joke as the League of Nations once was.