They are just so scared of any light being shed on mohommed aren't they. Come on, we all know what that means, it means he doesn't stand up to much questioning. We've seen it time and again throughout history, the weaker the philosophy the more you must ensure that it is NEVER questioned.

Posted by: DaveMate at June 18, 2006 8:55 AM

It took a lot (and hundreds of year) for the West to create a cultural environment that allowed questioning.

maybe we've seen an uptick in violence that could be predicted from broken families (a consequence of changes that we could argue about endlessly); but there is much harm to accepting folks who will seek blasphemy laws to defend the indefensible; or who will ignore the "man-made" laws in favor of those dictated by Muhammed's inner demon.

Posted by: StillBreathing at June 18, 2006 9:50 AM

Scared of light being shed? Maybe the ones with functional brain cells are, but most of this looks to me like schoolyard bullies gone mad in the name of "religion." Don't like somebody - accuse them of blasphemy, then shortly someone will "remove" them for you.

"Bringing peace and democracy" to the moslem world is a joke. Democracy means nothing if you do not have a core value of respect for human life and individual choices. Yet again, "Islam" proves incompatible with life.

Posted by: gallopinggranny at June 18, 2006 9:54 AM

Per Pakistani president Musharraf:

"Today we are the poorest, the most illiterate, the most backward, the most unhealthy, the most un-enlightened, the most deprived, and the weakest of all the human race."

In this speech he said Muslims have to study science and technology to improve their position. This is not true; Muslims have studied these subjects. The problem is the study of humanities, separate from religion.

Posted by: Quijybo at June 18, 2006 10:37 AM

They are just so scared of any light being shed on mohommed aren't they.

I don't think that's it in this case:

According to Maulana Abdul Rasheed, a local office-bearer of the Aalmi Majlis Tahafuz-i-Khatam-i-Nabuat (Majlis-e-Tahafuz-e-Khatam-e-Nabuwat), when Gopang had argued with the truck driver, he had uttered words which blasphemed the prophet, (contravening Article 295-C of the Penal Code). ...

The involvement of the extremist Sunni sect, the Majlis-e-Tahafuz-e-Khatam-e-Nabuwat, in bringing the case, and their offer to pay for the defense of the murderers raises questions. Did they commission the assassins? Such a suggestion is not as outlandish as it first appears.

I really don't whether that means he, as we would say, "swore" in the heat of the moment or not. Whether he did or not, he perhaps annoyed the wrong people for whatever reason.

I think the reason back in the mists of time for blasphemy laws is probably that people had a conception of collective guilt (c.f. the ceremony of the scapegoat, which carries the sins of the community.) I expect they thought that if someone insulted the gods, they would be offended - much as a person is if we insult him - and might take spectacular revenge. Since guilt, for them, was not so clearly personal they would have believed that the whole community might be punished. Safer for the community to punish the offender themselves first.

As for their current use, they could be used for silencing a critic (a shedder of light) - and in those cases there may be fear behind it: fear that the critic is right - but I'd doubt that would be their primary rationale or use. Such laws may be thought of as protecting God's name (though one would have to wonder why the Almighty would need such help); they may be thought of as protecting the feelings of believers; they may even still be thought of as necessary for averting God's wrath. Then again, they may simply be thought of as being required by Islamic tradition.

From news stories I've seen I'd hazard a guess that, in a society such as Pakistan where religious hysteria can be relied upon, accusations of blasphemy (quite possibly completely false accusations) are in practice often used as a convenient means of settling personal scores - or of harassing religious minorities, a member of whom may have said or done nothing "blasphemous" but will not be believed.

Posted by: Yojimbo at June 18, 2006 11:30 AM

I think it's time someone invented a cuckoo clock that has a Mohammed's head popping out of the little doors instead of a bird.

(A very tiny bird could be carved into Mo's head, swinging on a little perch inside his empty noggin, for verisimiltude. Die Vogel Gehim.)

I had to burn several pages of the Koran recently, myself.

(But only because I used them to wipe up some puke that one of my dog's disgorged- after wolfing down a piece of overly-mustardy pork chop.)

Oops!

Next time, the Mein Kampf.

(At least his followers are now less numerous.)

(Guess that trip to Islamabad is off.)

Posted by: profitsbeard at June 18, 2006 12:00 PM

Here we see the unthinking insanity of Islam play out before our eyes. The adherents have become the most ungodly among mankind -- judging and executing fellow humans as if they were God himself.

I find it extremely interesting that the Muslim world is continuously projecting it's crimes and evil thoughts onto the rest of us. We are endlessly accused of being the "real terrorists" or of "blaspheming" or of being "idolators" while they rampage across the globe in coordinated terrorist attacks for Islam, while they clearly blaspheme against ANY reasonable definition of godly or god-respecting behavior, and while they clearly show themselves in deeds to be the idolators: (their worship of their "Holy Koran", their satanic worship of that silly black stone cube in Mekkah and the pillars representing the devil at which they throw stones, their worship of their so-called "prophet" the Godhead Muhammad, etc).

Isn't it interesting also that their execrable so-called "prophet" warned that the severest punishment in hell was reserved for the "picture makers"? Here - take a look at all of these insane passages:

Hadith 7.834 (Al-Bukhari Hadith)
------------------------------------
We were with Masruq at the house of Yasar bin Numair. Masruq saw pictures on his terrace and said, "I heard 'Abdullah saying that he heard the Prophet saying, "The people who will receive the severest punishment from Allah will be the picture makers.'" (Narrated by Muslim)

Hadith 7.838 (Al-Bukhari Hadith)
------------------------------------
Allah's Apostle returned from a journey when I had placed a curtain of mine having pictures over (the door of) a chamber of mine. When Allah's Apostle saw it, he tore it and said, "The people who will receive the severest punishment on the Day of Resurrection will be those who try to make the like of Allah's creations." So we turned it (i.e., the curtain) into one or two cushions. (Narrated by Ayesha)

Hadith 7.840 (Al-Bukhari Hadith)
------------------------------------
I purchased a cushion with pictures on it. The Prophet (came and) stood at the door but did not enter. I said (to him), "I repent to Allah for what (the guilt) I have done." He said, "What is this cushion?" I said, "It is for you to sit on and recline on." He said, "The makers of these pictures will be punished on the Day of Resurrection and it will be said to them, 'Make alive what you have created.' Moreover, the angels do not enter a house where there are pictures.'" (Narrated by Ayesha).

Hadith 7.843 (Al-Bukhari Hadith)
------------------------------------
Once Gabriel promised to visit the Prophet but he delayed and the Prophet got worried about that. At last he came out and found Gabriel and complained to him of his grief (for his delay). Gabriel said to him, "We do not enter a place in which there is a picture or a dog."(Narrated by Salim's father)

Hadith 7.844 (Al-Bukhari Hadith)
------------------------------------
(the wife of the Prophet) I bought a cushion having pictures on it. When Allah's Apostle saw it, he stopped at the gate and did not enter. I noticed the signs of hatred (for that) on his face! I said, "O Allah's Apostle! I turn to Allah and His Apostle in repentance! What sin have I committed?" He said, "What about this cushion?" I said, - I bought it for you to sit on and recline on." Allah's Apostle said, "The makers of these pictures will be punished (severely) on the Day of Resurrection and it will be said to them, 'Make alive what you have created.'" He added, "Angels do not enter a house in which there are pictures."(narrated by Ayesha).

Hadith 7.846 (Al-Bukhari Hadith)
------------------------------------
I heard Muhammad saying, "Whoever makes a picture in this world will be asked to put life into it on the Day of Resurrection, but he will not be able to do so." (Narrated by Ibn Abbas).

***********************

If projecting Islam's inner nightmare onto the outer world is an eternal feature of Islam, one must wonder: did Muhammad's bizarre and insane preoccupation with the "image makers" betray his inner reality and the idolatrous nature of his creed ? The Muslims say that this is because imagery would lure "worhippers" into idolatry, but was Muhammad really acknowledging the truth about his insane hallucinations? Was he saying that Islam at it's core is pure idolatry? I think so. Note the way his abhorance for dogs is projected onto the angel Gabriel? Please! An Archangel from the ancient texts fearing and loathing dog, or a projection by an unhinged maniac onto his hallucination of an Arcangel?

Hatred and loathing of dogs is now a near universal "belief" (neurosis) among Muslims. "Infidel Dog!" may seem to us like absurd and relatively harmless hyperbole hurled by a Muslim, but if you know the depth of fear and loathing for dogs inculcated within Muslims, you'd understand that this is a powerful venomous way for the Muslim to dehumanize us, and to engender a genocidal hatred for us in their minds and among fellow Muslims.

Here is anutterly chilling english language website dedicated to Wahab at "IslamBasics.com" -- He is the execrable "sholar" that distilled and interpreted Islamic canon into Wahhabism -- the virulent cancer at the heart of Saudi Arabia's disease, and I believe also the center of philosophical gravity now for the majority sect in Islam: Sunni Islam. Take note of this webpage on the "Picture Makers". Read how the worst punishments of hell are reserved for them:

http://www.islambasics.com/view.php?bkID=151&chapter=61

Read the swill at the top, and then take note the discussion points at the bottom of the article:

1) Intense condemnation of those who make pictures.
2) Picture-making is condemned because it constitutes not having proper regard for Allah. As in His Statement: "Who would be more unjust than the one who tries to create the like of my creatures...”
3) Declaration of the power and ability of Allah and the incapacity and weakness of those (who attempt to create). As in His Statement: "Let them create an atom or a grain or a barley corn."
4) Declaration that they (picture-makers) will get the most severe punishment (on the Day of Judgement).
5) Allah will create a soul in place of every picture and the maker of that picture will be punished by it in Hell.
6) Picture-makers will be asked to breathe life into every of their Images.
7) The command to deface all the images/pictures when found.

Then, after that, if your stomach and mind can stand it, drill down into any of the threads on the left of the screen and learn about the insanity of what we're facing. Ponder it. Once the eyes are opened, one must wonder how any Western "scholar" on Islam could be willing to conceal this dastardly and evil "religion" by discussing it in any terms other than contempt, disgust, and revulsion.

Posted by: jsla at June 18, 2006 12:05 PM

It is truly significant how people who enjoy killing are gleeful about Islam. It starts with the Eid when we as a child the Moslem gets to cut the throat of a sheep or goat. While Western children play under a tree with presents and their families and friends, others are being taught something quite different.

Posted by: David England at June 18, 2006 12:11 PM

"Today we are the poorest, the most illiterate, the most backward, the most unhealthy, the most un-enlightened, the most deprived, and the weakest of all the human race."
-- from a posting above, quoting Musharraf

And this despite the ten trillion dollars in unearned oil weealth.

Musharraf goes on to talk about encouraging certain kinds of "science" by which he means, as Mahathir Mohamed the Malaysian meant (when he spoke at the O.I.C. a few years ago), merely military technology. What rankles Muslims is not that they have failed to study the nature of DNA or neuroscience or the structure of the atom or the nature of the universe. Why should they care about that? No, what rankles and what they care about is merely armaments -- read between the damn lines and it is always about that.

What Musharraf said above is not entirely true. Muslims can hardly be described as the "most deprived" people in the world -- not with those oil trillions which the rich Muslims refuse to share at all with the poor Muslims, both within their own countries, and among the Muslim countries -- so much for all that talk about "Islam and social justice." But it is true that despite those oil trillions, not a single Muslim country has created a modern economy, unless the Disneyworld-cum-Las-Vegas of Dubai, whcih is merely a fun-fair for the rich Arabs, counts as a "modern economy."

What Musharraf deplores however, about the sorry state of the Muslim peoples and polities, is largely true, but what he cannot say, cannot dare to allow himself even to think about, is the connection between all that wretchedness and misery and aggression and conspiracy-theories and hideous nonsense of daily life, with Islam itself, and what it tells Believers to believe, and the way it punishes them from thinking for themselves.

When the connection between the perceived behavior (and failures) of Muslim peoples and societies and states, and Islam itself, is made by both Infidels and Muslims, there may -- at some distant point -- be a possibilty of changing Islam. Or, more likely, the most intelligent people born into Islam will simply promote local Ataturks to constrain its power, and to keep constraining it, not ending but at least keeping in check its hold over societies and the minds of men.

Posted by: Hugh at June 18, 2006 12:12 PM

Jsla-- from that assortment of hadiths, one kind of gets the impression they were passing those same curtains-turned-cushions around.

Hmm. I wonder where they finally wound up...

Posted by: Shinoliite at June 18, 2006 12:15 PM

One might also wonder whether some so-called "scholars" of Islam in the West are actually closet Muslims conducting Da'wa and Deception in Dar ul Harb. Their consistent zeal for concealing Islam's heinousness, and for miscontruing Islam into something it clearly is not, can only make one wonder...

Posted by: jsla at June 18, 2006 12:16 PM

did Muhammad's bizarre and insane preoccupation with the "image makers" betray his inner reality and the idolatrous nature of his creed ?

Perhaps he was just very ugly. That's why the dirty old goat had to hide his young wives away - he couldn't stand any competition.

But who says women in Islam are not equal? They are smashing statues with the bros in Egypt, according to The Telegraph:

A religiously motivated attack on statues at a museum in Cairo has sparked outcry in Egypt and fuelled fears that the country is veering towards an Islamic state.

The attack on three artworks, by a black-clad and veiled woman
screaming, "Infidels, infidels!" followed a fatwa issued by the Grand
Mufti of Cairo, Ali Gomaa, which banned all decorative statues of living
beings...

"We are seeing an increase of conservative, Islamist feeling," said
Nabil Abdel Fatah, from the Al Ahram centre for Political and Strategic
studies in Cairo.

Posted by: Interested at June 18, 2006 12:37 PM

The strange thing about Muslims is that they don't even try to get away with murder, they're proud of it, they want everybody to know that they just killed someone. They don't care if they have to spend years or even a lifetime in prison. It's unreal.

Posted by: Jesus Christ Supercop at June 18, 2006 12:47 PM

Rumor has it he couldn't wield a crayon very well -- perhaps he was one of those artist-wannabes -- the kind that terrorize fancy parties everywhere --

Posted by: jsla at June 18, 2006 1:01 PM

Yojimbo

In Socrates' case, when the city sentenced him to death, they did it not because he had offended the Gods, but because he had displayed and exercised what we know now as a "conscience," a strange way of thinking outside the box. Plato and tradition call it "daimon," like Socrates' better self. Whatever.

Socrates is the first Westerner on record to claim an individual "conscience," free from the idols of the tribe/clan/city/nation, and responsible only to itself and its sense of truth.

Posted by: ovidius_naso at June 18, 2006 3:10 PM

Police described the attackers as "religious fanatics."
Or as the Main Stream Media will call them "Moderate Muslims".
Want to bet one of them was named Mohammed?
Why even bother with a trial when the mere suggestion of blasphemy is enough to get a death sentence?

Posted by: Bohemond_1069 at June 18, 2006 3:33 PM

I bet Charles Schultz is kicking himself in the butt for drawing those damed Peanuts characters. And a dog was one of the lead characters as well. A double whammy on him.

Posted by: JanuaryMan at June 18, 2006 3:49 PM

ovidius_naso,

Socrates was an interesting man and always worth talking about; but as for "conscience", I'm not sure the concept is of much use for understanding Socrates - or Plato's, Aristophanes', or Xenophon's Socrates (since all we know of Socrates is what others have written of him).

But he wouldn't be the first philosopher to have been suspected of atheism or unorthodox religious beliefs in Ancient Greece, and Aristophanes seems to be drawing on stock expectations in The Clouds.

Posted by: Yojimbo at June 18, 2006 4:35 PM

Yojimbo-

Socrates' crime was that he taught questioning.

The bane of all despots.

His trial (both versions) would make one hell of a movie.

And be an uncomfortable parallel for the current religious tyrants.

Hollywood will get around to making it about the time of "Rocky 13- the Anecdotage".

Posted by: profitsbeard at June 18, 2006 4:53 PM