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Remember Shakespeare's Macbeth, when Macbeth slays Duncan and proclaims an Islamic republic in Dunsinane?
No, that one is a parody, but it's not too far off from the Turkish versions of Western books circulating now. The good news is that Turkish secularists are taking some Islamic publishers to court for Islamizing Western classics in translation.
"Minister lashes out at publishers for scandalous books," from the Turkish Daily News (coming to us from some Turkish anti-jihadists, via Philip):
Minister of Education Hüseyin Çelik has blasted publishers for distorted versions of books included in a reading list recommended for school children and announced the ministry would bring lawsuits against the publishers involved in the scandal."If you like Heidi, don't try to Muslimize her; write your own Heidi book," Çelik said in remarks published in some Turkish newspapers yesterday. He said the publishers would be sued because they used the ministry's logo on the controversial books.
The scandal concerning translations of the books was uncovered when the daily newspaper Radikal recently published citations from the books included on the "100 Essential Readings" list, comprising children's and world literature as well as Turkish classics recommended to school children.
Some publishers had inserted Islamist ideology into the translations, making alterations in such classics as Hugo's Les Miserables, Spyri's Heidi and Collodi's Pinocchio.
[...]
In one translation, Geppetto's little son Pinocchio says "Give me some bread for the sake of Allah," and gives thanks to "Allah" when he becomes an animated marionette.
In Dumas' "Three Musketeers," D'Artagnan while on his way to see Aramis is stopped by an old woman who explains: "You can't see him right now. He is surrounded by men of religion. He converted to Islam after his illness."
Eleanor H. Porter's "Pollyanna" confirms her belief in the Muslim apocalypse, while La Fontaine's fisherman prays using Muslim terminology to catch more fish.
Spyri's Swiss orphan Heidi is told by Ms. Sesasman that "praying is relaxing."
"Invented" phrases employing Muslim terminology were also inserted into classics from masters such as Anton Chekhov and Oscar Wilde.
Ah yes. The Importance of Being Mustafa.
Posted by Robert at August 28, 2006 6:16 AM
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Great dancing Frith in a pond! - to quote another classic. Do these morons even know what Oscar Wilde is famous for? And the notion of those notorious agnostics, Mark Twain and Carlo Collodi (Pinocchio), being converted to Islam... sorry, I can't go on. I'll have to stop till I'm finished LMAOing.
(*a few minutes later*) Considering that the Education Minister himself, a member of the Islamist Erdogan government, was shocked, the thing must have been even worse than reported. Anyway, tell this one to the Tory Blur, Mr. Enlightenment Chirac, and all the other twits who think Turkey in Europe would be a good idea.
Posted by: Paolo
at August 28, 2006 6:53 AM
More titles:
Little Red Riding Hudna
To Kill a Mocking Brit
Green Eggs and Hamas
The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Haram
Tale of Two Shi'ites
Harry Potter and the Kaaba Stone
Belittle Women
Old Martyr Goose Tales
How the West Was Won
Posted by: Shy Guy
at August 28, 2006 6:55 AM
Even more titles:
The Mosque that Roared
The Wizard of Hadj
Alice in Burqaland
Prophet on a Chain
Seven Brides for Seven Camels
Posted by: Shy Guy
at August 28, 2006 7:11 AM
In this confrontation between Education Minister Hüseyin Çelik and Islamist publishers, I wouldn't bet on Çelik winning.
How long until the first Fatwa delares Mr. Çelik an infidel who must be removed?
How long before Erdogan fires him?
Any wagers?
Posted by: Provoslavni
at August 28, 2006 7:49 AM
Shy Guy, you have me ROTFL, for sure! That sure was a quick list you put together.
Only one title I'd see differently: Seven Camels for Seven Brides.
Posted by: Vee
at August 28, 2006 8:43 AM
Many funny things in the twisted titles given above. My favorite, however, depends for its effect on its placement. A series of well-known titles, amusingly and islamically amended, set up the reader's expectation that more are coming, and then the last on the list brings one up short, for nothing, but everything, has been done to that title. By its very unchangingness, at the end of that list that rings changes, the author (Shy Guy) forces the title to now endow itself with sinister new meaning: "How The West Was Won."
Posted by: Hugh
at August 28, 2006 9:06 AM
Thank you shy guy, I found them very funny although I would have changed the title on one of them a little bit how does
Seven Goats for seven Brothers sound
here is my shot at a title
Allah through the Lookinglass.
Posted by: Holger Dansker
at August 28, 2006 10:43 AM
Proof again of the islamics agenda. Change publishers.
Posted by: freewoman
at August 28, 2006 10:53 AM
Muslims stealing ideas for books, just as they stole the technology to build domes on mosques, the Hindu number system that is now called the "Arabic" number system, etc., etc. But then their cult started with their false prophet Mohammed (Pigs Be Upon Him) robbing caravaans, didn't it? Just more proof that islam is incapable of creating anything original, only destroying what other cultures and people create.
Posted by: Bohemond_1069
at August 28, 2006 10:54 AM
I would edit Exorcist. Have the priest exorcise allah out of the girl. Oh right, he already does that, but calls it a different name.
Posted by: FIVEOFNINE
at August 28, 2006 10:55 AM
My favourite - the Muslim version - the Sound of Ululating:
"The hills are alive with the sound of ululating"
Posted by: johnb
at August 28, 2006 11:08 AM
This is some years ago but I'll never forget the Syrian profesor of English who told me that Shakespeare had to be a Muslem.
His entire case rested on the fact that the Bard of Avon's name combines 'Shaikh' and 'Pir' - both Islamic terms of greatness. I was left speechless by this erudition.
Posted by: poetcomic1
at August 28, 2006 11:31 AM
Just goes to show - no imagination or creativity left in dar al-islam. They need to rip off fertile minds just like they always have.
Evil is banal.
Just like their example, who had to rip off stories and characters from the Old Testement, the New Testement and the Talmud to get some bulk into the Qur'an. Without the plagurizing Judaism and Christianity there's 'burn in hell' and 'pay the poll tax' and 'submit or die'. That's about all ...
Posted by: A_Plague_on_Both_Houses
at August 28, 2006 12:00 PM
Shy guy, you're killing us!
And Hugh is right, that entry of "How the West was Won" carried too much a hint of truth.
Posted by: Dan
at August 28, 2006 1:43 PM
Shy Guy, that was a riot! ;->
I'm guessing that nobody there is a Shakespeare fan, or else, Merchant of Venice was readily available for conversion, and appropriate too. After all, few Catholics today in Venice would spit on someone just because he's a Jew, so it would be perfectly appropriate to Islamize Antonio, Bassanio, Gratiano, et al. And at the middle and end of this, not only could they Islamize Jessica and Shylock, but they could assimilate Tubal as well. Make it a complete emirate of Venice, and re-title it the Mujahid of Venice.
On the Three Musketeers angle (make that the Three Mujahids), Aramis converted to Islam? How does he then take on the Hugenots - would Muslims be pro-Catholic, or pro-Hugenot? Maybe Islamize Cardinal Richelieu as well, put Milady de Winter in a jilbab, and instead of the Catholic-Hugenot wars, with England backing the Hugenots, substitute the countries - Iran (for England) supporting Shia (for Hugenots) against the Sunni Turks (for Catholic French royalists) - that would be much better.
That's the best that can be expected of Islam when it comes to their forays into the arts.
at August 28, 2006 2:30 PM
More Arabized Western Classics:
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, BOOM Fish
The Arabic Ethic and the Spirit of Baksheesh
The Interpretation of Hookah Dreams
As I Lay Bombing
AbuSalaam, AbuSalaam
The Sound and the Fatwa
The Old Mullah and the Sea
In Our Tent
Gulliver's Kidnapping
The Cellphone Always Detonates on the Second Ring
Charlie and the Halvah Factory
And of course, in the Music Man, there is the song "72 Virgins."
chsw
Posted by: chsw
at August 28, 2006 2:50 PM
Shy Guy, you're a misnomer. You ain't shy at all. You rule. A tour de force that was, and I offer my small congrADULATION for your feat.
More nimble infidels is what could make the world a better place, and that would be you, Shy.
Posted by: Alarmed Pig Farmer
at August 28, 2006 5:55 PM
Shy Guy ..
To Kill a Mocking Brit (a jihad handbook?) .. Wow .. that was faster than a speeding bullet!
Now this is something that Islam cannot co-opt: Humor.
Go get 'em tiger!
Posted by: Daisytoo
at August 28, 2006 6:34 PM
"Green Eggs and Hamas" .. "Belittle Woman" .. How does one choose?
I don't know why this one showed up .. but it just won't go away:
"Goat on a Hot Tin Roof"
Posted by: Daisytoo
at August 28, 2006 6:55 PM
The enemy, islam and the muslims that spread it, is a usurper. Because islam is a retarded culture it is unable to sustain the process of creation. It is a culture that can only feed internally upon its own adherents (baby bombs, suicide mothers, and cowardly men, and craven leaders), and usurp the achievements of cultures that express the staggering beauty of living things through the creative mind.
The enemy, islam and the muslims that spread it, are anti-man, anti-woman, anti-child, anti-life. It is the closest thing to pure evil I have had the misfortune of encountering. There is not a single quality of islam that is appealing to the the open mind.
This is yet another example of how the vile process of jihad progresses toward the goal of comsumption. No "other" is permitted. All must be consumed by islam. It's a black thing.
The Enemy: islam and the muslims that spread it.
Posted by: mtriviso
at August 28, 2006 7:03 PM
Good Job Shy Guy, and let me add some titles that are going around now in Al-Qaeda traing camps to help past the time between posing with Ak-47s and time spent posing with RPGs:
Some of the great works of Shakespeare, Poe, Hemingway, and Twain with a jihad twist.
A Mid-Summer Night's Bombing
Ali's Well That Ends Well
The Murders in the Jew Morgue
The Merry Wives of Osama
Much Abu About Nothing
The Taming of the Jew
Hello to Arms
THe Fifth Column and the First Forty Nine States
Death in the Afternoon (or whenever)
The Moon Also Rises
For Whom the Hell Tolls
Men Without Women
The Fall of the House of Saud
Posted by: August22
at August 28, 2006 8:48 PM
The "M" word even in light-hearted satire is verboten?
Posted by: remote_control
at August 28, 2006 9:00 PM
Yes, this is rediculous. But the same is happening here in the U.S. pertaining to multiculturalism and the PC movement.
Look at Californias' PC movement on books of education.
Remember the well published photo of the three firemen hoisting the flag at ground zero after 9/11? All three just happened to be caucasion. But the statue that recreates the event shows a caucasion, latino, afro-american...all for multiculturalism...the religion of the left. The truth and history are obviously not important.
Read the "Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire". The ones in schools is not the same one that we all grew up reading. The list goes on.
Posted by: alaskan1000
at August 28, 2006 9:20 PM
Take heart you infidels, while the savages have decided to yet again steal from the west, they have curiously opted out on certain titles. Rest easy that you can read these books while you wait patiently to have your head lopped off were the muslims to take over.
Books not yet co-opted by the ROP and available via Amazon:
-The Essays of Sir Francis Bacon (unabridged)
-The Anger Management Sourcebook
-The Three Little Pigs
-Green Eggs and Ham
-The Bikini Book
-When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops
-Pork Chop Hill
-A Chronology of the Hebrew Kings
-If You Give a Pig a Pancake
-The Kite Making Handbook
-Woman Suffrage and Women's Rights
-Homosexuality and Civilization
-Jesus Lives
-Jew Today (vintage)
and of course...
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)
Posted by: Dead Infidel Walking
at August 28, 2006 9:53 PM
Strangely enough, even the narratives of the appropriated works do not fit into Islamic ideals.
Western literature tends to focus on choices made by characters, and the way that this affects their lives. Islam has no such concept, everything one does is the will of Allah.
Similarly, even the most benign, family-rated book about love and family will contain the concepts of romantic love and romance, again something completely alien to Islam.
While Shy Guy is to be commended for his brilliant and hilarious satire, an interesting discussion is being missed here: is this phenomenon such a bad thing?
I will take the position that it is not; introducing viral ideas such as individualism, romance, and free will into Islamic societies is a great concept. Who cares if Aramis "converted to Islam?" The Three Musketeers contains, just off the top of my head, romance, and a powerful female character in Milady de Winter - both concepts Muslims are not familiar with. That can't be a bad thing.
Posted by: WingedHussar
at August 29, 2006 12:22 AM
"Belittle Women" - ROTFL!!
"Yes, this is rediculous. But the same is happening here in the U.S. pertaining to multiculturalism and the PC movement."
I recently bought a DVD of Mozart's 'Magic Flute'. They had changed the entire role of Monastatos from a moor who happens to be evil and deceptive to an extremly white guy who happens to be evil and deceptive, presumably because the original is 'racist'. So the entire libretto had to be changed. The irony is that there is an aria by Monastatos that says 'why can't I be loved like everyone else, just because I'm black?', which, despite the fact that he's a bad character, was a pretty advanced statement for 1791.
The other irony is that is it one of the most 'sexist' librettos every written, but it is also one of the funniest, and the music is absolutely divine - my favourite opera in fact. They didn't change all the sexist stuff, and no sensible person thinks it should be.
I'm flabbergasted by how Heidi could be 'islamised' - it's a thoroughly Christian book!
As for the concept of it being at least partly good - well I can agree that some works need to be abridged for some children (though I was always thoroughly offended by being offered one), but not fundamentally changed like this.
Posted by: Lili
at August 29, 2006 2:09 AM
while some of the comments are funny this is serious. first a few words then maybe a title then the author. kinda like when there was an effort to say columbuses navigator was a muslim. what kind of literature will your grandchildren or great grandchildren be reading? preferably they will be reading the story in its original form. revisionism in any form is nothing but evil. and the only way to stop it with goods most potent weapon TRUTH. these attempts to steal cultural icons of the western world should be treated with the utmost contempt, otherwise we go from thomas jefferson, john adams, and winston churchills view of mohammedism to todays pc view of it.
Posted by: jimmytheclaw
at August 29, 2006 2:23 AM
Its just what we should expect. More theft of culture, and perversion of it to its own evil ends, that has characterized the "Umma" since its nefarious beginnings. This kind of Islamic imperialism has led, when not unmasked, to such monstrous lies as the "golden age" of "al-Andalus" (moorish Spain). If they get away with this, they'll use this adulteration to "prove" how "pluralistice", "tolerant", "cosmopolitan" and "enlightened" Islam is. Just like the showcase churchlife maintained, for foreign public relations, in the Communist era Russia.
Posted by: michaelcerularius
at August 29, 2006 3:08 AM
Can I please add:
One hundred years of Dhimmitude
Osama has no-one to write to
Love in a Time of Terror
to the list so that it ceases to be a dead white male anglo-saxon list and reflects the modern Latin-American reality which the Umma steals from just as shamelessly (although Garcia-Marquez probably doesn't mind)
Posted by: eliXelx
at August 29, 2006 4:24 AM
Yet another example of islamic plagiarism and iconoclasm. The next step will be to assert that the authors of all great WEstern literature were muslims. Then this lie will become revisionist history and taught in schools.
This should be challenged and protested. It is cultural theft and an insult to the brilliant minds that created some of our finest literature.
Posted by: Susanp
at August 30, 2006 12:39 AM
Perhaps this is happening because these cultures have completely lost their ability to wonder and imagine, things which are essential for writing children's books. So instead they steal and bastardize and then try to convince us that it's their own creation.
What would they do with my beloved "Anne of Green Gables?" I shudder to think...
Posted by: angloirishslav
at August 30, 2006 3:14 PM
My favorite from your list ShyGuy.
"Prophet on a Chain"
If only.
at August 31, 2006 2:18 AM
Quotes from Turkish translations of Chehov, please!
Posted by: Terry Crane
at August 31, 2006 3:57 AM
If you ask a muslim, he will tell you that everything in the world was originally invented, discovered etc. by Muslims.
So they are re-claiming Picocchio and Three Musketeers...
and can I add
Muslims on a plane
at August 31, 2006 5:17 PM
Alaska1000 is right--there is PC revisionism going on here also. I have heard that new editions of "Good Night Moon" will have a photoshopped author photo that erases the fact that she has a cigarette. I am not a big fan of smoking, but this is just revisionist history.
That being said, though, I imagine the Islamic version of this is uglier and cuts deeper.
Finally, I can't resist adding a few titles of my own:
The Red Badge of Jihad
The Adventures of Tom Shaheed
All the Pretty Camels
The Brothers Mujahadin
A Waziristan Pakistani in King Arthur's Court
Death Comes for the Apostate
Go Tell it on the Minaret
The Importance of Being Abdul
The Return of the Revert
The Sun Also Rises out of a Dirty Pool of Water
A Tale of Two Caliphates
Posted by: gravenimage
at September 2, 2006 1:17 AM
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