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((In a message dated 2/8/2006 9:48:40 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
From: Sheldon Liberman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Feb. 7 2006
Drawing a line under hypocrisy
By TOM GROSS
The Jerusalem Post
There is a strong case for saying that the Danish cartoons of Mohammed,
which have caused so much uproar, are fair comment. Certainly those who
haven't seen them can rest assured that they are relatively tame in
comparison with many cartoons on other subjects which regularly appear
in the European press. Even so, non-Muslims might have more sympathy
with Muslims who find them offensive, if it weren't for the astonishing
double standards and hypocrisy of the Muslim world when it comes to
accepting and applauding truly vicious slanders against Jews, and to a
lesser extent Christians.
The arguments from Muslims - though not the fanatical, violent manner
of many of their protests - would no doubt be taken more seriously if
they had also objected to the depiction on Syrian television of rabbis
as cannibals. Or if last Saturday, Britain's Muslim Weekly had not
published a caricature of a hooked-nose Ehud Olmert.
Or if last Friday, "Valley of the Wolves," the most expensive movie
ever made in Turkey, had not opened to great local acclaim. In the
film, American soldiers in Iraq crash a wedding and pump a little boy
full of lead in front of his mother. They kill dozens of innocent
people with random machine gun-fire, shoot the groom in the head, and
drag those left alive to prison, where a Jewish doctor cuts out their
organs, and sells them to rich people in New York, London and Tel Aviv.
Or if a Belgian and Dutch Muslim group hadn't last week posted on its
website pictures of Anne Frank in bed with Hitler. Or if the mere
display of a cross or a Star of David in Saudi Arabia wasn't illegal.))
Great article. This is an issue I've been discussing with friends of mine
at work. Arab/Muslim newspapers routinely ridicule Hindu gods and goddesses
and Jewish people, with very insulting cartoons, editorials and articles.
Perhaps the rest of the world should protest and threaten them for these?
I think it's remarkable that Arab/Muslims should be asking for their
religion to be treated with kid gloves, when they dehumanize women and female
children. Women and female children have few (if any) rights, are routinely
punished and tortured for daring to engage in any behavior that men are
permitted
to engage in, anyone can accuse them of adultery and they're executed in the
public square, they are denied health care, education, and the list is
interminable and unbearable. There are exceptions, for example Salman Rushdie
is an
intellectual who believes in equality, so I know not all Arab/Muslims agree
with the dehumanization of women, but they are in the minority in the
Arab/Muslim world.
So, while I think the occupation in Iraq is unconscionable, and I want it
stopped now, the fact that President Jackass has attacked Iraq has not caused
me to forget that women are still treated horrifically in Arab/Muslim nations.
The lot of these women and children remains very bad.
-----
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