Thursday, February 02, 2006
Kids do a little mutton bustin in sheep riding competition - MSN-Mainichi Daily News
Just when you think you have seen just about everything, this fun video of children taking part in a sheep riding competition shows up. It is certainly nice to see that people are enjoying themselves in the countryside.
Just when you think you have seen just about everything, this fun video of children taking part in a sheep riding competition shows up. It is certainly nice to see that people are enjoying themselves in the countryside.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Muhammad Drawings - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Further to the below, Wikipedia is abosolutely great in its coverage of the Muhammad drawings.
Further to the below, Wikipedia is abosolutely great in its coverage of the Muhammad drawings.
Denmark faces international boycott over Muslim cartoons - World - Times Online
Incredible, I find the degree of religious outrage against Denmark very hard to comprehend. Although I understand why some people may be upset, I can not see why anyone would be so upset that they start burning flags and boycotting Danish goods. First of all, the Muslims with this infliction do not understand one fundamental issue, namely that a single Danish newspaper does not represent the state of Denmark (nor its population for that sake). On the other hand, the Muslim states in the Middle-East seem to have missed several other important points and developments over the last 1000 years (such as general enlightenment), thus perhaps the overreaction should not come as a surprise after all.
The drawings in the Danish newspaper showed "Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban; in another he tells dead suicide bombers that he has run out of virgins with which to reward them".
Compare the Muslim outrage to for example Monty Python's religious satire, namely the extremely funny movie "Monty Python's Life of Brian". While the movie's target primarily is religious zealotry and hypocrisy, the movie can obviously be interpreted as offensive to Christians as it features a random character named Brian that is born on December 25 in a manger located not far from Jesus.
If you have not seen the movie, you probably will not know what I am talking about, but the movie was considered so blasphemous that is was banned in certain locations.
However, this was in the year 1979! Also, the makers of the movie hardly experienced the sort of pressure and threats imposed by the Islamic world on Denmark today. Imagine if the Monty Python had tried making a similar movie on the life of Muhammad!
Other blasphemous examples against the Christian faith include for example the Jesus Christ Superstar musical/movie, and even the earth shatteringly stupid book "The Da Vinci Code". However, while such offenses pass relatively unnoticed, a few politically relevant cartoons of Muhammad in a random Danish newspaper causes a tremendous uproar.
Rather than being upset at some Danish cartoons, the Muslim population in the Middle-East should be upset at their leaders. To start with, they should be upset for having to live in stone age civilizations without religious freedom or freedom of speech. Perhaps they should also take a second to wonder what happened to development in their region during the last 1000 years. Reading Danish newspapers should be the least of their concerns.
Incredible, I find the degree of religious outrage against Denmark very hard to comprehend. Although I understand why some people may be upset, I can not see why anyone would be so upset that they start burning flags and boycotting Danish goods. First of all, the Muslims with this infliction do not understand one fundamental issue, namely that a single Danish newspaper does not represent the state of Denmark (nor its population for that sake). On the other hand, the Muslim states in the Middle-East seem to have missed several other important points and developments over the last 1000 years (such as general enlightenment), thus perhaps the overreaction should not come as a surprise after all.
The drawings in the Danish newspaper showed "Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban; in another he tells dead suicide bombers that he has run out of virgins with which to reward them".
Compare the Muslim outrage to for example Monty Python's religious satire, namely the extremely funny movie "Monty Python's Life of Brian". While the movie's target primarily is religious zealotry and hypocrisy, the movie can obviously be interpreted as offensive to Christians as it features a random character named Brian that is born on December 25 in a manger located not far from Jesus.
If you have not seen the movie, you probably will not know what I am talking about, but the movie was considered so blasphemous that is was banned in certain locations.
However, this was in the year 1979! Also, the makers of the movie hardly experienced the sort of pressure and threats imposed by the Islamic world on Denmark today. Imagine if the Monty Python had tried making a similar movie on the life of Muhammad!
Other blasphemous examples against the Christian faith include for example the Jesus Christ Superstar musical/movie, and even the earth shatteringly stupid book "The Da Vinci Code". However, while such offenses pass relatively unnoticed, a few politically relevant cartoons of Muhammad in a random Danish newspaper causes a tremendous uproar.
Rather than being upset at some Danish cartoons, the Muslim population in the Middle-East should be upset at their leaders. To start with, they should be upset for having to live in stone age civilizations without religious freedom or freedom of speech. Perhaps they should also take a second to wonder what happened to development in their region during the last 1000 years. Reading Danish newspapers should be the least of their concerns.
Sunday, January 29, 2006
FrontPage magazine.com :: Thou Shalt Not Draw by Robert Spencer
The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten is under tremendous pressure after posting some cartoon drawings of Muhammad. In the primitive Islamic world (the number of books translated into Spanish each year is one thousand times the number translated into Arabic), Muslims are angry as their religion does not allow for artistic representations of the human form. The brave cartoonists that made the drawings of Muhammad for Jyllands-Posten have gone into hiding, and Islamic organizations have put a price on their heads.
There is discussion whether the cartoons in Jyllands-Posten can be defended under the freedom of speech principle. Even some Western observers are of the opinion that the cartoons were made to provoke rather than to communicate any political message.
However, they are missing the point. The issue is that Western cartoonists and journalists are too afraid to draw and write what they would really like to, as they know that their lives will be put in danger. This is the problem, and it should be taken seriously. Personally, I would not mind posting the Muhammad drawings, but I do not dare to. However, I admire the editor of Jyllands-Posten who chose to publish the cartoons. More power to him and to the people of Denmark, who are now facing boycotts by several oil rich stone-age dictatorships in the Middle-East.
The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten is under tremendous pressure after posting some cartoon drawings of Muhammad. In the primitive Islamic world (the number of books translated into Spanish each year is one thousand times the number translated into Arabic), Muslims are angry as their religion does not allow for artistic representations of the human form. The brave cartoonists that made the drawings of Muhammad for Jyllands-Posten have gone into hiding, and Islamic organizations have put a price on their heads.
There is discussion whether the cartoons in Jyllands-Posten can be defended under the freedom of speech principle. Even some Western observers are of the opinion that the cartoons were made to provoke rather than to communicate any political message.
However, they are missing the point. The issue is that Western cartoonists and journalists are too afraid to draw and write what they would really like to, as they know that their lives will be put in danger. This is the problem, and it should be taken seriously. Personally, I would not mind posting the Muhammad drawings, but I do not dare to. However, I admire the editor of Jyllands-Posten who chose to publish the cartoons. More power to him and to the people of Denmark, who are now facing boycotts by several oil rich stone-age dictatorships in the Middle-East.
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