I personally wasn’t offended because I can believe it was a genuine mistake – perhaps a piece of stock imagery that got sent off in a rush. I believe in the benefit of the doubt and do genuinely wonder why, if someone was intending to cause offence, they would go to such lengths to keep it buried and then present it in such an obscure way.
Wondering if I was alone in my thoughts, I spoke to journalist Hussein Kesvani earlier about whether he was offended himself. “I don’t know if it’s intentionally Islamophobic or just some weird accident,” he told me.
“What I think is more interesting is that the Muslim individuals on social media talking about it are being attacked. Rather than people understanding why they’d be angry, they’re just being dismissed and demeaned and even accused of supporting Isis.”Of course they are being 'dismissed and demeaned'. Remember 'Life Of Brian'? Remember 'Piss Christ'?
That's what we do in this country when idiots start squawking about their beliefs being ridiculed. Or at least, it's what we used to do. Comparatively recently, we stopped. A certain religion - only one, mind you! - was never to be mocked.
It's nice to see a return.
Think we're getting to the point where the very mention of the word conjures up images and those images are not great.
ReplyDeleteThe thing about the Koran and any religious writing is that it tells us nothing about god or gods only about how fertile our imaginative mind is. How gullible we are and how our ancestors thought millennia ago when knowledge was primitive and in the light of greater knowledge we cling stubbornly to those primitive beliefs.
ReplyDeleteIt throws in a few glimpses of our experiences and wisdom collected along the way(like do not eat pork in hot countries without refrigerators. It can seriously damage your health if gone off, probably kill you). It tells us that humans can be totally irrational and still survive because we can believe in something without a shred of evidence to back up that belief. That is not always good for your health as blowing yourself up in the hope that 72 virgins will be waiting for you is rather excessive in my book. Until someone comes back from the dead and tells me that is true I think I will give blowing myself up a miss.
Of course if I was a true believer and lived my life according to the tenets of my faith I would be miffed if I was disparaged for doing so. Everyone is entitled to live their lives anyway they like if it does not do harm to others. However if it does or you are associated with those who do then expect to be disparaged.
@Antisthenes
ReplyDelete"... in the hope that 72 virgins will be waiting for you..."
I don't believe that anywhere specifies the virgins' gender...
...or even species.
Or religion- 72 nuns anyone?
DeleteBunny,
ReplyDeleteAs opposed to actual attacks by members of the Religion of Peace.
I understand that there is a school of thought that says virgins is a mis-translation and it should read raisins.
ReplyDeleteFurther to what the Koran tells those who follow its dictates, is that all non believers should be put to death, it is acceptable to lie and pretend to be friendly to non believers if the end result is that they be killed, it is acceptable to take the children (both male and female) of non believers as sex slaves to show those non believers that Islam makes its own rules, other laws, whether religious or legal, do not have precedence over Islamic law. The Koran is misogynistic, cruel, and threatening, not only to non believers but to followers who face torture and death if they query, question, or deny, any of the contents of that tunnel visioned tome which wants to keep its adherents in the 6th century while paraditically using the technology of those societies which have progressed.
ReplyDeleteIt's just a shame that the freighter didn't let the flames have the written word, thought that would give the opportunity of Big Al to prevent it burning.
Penseivat
My but there's some eagle eyed toddlers loose in the world.
ReplyDeleteThat or a bunch of idiot adults with an Offenso-sensor and too much time on their hands.
"Think we're getting to the point where the very mention of the word conjures up images and those images are not great."
ReplyDeleteWe long ago reached that point, James...
" Everyone is entitled to live their lives anyway they like if it does not do harm to others. However if it does or you are associated with those who do then expect to be disparaged."
Spot on!
"...or even species."
LOL!
"The Koran is misogynistic, cruel, and threatening, not only to non believers but to followers who face torture and death if they query, question, or deny, any of the contents of that tunnel visioned tome which wants to keep its adherents in the 6th century while paraditically using the technology of those societies which have progressed."
It's worse than the Old Testament. At least nobody - especially the CoE - takes that as gospel any more.