Cartoon Farce

It has been quite some time since I last made a post, I will make no reasons or excuses for not having done so. I may or may not continue to post regularly from now on, however the urge to have a rant about something has grown in me again and I am therefore posting.

Front page news at the moment is all to do with the current reaction to a series of cartoons that were published in a Danish newspaper last September. Why the protests are suddenly all coming to the fore many months later and not immediately after the event is another question; however I would suggest that it is more of a case of a number of pathetic fools who wish to jump on the 'mob mentality' bandwagon, and use it as an excuse for violence and unrest. In the same way that we saw hordes of people gathering to riot in Cronulla recently, many of these people were not that interested in the purpose of their actions, but merely looking for an excuse for a fight.

Now let me pre-empt my comments by saying that I am in no way going to tar the entire Islamic world with the same brush, the vast majority of Muslims and indeed the vast majority of people throughout the world, are honest and decent citizens. However as is often the case, it is the actions of the minority that casue problems.

Indeed it was the actions of a minority in the first place that started this whole episode. Only a small number of people were responsible for printing the cartoons, in turn a small number of people have targeted the entire western world as culprits for this, and in turn many of those in the western world will treat the Islamic world based on the reaction of the few.

What essentially this issue has now turned into though, is quite frankly the most laughable case of hypocracy I have seen in a while. There is no reason why Muslims should not find these cartoons offensive; however mild they may be, they are still insulting on a certain level to a particular faith. Let us consider though the degree to which the reaction to these cartoons has reached. Because these cartoons have been printed, those of us in the west must be killed, preferably by beheading. We are to expect more attacks such as the ones on September 11 and July 7. Let us all be clear that the punishment for these cartoons is death, and there are many people out there who are threatening to kill us. Now I'm pretty sure that it is actually illegal to make such threats in this country, where indeed much protesting has been seen. In fact, one chap decided he would dress up as a suicide bomber and suggest that people be killed as a result of this most heinous and unforgivable insult of Islam. Of course this fellow was quick to realise that his actions were indeed far worse that those responsible for the cartoons, and given the ill feeling that exists regarding the recent bombings in London, he hastily made a public apology. Unfortunately for him, he happened to have been released on parole from a five and half year gaol sentence; evidently he had broken the terms of his parole and was quickly thrown back behind bars. Silly boy.

Clearly all this hated and rage is being fuelled by extremist groups who will look for any excuse to promote their cause and try to gather troops to fight it. These are the same people who promote a constant stream of hate towards Israel and the west. There are countless anti western and anti Zionist rhetoric and literature that are spewed from these people. Promising death and destruction to all who do not follow their cause. Committing acts which many would agree are far more despicable than drawing cartoons.

So the fact that those who protest as a result of these cartoons are not innocent themselves; the fact that their protests and threats of death have made them far more offensive than those they are protesting; smacks utterly and totally of bald faced, blind eyed hypocricy. Surely there are so many people who can see how laughably ridiculous this whole thing is.

Riots that have broken out in Damascus, Beruit, Tehran and other cities in the Islamic world, have seen violence, destruction and death. Yet it is not those of us in the west who have been killed, inspite of the threats, it is the protesters themselves who seem to be killing each other; which makes this ridiculousness beyond farce.

Perhaps those who wish to attack certain factions of the Islamic world should take note; do not send your own warriors in to fight, they too may suffer casualties. Let's instead print a few cartoons that insult your enemies and let them all kill each other in the resulting outrage! Surely this is far more economical.