So, after The Satanic Verses, the Danish Muhammad,PBUH1, cartoons2, and others I can't quite recall at this moment, you might be wondering what will be next to rile up those who follow follow the prophet Muhammad, PBUH3.
Shoes.
Some smart person decided it might be a good idea to make a shoe with the word "Allah" written on the bottom. Perhaps he was trying to make a holy shoe. And much like it's illegal to step on Thai money because it has a picture of the king upon it, it is not done to walk upon the name of God. Well, it's not really the name of God, it's just the word "the god". It's not his actual name. I mean if it had Zeus written on it, then it's the name of a god, but just writing "the god" doesn't seem that specific.
Anyway, the authorities in the UAE didn't wast any time. The shoes have been destroyed, the shoe seller fined, and made to promise not to "display products that hurt the sentiments of Muslims".
This is one4 of the rather frustrating aspects of Muslims as a group.5 They are extraordinarily thin-skinned. Take the Danish cartoons. There have been many worse cartoons involving Jesus. I can't find any off the top of my head, but I'm sure they're out there.6 The worst a christian group might do is picket the paper or put out a press release or two. The don't burn flags of the country the paper is in, attack embassies, people from completely different countries and generally carry on like a mob.
And the whole Salman Rushdie thing. He wrote a book that's kind of based on the life of Muhammed, PBUH7, and he got threatened with death from the outraged Muslims. Compare this to the reaction to The Da Vinci Code, which while not featuring Jesus himself, is based on a rather novel interpretation of the Jesus story.
My advice to Muslims is don't take things so seriously. Take a chill pill, relax, and don't let things get to them so much.
1 Peanut Butter Underneath Helicopters
2 I now present my smiley art picture of Muhammed smiling :-)
3 Pretty Butterflies Unite Homewreckers
4 There are a number of them.
5 Like most groups, any individual I've met is nice and rational and easy to get along with, but as a group they do the most ridiculous things.
6 Please let me know where they are. I want to see them and laugh.
7 Please Buy Unferth Hay
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8 comments:
How true, but remember they did form the KKK and burnt Harry Potter books because of the witchcraft in them...And i would like to point out that I live in a predominantly Muslim country, and what is notable in this one is its lack of extremism... just no pork really... Apparenly last year during Ramadan there were ppl walking down the street drinking beer - go figure?
~Cheers, me :) ;P~
The Christians I mean... with the KKK and the HP books and Northern Ireland?... oh just download 'Jesus Camp'... you'll see... I'm not saying u are wrong, there are some wacky ppl out there on both sides... i just think Islam get more bad press is all...or at the very least fails to get good press...
Me again...
John Paul lives in London. That is predominantly Muslim.
Hi-ooooo!
But honestly, don't even begin to compare Christians to Muslims. The excesses of Christianity are tempered by the democratic nature of the countries in which it has taken root. Also Jesus, while still being from and of the iron age, is a vast improvement over the utter moral catastrophes of Judaism and Islam.
Also every day in Australia there are people eating pork and drinking beer. That is because Australia is a nicer country.
Chris, while London may be predominantly Muslim (something I'm not sure I'd accept without some sort of citation to something official) the UK is not considered a Muslim country. Nor is pork in rare supply over there. Finally, it is not rare for people to walk down the street drinking beer at any time, let alone Ramadan, for which JP would have been there to observe for himself, so would not have needed to use the qualifier "Apparently". I stand by my deduction of anonymous's identity.
As to comparing Christians to Muslims, currently the Muslims are doing a lot more preaching with the sword than Christians, for whom that is hopefully all in the past now. As to democracy tempering Christianity, most countries which are Christian and democratic were Christian first, then over time became more democratic. With this one causation and correlation may be trickier to separate.
I wan only kidding about London. I am sure it is not mostly Muslim. Whoever the other person was my comments about beer and pork applied to whatever Muslim country they are in, not London.
I think the path of Christianity lead to democracy, but Christian doctrine certainly didn't cause democracy.
The Vatican was large and draconian and absurd. This lead to the reformation which showed people that it was OK to question what supposed religious authorities say. Something which Europe then went on to do. This may have not happened in Muslim countries because there is no central authority on Islam against which one can rebel.
This may have not happened in Muslim countries because there is no central authority on Islam against which one can rebel.
That's a very interesting thought, one that I haven't heard before.
This may have not happened in Muslim countries because there is no central authority on Islam against which one can rebel.
Because how does one rebel against anarchy? By becoming rigid and fundamentalist? You may be onto something Chris.
Maybe we should encourage the Middle East to form some big Islamic state and let them run free for a few decades to see how the people like it.
Damn you esonlinji and your skills of deduction... yes, tis me and yes, you can buy pork here tho I have been reccommended to eat Halal food and not buy pork, not just because it's a Muslim country but because here we don't have the standards that you have in Oz. For food to be Halal, it needs to be prepared in a certain (clean!) way to a certain standard, so it's usually better to eat. Also, you can buy pork, I tend not to out of respect for any Muslims who may happen to visit us, but also because pigs are scavengers, they may pick up diseases that animals such as cows and horses don't. Therefore, there is less risk of disease by not eating pork in a country that doesn't have rigid standards.
~Splurky:)
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