Bowing Down to the Medieval

♠
"Whoever defames our prophet should be executed," said Ismail Hassan, a tailor who marched in the pouring rain with hundreds of other Muslims in the West Bank city of Ramallah. "Bin Laden our beloved, Denmark must be blown up," the protesters chanted.

-- AP Report, "Protests Over Muhammad Drawings Intensify"

"We will not accept less than severing the heads of those responsible," one preacher at Al Omari mosque in Gaza told worshipers during Friday Prayer, according to Reuters. Other demonstrators called for amputating the hands of the cartoonists who drew the pictures.

-- Joel Brinkley and Ian Fisher for The NY Times

One supposes that you cannot simply turn a blind eye to this sort of violent reaction, but it still seems grievous and sad that such a reaction is being given a full conciliatory treatment by the American and European governments, giving credence to such a regressive and violent perspective. I cannot help but feel it is as though we must appease bomb-wielding babies.

Krauthammer gives us an example of some 'art' that Palestinians found more acceptable:

In August 2001, Hamas sent a suicide bomber into a Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem. He killed 15 innocent Israelis, mutilating many dozens more. A month later, Hamas student activists at al-Najah University in Nablus celebrated the attack with an exhibit, a mockup of the smashed Sbarro shop strewn with blood and fake body parts -- a severed leg, still dressed in jeans; a human hand dangling from the ceiling. The inscription (with a reference to the Qassam military wing of Hamas) read: "Qassami Pizza is more delicious."

( AP Report )

xXx

Bowing Down to the Medieval

♠
"Whoever defames our prophet should be executed," said Ismail Hassan, a tailor who marched in the pouring rain with hundreds of other Muslims in the West Bank city of Ramallah. "Bin Laden our beloved, Denmark must be blown up," the protesters chanted.

-- AP Report, "Protests Over Muhammad Drawings Intensify"

"We will not accept less than severing the heads of those responsible," one preacher at Al Omari mosque in Gaza told worshipers during Friday Prayer, according to Reuters. Other demonstrators called for amputating the hands of the cartoonists who drew the pictures.

-- Joel Brinkley and Ian Fisher for The NY Times

One supposes that you cannot simply turn a blind eye to this sort of violent reaction, but it still seems grievous and sad that such a reaction is being given a full conciliatory treatment by the American and European governments, giving credence to such a regressive and violent perspective. I cannot help but feel it is as though we must appease bomb-wielding babies.

Krauthammer gives us an example of some 'art' that Palestinians found more acceptable:

In August 2001, Hamas sent a suicide bomber into a Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem. He killed 15 innocent Israelis, mutilating many dozens more. A month later, Hamas student activists at al-Najah University in Nablus celebrated the attack with an exhibit, a mockup of the smashed Sbarro shop strewn with blood and fake body parts -- a severed leg, still dressed in jeans; a human hand dangling from the ceiling. The inscription (with a reference to the Qassam military wing of Hamas) read: "Qassami Pizza is more delicious."

( AP Report )

xXx