My Own Side

Just when you thought we were over the Danish Mohammed cartoons, here we go again.

From the UK Daily Mail:

The Pope’s speech quoted from a book recounting a conversation between 14th century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II and an educated Persian on the truths of Christianity and Islam.

“The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war,” the Pope said.

“He said, I quote, ‘Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached’.”

Benedict described the phrases on Islam as “brusque”, while neither explicitly agreeing with nor repudiating them.

From the Guardian:

Pope Benedict XVI was last night facing angry demands from Muslims that he apologise for a speech in which he appeared to say the concept of jihad was “unreasonable” and quoted a medieval ruler who said Muhammad’s innovations were “evil and inhuman”.

How dare the Pope imply that Jihad and spreading faith by the sword are unreasonable today! What else are we going to do with our spare time?

It’s still early, but let me predict what happens next. There will be riots in the streets of almost every Muslim country. US and Israeli flags will be burned (yes I know we had nothing to do with the content of the Pope’s speech, but that never matters to these darlings). Demands for an apology will mount. The Vatican will relent, and the Pope will bow and scrape and apologize deeply and profusely for his speech. And militant Islam will milk this incident for all it is worth.

It is difficult for a Western mind to wrap itself around this kind of culture. To these people, honor is a life and death matter. It is a Western value to demean oneself. We believe in tolerance and apologies for the sake of peace. In an honor society, these things are seen as a sign of weakness. The stature of the Pope is going to be lessened when he apologises.

Another unfortunate result of this will be that anyone else who may have been remotely dreaming of challenging Islam to reform, even gently, is going to think long and hard before opening their mouth. The message is being sent loud and clear. “Insult” Islam and we will attack you. No wonder we don’t hear much from any reformers in the Islamic world. This is a religion that will not accept any criticism.

When threats and intimidation tactics are used, that in and of itself is a form of violence. When opposing viewpoints are ruthlessly squashed, especially in the public sphere, you are advancing your viewpoint “by the sword”. The Pope’s critics are doing exactly what they are angry at him for implying they do.

Once again, the world is watching the bizarre, Orwellian spectacle of the Islamic worlds fury and violence over being gently criticized as being too violent. While ferociously arguing that they are NOT violent, they erupt in violence. And yet somehow this makes perfect sense to them, while the rest of us are left shaking our heads in disbelief.

Every day from mosques, TV and radio stations throughout the Middle East, Judaism and Christianity is insulted and reviled. Practicing another religion in many of these countries can be fatal. When are the Muslim leaders demanding that the Pope apologize for insulting Islam going to apologize for their words and actions against other faiths? Criticism from hypocrites is always the most galling.

And speaking of hypocrites, here’s a jaw-dropper (from the Daily Mail article):

Militant Islamic websites also attacked the Pope.

Some “down-time” at the City of Woodinville’s Annual Basset Bash. She needs her beauty sleep. Really bad. Competition categories included “Longest Ears” (11 inches!) and “Best Howl”. One of the competitors brought a tape recording of a fire engine’s siren for the latter. It worked like a charm.

More Basset Bash pictures are here.

September 11th, to most Americans, is a time to remember the horrible events of that day, honor the dead who were killed, renew our resolve to fight, and appreciate again what it is to be an American. Unfortunately, the ‘Without End’ demonstration in Seattle at Westlake Mall struck out on all four counts.

But it did have masks.

And a drummer or two (he was actually pretty good with that circular metal hibachi thingy).

And a healing/meditating circle.

Any flags were a little hard to find, which is a little odd on September 11th. But I did finally manage to find a little one. A Palestinian one. On a button that says “We Are All Palestinians“. Worn alongside a keffiyah. Funny, what I remember about the Palestinians and 9/11 was the footage of them dancing in the streets and passing out candy, to the immense distress of Yassar Arafat. Distress that the video got out, that is.

They never take their own side in a fight, as somebody once quipped.

I have to say, I found the whole thing just plain sad and depressing. There was nothing about the events of September 11th. The only dead they wanted to remember were those on the other side. They wanted us to stop fighting back, and they were plainly ashamed of America’s role in the world.

And did I mention the awful poetry?

The dead are not a call to arms

Our fallen brothers are not bullets

Our fallen sisters are not bombs

Our children lying in the earth

Our mothers and fathers, our friends

are not rallying cries

What a swell attitude to have remembering 9/11. They would just roll over and die and save Al-Qaeda the trouble of beheading them.

This September 11th, let’s remember American heroes like Todd Beamer. When he said “Let’s Roll!” he didn’t mean “over“.

The full gallery of pictures is here.