[ExI] Terrorist? Who can tell?

[spike]

> Harvey Newstrom
> Subject: Re: [ExI] Terrorist? Who can tell?
> 
> On Thursday 04 September 2008 21:14:12 spike wrote:
> > Harvey the most ironic part of this is that if anyone 
> criticizes this 
> > religion, not far behind is a quick accusation of racism...

> Do you have an references to muslims claiming to be a race?  
> I have often heard this, but only from people who don't know 
> much about muslims... Harvey Newstrom

I looked up "criticism of Islam" in wikipedia and found this comment by
Deepa Kumar: "The Danish cartoon of the prophet Mohammed with a bomb on his
head is nothing if not the visual depiction of the racist diatribe that
Islam is inherently violent. To those who can't understand why this argument
is racist, let me be clear: when you take the actions of a few people and
generalize it to an entire group -- all Muslims, all Arabs -- that's racism.
When a whole group of people are discriminated against and demonized because
of their religion or regional origin, that's racism."


Kumar's comment is a perfect example of my original point.  The Danish
cartoon had no reference to race that I can tell.  I don't even know what
race the character with the bomb in the turban was supposed to be was, but
it doesn't matter.  The cartoon itself had nothing to do with racism, but
here is that racist accusation from which westerners flee.  The cartoon
doesn't generalize to all Muslims, or all Arabs or all Presbyterians.  It is
a sketch of a man with a bomb in his turban!  For this sketch, riots broke
out all over the globe, perhaps entirely coincidentally in those places with
high concentrations of those passionate Presbyterians, and *many innocent
people were slain* all over a damn cartoon.  

The explanation given by scholars is that no image of John Calvin is
allowed, for you see it might lead the people to idolatry.  Horrors!  Never
do these scholars actually say the Presbyterians might be incited to riot
and murder.  Mere murder would be understandable under this system of
reasoning, but idolatry cannot be tolerated, so horrifying is this
unspeakable sin?

To Kumar, I would ask she let me be perfectly clear.  Cartooning and
lampooning of Calvin is not racist, for the critism is not against a race,
it is against a specific religion.  In Keith's mighty struggle against Co$,
he was never called a racist; why not?  Call that Danish cartoon what it
really is: religionist, for the cartoon is about a *religion* not a race.
Races we treat as equals.  But by my way of thinking all religions are fair
game for criticism.

spike