A swedish artist, Lars Vilks, draws the face of Mohammed on the body of the dog, thereby pissing of Muslims with a double whammy. The first being the whole no images of the big man himself rule and the second being the fact that he was drawn onto the body of a dog, which is considered an unclean animal in Islam.
Lars has a pair of brass balls, he does. Al Qaeda has offered up 100 large for his death with a 50 large bonus if his death is by slit throat. Frankly, while one can make the argument that he is an idiot for incurring the Muslim wrath, he went into this with eyes wide open, intending to make a statement about the intolerance of some of the followers of Islam, if not all. Lars makes some statements which get to the heart of the matter:
“That’s a way of expressing things. If you don’t like it, don’t look at it. And if you look at it, don’t take it too seriously. No harm done, really,” he says.
In a sane, reasoned world, where logic prevails, that would be the end of it. His picture is just a picture. It has no power or meaning other than what a person assigns to it. People of tolerance and some level of control over their emotions, which would show a degree of maturity, would look at the picture and either praise the guy as a genius or call him an ass and move on. Instead, Muslims want him dead. And true to form, a Muslim woman in Sweden is chomping at the bit to do the deed.
“I can do this in the name of Allah, and I will not fail. I could slaughter him in the name of Allah,” says the woman who identified herself only as Amatullah.
She adds, “If I get the opportunity.”
Dressed in a black burqa from head to toe and uttering death threat after death threat, the woman — a wife and mother — says she is defending her religion and her prophet if she manages to kill Vilks.
You can’t reason with that level of blind, irrational hatred. That doesn’t mean you back down from it. If you do that, then the blind, irrational hatred has won.
In England, a priest is quizzed for over an hour by ‘hate police’ over remarks he made over a Muslim woman going to court for the right to wear her jibab in school. What he said in his parish newsletter well over a year before the police visit didn’t even fall in the same league as old Lars.
After hearing an interview with the girl, Mr Hayes suggested in his internet bulletin to his parishioners that it was never possible to convince anyone by argument in matters of religion.
To think that London police wasted over an hour talking to this guy on the possibility of a hate crime. It boggles the mind. Especially when you consider the following:
The inquisition in Hornchurch, East London, prompted a furious row about policing priorities. In the past 12 months there have been five murders, 33 rapes, 424 robberies and 2,267 burglaries in the local police borough of Havering.
How can a religion which expects, nay, demands, tolerance from the rest of the world be so intolerant of the rest of the world? Why should we put up with that? Why should we tolerate such irrational behavior, such hatred, just because they hide that hatred behind their religion? How long do we put up with capitulation from representatives of government agencies, such as the London police, before we say “enough is enough”, stand up and tell these nutballs that tolerance and respect is a two way street.
