Fanaticism and oppression work! The latest editions of the comic strip Opus are being censored by at least 25 newspapers around the country. I have to concede that Breathed’s work doesn’t have quite the quality it had during the glory years of Bloom County, but that’s not the reason it’s being dropped: it’s because it mocks Muslim dress, and
newspapers are afraid to make fun of Islam.
Wyson said some client papers hesitated to run a sex joke and others won’t publish any Muslim-related humor, whether pro or con. “They just don’t want to touch that,” she said.
It’s not really much of a sex joke — more of a tepid innuendo — and even the joke about Islamic dress is much more about the shallow faddishness of some Americans than anything about religion. Why shouldn’t we be as free to make jokes about religion as we do about politics or sex or entertainment or bodily excretions?
So, the terrorists are winning then.
The direct link doesn’t seem to work. It redirects to the main page of the salon website (although there is a link to the comic on that page).
Honestly, mock any bit of the religion and everyone panics.
I’m sorry but Islam is a johnny come lately of the Abrahamic religions, it deserves no more respect than Christianity of Judaism. Hell, none of them deserve any respect at all.
Well if they won’t publish any Muslim-related humor, they should have no problem publishing this strip… It is about as ‘humorous’ as Garfield.
Right now I actually wish someone would remake the hamster dance idiocy, but this time with them wearing burqas. I’d also go for, in burqas, Daisy Duck and Minnie Mouse. It’d be a hoot.
Why not wanted-posters with big rewards, showing the suspect in a burqa?
Or just show a picture of someone in a burqa and claim that it’s Giuliani in drag (again).
A Barbie doll in a burqa? Better yet, Miss Piggy in a burqa.
I was just reading an article earlier about America’s latest gaffe of dropping “blasphemous” balls on a community of Muslims.
Personally, I laughed because the outrage is so bloody insignificant. Plus, I’ll admit, the headline “Blasphemous Balls Anger Afghans” just had me wailing with laughter.
You’re right about the excretory jokes, PZ. My solution: ban Marvin!
The joke was more at Lola Granola’s expense rather than at Islam’s expense. Though the attitude of the comic does dovetail nicely into the right winger fantasies of LIBERALISM leading to the likes of John Walker Lindh.
Once more, I find myself worried that there are people who seems to expect all of us to act as if all religions must be respected as treated as if it were to be true.
Two comments:
First, the strip doesn’t seem to be very offensive at all. Is the mere depiction of someone in a hijab offensive? I’m not sure what the cause for sensitivity is.
Second, some of the above comments (e.g. #3 and #5) seem to take the attitude that we should blast away at all parties equally, showing a decided lack of sapience. Let’s not forget that the United States is engaged in a “War on Terror” in which demonizing Muslims features prominently. A great deal of our pro-war rhetoric features constructions of the Muslim “other”, and it should be obvious that your artless attempt at anti-religious expression MIGHT have other connotations you did not intend. Look before you leap.
Blashphemy Balls! Sounds like a response to Chastity Balls (wait a minute, isn’t that something you get if you don’t…).
Whose bright idea was it to put that stupid word on their flag if it means that much to them? Just what is the proper way to dispose of a Saudi Arabian flag that has a piece of writing on it that people worship? Why can’t they be more like Real Murikans and just worship the damn flag itself?
While I suppose it makes sense that worshippers wouldn’t want to kick anything with said revered script upon it, I don’t think the ball is blasphemous enough. As soon as I find out how many five sided faces are found on a soccer ball (I’ve got a texture around somewhere that maps onto a sphere for any 3D app), I’ll know how many portraits of Jesus and Abraham and Big Mo and etc. to feature on a ball. Imagine how many hours of blasphemous fun we could have, kicking the gods around.
From Brian Mickelwait’s blog:
The journalist Andrew Mueller … voiced the suspicion of most of the nation that ‘the restraint of British newspapers derived less from sensitivity to Muslim discontent than it did from a desire not to have their windows broken’.
Well said. Don’t piss of the muslims cause they’re fuck your shit up!
That is one thing that has always confused me… The American flag is revered as if it were a religious icon by some people, but it can also be put on sporting equipment, t-shirts, underwear, and be proudly used/worn by those same people. Do grass stains, mud, and B.0. somehow not desecrate the American flag?
Twelve.
Twelve.
The comments by K Engels at 12 reminds me of one of my favorites stories. It was the summer of 1991 and some of us were still protest Iraq War I. Some of us were gathered at Grant Park on the Fourth Of July weekend. We were confronted by a bunch of pro-war people. It was all rather noisy and unproductive. But one of the persons yelling at us the loudest was a young woman who had an american flag painted on the seat of her jeans. There was something very funny about this. They were yelling at us for being unamerican yet there was one who was farting through her flag.
I regretted that the moment I typed it. As a truncated icosahedron, you get 12 five sided faces on a dodecahedron. As an odd boy who doesn’t like sport, I imagined that there may be some pattern that used less than twelve faces.
So, if I alternate blasphemous icons with blanks (so that you may just as easily be kicking nothing and perhaps offending an atheist who is not quite clear on the concept), which big six icons should get their faces kicked on our new Blashphemy BallTM? Should we include Aslan? Frodo? Harry Potter? I’ll need help. It’s difficult for me to keep track of all these fictional characters.
I long for the day when 25 newspapers refuse to run the Sunday strip of “Family Circus” because they don’t want to take the chance of offending any atheists…
Reminds me of the time the newsie down the block (who’s Pakistani) asked about my dog (whose name is Alan). “You named your dog Allah?!”
“Alan. After my ex-husband.”
That’s usually a laugh line, but this time, the guy just looked relieved.
I’ve just got to see what all this Amish nudism is about.
OK, all you smartypants hyperbolic topologists, that’s 12 pentagons, with each edge shared with a hexagon, numbering 20! So which of 12 gods go on the pentagons, and if we outnumber the gods with 20 faces of godlessness, won’t that offend everybody but the atheists?
Doesn’t anybody else want to kick around ideas for Blasphemy BallTM?
I just think that if Muslim men want Muslim women to wear all-encompassing “modest” outfits, then they should lead by example and wear the same outfits, too. First. But that’s just my Western relativism talking.
And I’d like to let them know that in this country, it’s not polite to stare at women’s breasts.
At the risk of crossing the threads… have you never been to a Renaissance Faire? Often enough, there can be dire consequences for not staring at women’s breasts.
Re #20, that’s just your western *ignorance* talking. Muslim men DO have standards of modesty they adhere to – the Quranic exhortation to modesty is for both men and women. That’s why Muslim men usually don’t wear shorts, or even short sleeves, and often wear caps on their hair. Some Muslim societies take it much further for women (e.g. Saudi), but others (e.g. Egypt) do not – Egyptian women go around relatively uncovered. Persian women, meanwhile, look positively glamorous in their headgear.
I’m told the clitorectomy is virtually universal in Egypt. What does it mean when the society lets women walk around ‘relatively’ uncovered but feels the need to remove the genitalia?
Ironically, wasn’t Iraq under Saddam one of the more liberal tyrannies in regard to women? They could dress how they wanted and (Allah forbid) go to school.
CRM-114:
>Better yet, Miss Piggy in a burqa.
Mmh.. I vaguely remember this already occuring in some muppet movie… maybe I’m thinking of a belly-dancer outfit. *shudder*
Sure, if WaPo offends a few muslims they might get some heated LTTE’s, I doubt if it would escalate to broken windows, even.
But they better watch out about pissing off an accomplished and famous cartoonist such as Berkeley Breathed. His revenge can go on for years, be completely unstoppable, and have the sympathy of millions.
As well as being incredibly funny.
You’ve been warned WaPo! Soon we’ll see what Opus uses for wrapping up his stinky herring leftovers.
I can’t see anything in the strip that would cause me to not run it, but it would be interesting to actually hear from an editor who decided not to run it.
You do realize that this is culturally relative, don’t you? If you are referring to a hijab, I can’t think of few things more depressing and dull than a black cloth to cover what is usually some positively glamorous hair.
Btw, apparently these things takes precedence over safety concerns. When I googled for possible “headgear” this could be referencing, I stumbled on an article where iranian karate competitors wouldn’t follow the safety protocol and forfeited an international game.
I see that hijab is a religious convention according to Wikipedia. And yes, it seems that originally it was meant to be the same dress code for both gender:
[Note: In place of gender it should probably be more accurately s_e_x_e_s considering the religious obsession with s_e_x and s_e_x_e_s, but the frakking spam filter is at it again.]
You do realize that this is culturally relative, don’t you? If you are referring to a hijab, I can’t think of few things more depressing and dull than a black cloth to cover what is usually some positively glamorous hair.
Btw, apparently these things takes precedence over safety concerns. When I googled for possible “headgear” this could be referencing, I stumbled on an article where iranian karate competitors wouldn’t follow the safety protocol and forfeited an international game.
I see that hijab is a religious convention according to Wikipedia. And yes, it seems that originally it was meant to be the same dress code for both gender:
[Note: In place of gender it should probably be more accurately s_e_x_e_s considering the religious obsession with s_e_x and s_e_x_e_s, but the frakking spam filter is at it again.]
Re #23 – the practice was recently banned in Egypt. We’ll see how it’s enforced. At any rate, it is a pre-Islamic practice and is NOT supported by the vast majority of the Muslim world, has no basis in the Quran or hadith, and was rejected as criminal by scholars at al-Azhar (in Egypt). I’m not sure what you mean to prove, anyway.
Sure, it was poking fun at Lola’s random spiritual seeking, but I though the actual joke was on Steve’s common ground with fundamentalists in their desire to have a girlfriend who doesn’t resist “man’s rightful place”.
Hey! If you want people to respect your superstition, just blow stuff up!
Well, we seem to have gone from “mocking Muslim dress” which I think, frankly, is an unproductive thing to do, to “mocking religion” a different thing entirely.
I think the editorial decision was a good one.
You ain’t heard nothing yet ….
There is a UK newspaper, of great repute called the Guardian.
They ahve a blog/discussion section called: “Comment is free”.
Except it isn’t
There has been much argument in London over a proposed “Mega-mosque” – which a lot of the local mulsim population don’t want – they don’t like the waste of money, and are suspicious of the people behind it.
In a discussion on this, I described islam, correctly and accurately as:
“misogynistic, mediaeval, murderous and intolerant religion.”
I’m now banned from that public discussion, because of “offence”.
So, the Guardian are lying, comment isn’t free, and dhimmitude rules.
I think the censoring is crap. So far I haven’t seen any muslims saying they’re offended, the article even states muslim ‘experts’ were consulted and they gave the green light.
This is for commenter #5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOk5Ax40hcs
Catchy tune. Incidentally, I just got back from a month in Malaysia, and I can tell you that at certain times, a hijab is damn sexy. Many muslim girls wear the headscarf, but the rest of the clothing is skin-tight.