Shire Network News #102 has been released. The feature interview is with Reut Cohen, a student at UC Irvine, who documents anti-Semitism on campus. Click here for the show notes, links, and ways to listen to the show; directly from the web site, by downloading the mp3 file, or by subscribing with your podcatcher of choice.

Below is the text of my commentary segment.

Hi, this is Doug Payton for Shire Network New, asking you to “Consider This”.

This is a Blogosphere News Roundup; a BNR on SNN. My own little version of the Blog News segment but missing the wonderfully funky segue music.

First up is a new movie from Brian De Palma, entitled “Redacted”, which attempts to paint all US soldiers in a bad light by highlighting, in gory detail, the rape of girl and the murder of her family by 5 soldiers. De Palma calls this “the reality of what is happening in Iraq”.

This incident is horrifying, no doubt about that. But isn’t calling that “the reality” sort of like looking closely at an ant hill in my 1-acre yard and thus, by extension, condemning my house since it must be overrun by ants? De Palma blames the US for this atrocity, which may be fair enough, but he also blames the US for the beheadings by al Qaeda. Heads, it’s our fault. Tails, the fault is ours. After all, if only we weren’t in Iraq, all these al Qaeda types would instead be sipping lemonade by the pool, and their new motto would be “Live and Let Live”. And if you believe that, I’ve got a couple of towers in downtown Manhatten I’d like to sell you.

De Palma’s next film will declare that the continent of Africa is devoid of people after filming 100 square yards of Saharan real estate. Working title: “The Bonfire of the Insanities”.

Next up, Senator Hillary Clinton was found to have taken campaign money from a man of questionable ethics. Hmm, fugitive raises money for a Clinton. Eh, never mind, no real news there.

But speaking of the US presidential campaign, Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama picked up a key endorsement on Wednesday; the late Fidel Castro. Fidel, from beyond the grave, said that a Clinton/Obama ticket would be “invincible”. Castro should know something about invincibility; not even his death can keep him from writing editorials. (Yes, yes, I know Castro’s death has not been confirmed, but really; a Communist leader who took ill and has not been seen in months? These guys need to get an original script. I hear Brian De Palma has just come into some free time.)

In Sydney, Australia, thousands of Christians protested and set on fire the building where the religious art competition, the Blake prize, was showing off their entries. Among them was a statue of the Virgin Mary in a burqa, and a holographic image that morphed between Jesus and Osama bin Laden, which enrage Christians to the point of rioting. Heh, yeah, right, you knew better than that. Oh, the art exhibits do indeed exist. It’s just that the worst things that happened were a few tut-tuts from a number of folks including Prime Minister John Howard, and some angry phone calls. Hey fellas, I’ve got some Danish cartoons I’d like to enter in your contest. You’re open to all religions, right? Right?

It’s been 2 years since hurricane Katrina blew through New Orleans. The flood waters rose, the levees were broken, people were driven from their homes, and now President Bush is visiting there. I believe that according to my reading of the book of Exodus, locusts should be next.

And finally, from the news site The Australian comes this headline: “A nuclear-armed Iran would not be good”. Indeed. A sworn enemy of the West with one of the most powerful weapons on the face of the Earth could ruin your whole afternoon. I wonder if, 2 years ago, there might have been an article headlined, “Bad Storm Hit New Orleans”.

All yours, Brian.

What happens when art that offends people of a particular religion is displayed? Let’s do a comparative look. First, the Christians, in an article headlined, “Christians Mull Offensive Art Works”.

The inclusion of two provocative entries in Australia’s most prestigious religious art competition has again highlighted the issue of distasteful art and Christians’ reaction to it.

Critics ranging from Prime Minister John Howard to church leaders have questioned the appropriateness of the two exhibits — one depicting the Virgin Mary wearing an Islamic burqa, and another, a holographic image of al-Qaeda terror chief Osama bin Laden morphing into an image of Jesus Christ.

The works, submitted for a 55-year-old annual award called the Blake prize, are on display at a taxpayer-funded gallery in Sydney. Howard has called them “gratuitously offensive to the religious beliefs of many Australians.”

“Regrettably, attempts to insult Jesus and Mary have become common in recent years, even predictable,” said the country’s most senior Catholic leader, Cardinal George Pell of Sydney.

“Too often it seems that the only quality which makes something ‘art’ is the adolescent desire to shock,” he said. “If this is the best the Blake prize can do, it has probably outlived its usefulness.”

The chairman of the Blake prize, the Rev. Rod Pattenden, said in a statement it seemed that “a real nerve” had been hit.

“I have received several angry phone calls from people claiming religious allegiance who have expressed themselves with clear hatred and violence towards other religious groups,” said Pattenden, a minister in the Uniting Church, a liberal Protestant denomination.

Mulling, questioning, and even some angry phone calls over this sort of art.

Let’s look at the history of another religion.

The drawings show the head of a turbaned man attached to the body of a dog, in front of various settings including a football goal.

The publication, in the newspaper Nerikes Allehanda, came after several galleries had refused to display the drawings, apparently for fear of violent retaliation from offended Muslims.

Early last year, violent demonstrations erupted throughout the Muslim world after the publication in Denmark of 12 cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed which were also deemed blasphemous.

“Alongside the picture, we published a comment piece saying that it was serious that there is self-censorship among exhibition [galleries],” said the Nerikes Allehanda editor-in-chief, Ulf Johansson.

Last weekend, a small gathering of protestors gathered outside the newspaper’s offices to demonstrate against the cartoon’s publication.

That was followed this Monday by Iran summoning Sweden’s chief diplomat in Teheran to express its own outrage. Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has blamed “Zionists” for the images but said he would not hold the Swedish people responsible.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry said that Sweden’s charge d’affaires had promised his government “shared the views of the Muslim community and termed the publication as unfortunate”.

In Stockholm, the Swedish foreign ministry said it now considered the matter closed.

But last year’s violent protests over the Danish cartoons has showed that initially little noticed drawings can eventually prompt widespread anger.

Yes, well, more than just “widespread anger”; over 100 people died. This particular situation has become an international incident, and it’s working, since some places are afraid to display them.

Both situations — the Christian one and the Muslim one — are equal in that they offend some people of a particular religion and, in my view, also equal in that they should not be banned. I don’t think public money should be financing them (and I have no evidence that they are), but banning insults is, to me, a slippery-slope freedom-of-speech issue.

But there is self-censorship happening in the case of art insulting Islam, not because of any sense of tact or taste (unfortunately), but because of the fear of what its adherents might do. For many, it’s not OK to insult Islam because they might kill us if we do. Far too many folks who stand up for freedom of speech or for the arts are more than willing to throw out those principles before the angry mob show up. The “religion of peace” does not have a very good record at handling insults peaceably, with mulling and phone calls.

Obligatory disclaimer: Yes, I’m fully aware that a majority of Muslims don’t take up arms over cartoons. But the point is, so many do, and so many Christians or Jews don’t, that to the observer of these events, Islam does seem more violent than others.

Is Islam in need of a reformation?

Technorati Tags: Christianity, Islam, Muslims, John Howard, Osama bin Laden, Jesus, Blake prize, Cardinal George Pell, Rev. Rod Pattenden, Nerikes Allehanda, Mohamed, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Austrailia, Pakistan, Sweden

Glenn McCoy says it all with one picture from August 2nd.

Technorati Tags: Glenn McCoy, political cartoon, Koran, Bible, culture, double standard

Ain’t Hamas television just so cute?

Hamas’s Al-Aqsa television station recruited a new children’s character to “continue” the legacy of its star martyr, Farfur – the Mickey Mouse lookalike who was beaten to death by an Israeli on the previous program.

The new character on the children’s show Tomorrow’s Pioneers, a bee named Nahool, tells the hostess he is Farfur’s cousin and that he wishes to “continue the path of Farfur… the path of martyrdom, the path of the Jihad warriors… and in his name we shall take revenge upon the enemies of Allah, the murderers of the prophets…” The expression “Murderers of the prophets” is an Islamic expression used by the PA religious leaders to refer to Jews. Defining the Jews as the enemies of God is common in PA religious broadcasting.

Entertaining and educational as always.

Technorati Tags: Farfur, Farfour, Nahool, Hamas, television, Israel, Tomorrow’s Pioneers, Palestinians, Judaism, Jihad

In case you’re still under the impression that al Qaeda hates us because of our foreign policies, here’s some perspective.

The leader of an al-Qaida umbrella group in Iraq threatened to wage war against Iran unless it stops supporting Shiites in Iraq within two months, according to an audiotape released Sunday.

Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, who leads the group Islamic State in Iraq, said his Sunni fighters have been preparing for four years to wage a battle against Shiite-dominated Iran.

“We are giving the Persians, and especially the rulers of Iran, a two month period to end all kinds of support for the Iraqi Shiite government and to stop direct and indirect intervention … otherwise a severe war is waiting for you,” he said in the 50-minute audiotape. The tape, which could not be independently verified, was posted on a Web site commonly used by insurgent groups.

It is not primarily a political struggle, but a religious one, at least on their part. If attacks by al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia weren’t enough to sway opinion, perhaps this might. We are not Muslim, and we’re the big guy on the block, so we make an enticing target. But al Qaeda’s issue is their form of Islam.

Al-Baghdadi criticized Kurdish leaders for their alliance with Shiites in Iraq’s government and accused them encouraging unsavory morals.

“The leaders of apostasy … have impeded the march of Islam in Muslim Kurdistan and helped communism and secularism to spread. … They insulted the religious scholars … encouraged vices and women without veils,” he said.

Insulting scholars and missing veils. Does this sound like a political group to you?

Technorati Tags: al Qaeda, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, Islamic State in Iraq, Islamic State in Iraq, Islam, religion

Shire Network News #94 has been released. The feature interview is with Holland Taylor, the CEO of the Libforall Foundation, which held a conference in Indonesia last week, specifically to challenge Muslim Holocaust denial.. Click here for the show notes, links, and ways to listen to the show; directly from the web site, by downloading the mp3 file, or by subscribing with your podcatcher of choice.

I have a segment this week, and normally I post the full text here, with the links to the articles I cite. Unfortunately, today when I started writing notes for my next segment, I saved them over the old file and thus have lost it. If I’m able to find a backup copy anywhere, it’ll show up here. Enjoy the show anyway.

Technorati Tags: podcast, Shire Network News, Holland Taylor, Libforall Foundation

Preach it, Tony.

“It is so comforting to people to say there was an error made in the planning. Someone didn’t spot what was going to go on,” he told the House of Commons liaison committee, made up of all the chiefs the lower chamber’s scrutiny bodies.

“That is not what has created the problem. What has created the problem is that the people we are fighting have decided to give us a problem.

“What they have decided is that if they can hang on long enough in Iraq, or in Afghanistan, or anywhere else, then we will lose the will.”

He said that Islamist militants purporting that Muslims were being oppressed by the West had a “difficult argument to make” if Muslims were being given a free vote for the first time.

“If we end up saying that because these people are committing these acts of terrorism in Iraq or Afghanistan, that we shouldn’t have done the removal of Saddam or the removal of the Taliban, then we are making a fundamental mistake about our own future, about security, about the values we should be defending in the world.”

Technorati Tags: Tony Blair, Afghanistan, Iraq, war on terror, Islam, Muslims

Shire Network News #93 has been released. Click here for the show notes, links, and ways to listen to the show; directly from the web site, by downloading the mp3 file, or by subscribing with your podcatcher of choice. I had this week off, so no commentary text here.

Muslim cabbies refusing to service customers who have alcohol or a dog, even a guide dog. Muslim cashiers refuse to scan pork products. Now, they’re asking for, and getting, special ceremonial foot basins to wash their feet just prior to their prayer time.

How did these folks survive 20th century America? Or is this, as the first link asks, a battle of the vision for the Muslim religion? And are the radicals winning?

Technorati Tags: Muslims, Islam

I’m proud to say that I got 8 out of 8 right in this ABC News quiz on whether particular persons, organizations and nations are Sunni or Shiite Muslims. I do have to give most of the credit to Mark Alexander’s piece, previously highlighted here, that discussed them. (That and a little luck.)

Technorati Tags: Islam, Muslim, Sunni, Shiite