Cartoons and Muslim countries have a long and troubling history, including the Danish cartoons that led to a global spasm of violence where Muslims killed Christians and burned churches in retaliation of an insult to Mohammad. The fact that cartoons are satire or that this is an exercise of free speech has little meaning in countries that punish blasphemy and many which follow medieval Sharia law. Many view Jordan as one of the more progressive Arab countries, but that reputation has been severely undermined by a ridiculous and abusive arrest of Jordanian writer Nahed Hattar for merely sharing a cartoon deemed offensive to Muslims. Notably, the cartoon actually mocked terrorists and their expectations of virgins and heavenly rewards for murdering people. Mocking the terrorists over such beliefs was deemed as a criminal insult to Islam.
The creator of the cartoon is unknown but it shows a fighter from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) sitting next to two women and asking God to bring him a drink. That would seem an insult to the extremists and terrorists who are routinely denounced by Muslims as betraying their religion. However, Muslims in Jordan were outraged and demanded the arrest of Hattar for simply sharing the cartoon on social media.
Hattar tried to explain his motive in exposing the hypocrisy of Islamic terrorists but that did not help.
Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood called for his arrest. Weirdly, fellow writer Fahad al Khitan is quoted as saying “This whole controversy was politically motivated by Hattar and his opponents who took advantage of this issue to take revenge against him for his controversial and often offensive political stances.” Really, he just shared a cartoon and exercised free speech. How is his actions in using free speech equivalent to the government and the Muslim Brotherhood criminalizing speech? Yet, that point was also missed by Reem al Jazi, a well-known Jordanian civic activist, who said that “Hattar is a racist and bigoted individual,” and that he had caused offence to “everyone, not just Muslims”. She noted that he is a “nonbeliever.” I find Jazi far more offensive in her views as basic civil liberties. Whether Hattar is a “nonbeliever” or not, it is clear that many leading Jordanian writers are nonbelievers in free speech.
They all need to more thoroughly study the Koran.
Here is a link with the translation of the cartoon. He was essentially mocking what the entitled terrorists believe the afterlife to be.
http://www.clarionproject.org/news/jordanian-satirist-arrested-cartoon-mocking-isis
“Hattar was arrested for insulting religion. His cartoon twisted Islamic vocabulary about God and paradise for comedic effect, such as changing the word “Subhanallah” (Glory be to Allah) into the second person “Subhanekh” (your gloriousness) which also prompted criticism of his cartoon as being an insensitive way to discuss God.
The cartoon is translated below by by Clarion Project Arabic Affairs Analyst Anwar el-Iraqi.
In Green: In paradise…
Allah: “May your evening be joyous, Abu Saleh, do you need anything?”
Jihadist: “Yes Lord, bring me the glass of wine from other there and tell Jibril [the Angel Gabriel] to bring me some cashews. After that send me an eternal servant to clean the floor and take the empty plates with you.”
Jihadist continues: “Don’t forget to put a door on the tent so that you knock before you enter next time, your gloriousness.””
They seriously need to become desensitized. If Christians were this touchy, every standup comedian would have been arrested or murdered by now. That Church Lady from SNL was hilarious. “What does this remind me of? Oh…I don’t know…maybe Satan?”
OTOH, suppose the Islamic countries let people start criticizing Islam, and making fun of it. What happens? Islam becomes a hollow shell religion like Christianity. It gets a little lop service here and there, but some kind of belief system will flow in to take its place.
Hedonism, secularism, PCism, weird gendercrapisms, narcissisms, IDKWTFisgoingonisms, you name it. They can become the pathetic screwed-up impotent mess that the West is. Sooo, I hope the Muzzies resist that temptation to become more liberal and Western. Wouldn’t want to live there, but I hope they don’t change.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Don’t let Prince Abdullah, or his wife, Rania, fool you. Their accumulation of British, American and Swiss educations may have imparted to them heavy, British accents–with which we, Americans, associate with the concept of refinement, intelligence and enlightenment–but no amount of Armani suits or tight designer dresses, donned by the couple, will change who and what is beneath those garments. The two are survivors, to an extent, TOLERATED by the radical Islamic elements in their society. Never forget that they
are products of their culture, as we often allow misleading outward appearances influence us. Prince Abdullah is hanging on by the proverbial string. He walks a fine line in that part of the world and has to allow these voices of Islamic intolerance free reign in condemning and punishing this perceived insult to Islam. He has no other choice. Either they come for the cartoonist or they come for him and his family. You will not hear his voice, or his British accent, or his years of British and American education, coming to the aid of this cartoonist.
Our governmental forces seem to be following the same playbook: Arrest peaceful protestors and give the violent protestors more space. The latter in the United States loot and torch their own communities and overseas they blow places up, rape and pillage.
I am sure these twisted, malevolent, psychotic religious fanatics could find the rising of the sun, the blooming of a flower or the smile of a bay offensive in some way to their religious purification tests. Beheading innocents? I didn’t see a thing. Cartoons? Off with his head……
We need legal soap boxes in ME. Not talking Maine here. I refer to the Muddle East. This is East of Corfu where the Ten Commandments Don’t Apply. Also called Beyond The Palentate. Ask Joanne Palin. She can explain it. She should be number two on the “ticket”. Trump would win.
I think we all have our hang ups. We all have some views that may be slanted one way or another. But we have to remember that even if you disagree with some one, they have a right to get up on the soap box.
https://youtu.be/7nIRJVmZ4K8
Gee, fly a Confederate Flag here, and you can get fired. In England, say Islam Sucks, and you can be arrested. Criticize the new Ghostbusters movie, and Twitter will boot you off. Why pick on Jordan?
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Why are you clocking foreign lands. You’re not exactly standing in a bastion of justice.
The White House B.O. (Best Orangutan) and Americans in general are convinced that ME Muslims like those depicted in this story, can be bribed into loving Western style “democracy” with money, schools, hospitals, etc.
Let’s spend several more trillion USD and more “regime change” to make it all better.
Maybe….when monkeys fly out my b___.