Like every other brothel/strip club ad, it's insulting to women. At least that's the way I feel. It has the flags of all the World Cup countries (it's that time of year over in Europe), which has brought threats of Violence from some Muslims.
They find it as an insult to Islam that the flags, bearing Islamic symbol, were used in the ad, which is the size of a tall building.
From the article:
First there were telephone threats of violence, then about 30 hooded protesters armed with knives and sticks arrived..."The situation was explosive,"
Are these people just wacko? Don't Muslims find violence to be against Islam? Have they twisted an ad into an attack? Or, are they right? (I don't think they are, but I'm getting all turned around.) Please help me answer this.
I feel like the world is getting crazier every day.
3 comments:
I think it's an excuse for saber rattling, personally.
I notice the Israeli flag, with it's very prominent Star of David, is up there too. Any reaction from the Jewish community?
I was going to mention the Israeli flag, but didn't want to start into that.
The thing about the Jewish community is that we're all over the board. I'm sure nobody wants their religious symbol put alongside something they clearly don't believe in. That said, you stick your religious symbol on a flag and you've just put it out there -- everytime you see the country's symbol, you also see the religious symbol. Another one of the reasons I see a big need for separation of Church and State. With the exception of the Vatican, of course.
Oh, why are people so crazy?
I apologize if this response seems a little confuzzled, but it's the third time I'm writing it. Mouse-gesture navigation and trying to adjust to a new trackball is a dodgy combination at times. (at least two times...) :-)
Why are people crazy? I don't think they're crazy, just confused and upset. They have all this energy and don't know how to use it in a productive manner, yet. In the context of Islam, as I see it, much of the Muslim world is still trying to adjust to the effects of the global society that our age of technology-enabled mass information sharing has brought about. (I think I've read enough from Al Jazeera to see that...) It's not that they were caught unawares, far from it. There were Pakistani hacker groups spreading anti-whatever messages via electronic means since the beginning of the internet. What does it mean, though? I think it's going to take a few generations, maybe more, before things start to calm down in all quarters. Patience is a learned trait. As a global society, we're still pretty young. We've all got some maturing to do.
I'm pretty sure the Islamic community is all over the board on this as well, but the man who picks up a knife and protests is much more newsworthy than the one who looks up from the prayer mat for a moment, shrugs his shoulders and says, "Huh." I don't know that we can put all the blame on the protesters. The media has a product to sell, too. :-)
On separation of church and state, I'm with you on that one. Separation make each part stronger, in my opinion. What's difficult to remember is that the goal of religion is spiritual fulfillment. The goals of religious leaders, however, can be a very different story. The confluence of church and state, as it exists in almost all societies, is rarely about spiritual fulfillment. It's about money. I've tried buying happiness. The exchange rate is terrible. However, as a candidate, it's hard to ignore a religious constituency, no matter what your political or religious bias is. So, you put your policies where you can reach the most number of people. Religious tolerance would go a long way towards eliminating the need to cater to a particular belief to get into office.
Hope there was some wisdom in that ramble somewhere... Patience, tolerance, and temperance. All are products of understanding. As global understanding grows, so will global peace. Let's hope we have the patience to get there.
Well, that was more than I needed to say. Rant over. :-)
Post a Comment