February 13, 2006
Monday

There is a tremendous communication gap between even the most educated leaders of the fundamentalist Muslim nations like Iran and Saudi Arabia and ourselves. They do not understand us at all. No wonder they miscalculate what our responses to their actions will be as in the case of Saddam in 2003 and the leaders of the Taliban in 2001. These are relatively educated individuals who have traveled the world and have in many instances have been educated partly at least in Europe and even here in the U.S. Here are a couple of examples;

Yesterday the rulers of Saudi Arabia called for the "perpetrators" of the infamous Mohammed cartoons to be brought to trial and punished. We just don't punish people for political cartoons no matter how offensive they are. There is no way anybody in the West will be punished for a cartoon. There were complaints yesterday from the Muslim world about how only Islam was immune from insult in the Western media. This is wrong. We suffered through depictions of Christ immersed in jars of urine ... even paid for that "art" with taxpayer funds. We put up with pictures of the Virgin Mary covered in elephant dung a couple years back and nobody I know of called for beheading or even for a fine and cease and desist order.

The President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, (I wish I could pronounce his name!), last week sarcastically proposed "tell the truth about the Holocaust" programs and a Holocaust cartoon contest because he said that this would prove the bias of the Western press who would not print Holocaust jokes but were all too anxious to print parodies of their Prophet. Huh?! In truth I thought the cartoon that they are most angry about, the one with the bomb on the Prophet's head with the caption about being "out of virgins in Paradise" for suicide bombers was Pro-Islam. I thought it smacked those who perverted Islam, used it for terrorism instead of piety. Maybe this shows that I am as out of synch with them as they are with me!

Jokes about religious figures; Billy Graham, Jesus, the Pope or the Prophet of Islam are ALL offensive ... So? I am offended when Mr. Ahmadinejad calls us "Crusaders". I think he is calling us the Iranian version of the "N" word but I don't question his right to say it or even to think that way. He hates Israel? I am sure they hate him too. If he continues to seriously threaten us with nuclear weapons he won't be around very long anyway. I can't forget the fact that Mr. Ahmadinejad was a leader of the "students" who captured, mistreated and tortured our embassy staff in Iran in 1979. You would think he would have matured by now.

If Muslim countries democratically vote to punish, even stone to death individuals who commit blasphemy ... The Human Rights Commission won't approve but as far as I am concerned, as long as they do it in their own country I don't care. They make their own laws. If Muslim countries decide to punish people in our country for saying things that they don't like .. If they insist on our repealing our Bill of Rights because they are in the midst of a religious revival .. Then tell me where to re-enlist because they are going to have a fight on their hands from me!

Mark Neckameyer
Irvine, California

About: About: Mark Neckameyer, a frequent contributor to our Opinion section, presently resides in Southern California but has plans to retire to spend Summers on the Alaska coast in two years.  He has been an active volunteer in a variety of civic activities including animal charities and MADD and he has been a volunteer in his local Republican Party during elections.

 

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