People Fucking Depress Me Today
Christ al-fucking-mighty I need to stay away from the fucking news.
“A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it.” Men in Black was supposed to be a comedy with hilarious little aliens not biting social satire.
I can’t get over the complete fucking idiots raving on about the Knighthood for Salman Rushdie. The Pakistani Minster for Religious Affairs (could there be a job title that made huge helpings of bum-clownery more inevitable?) had this to say (from the Beeb):
“The West always wonders about the root cause of terrorism. Such actions [giving Sir Salman a knighthood] are the root cause of it. If someone commits suicide bombing to protect the honour of the Prophet Mohammad, his act is justified. If Britain doesn’t withdraw the award, all Muslim countries should break off diplomatic relations.”
He back-tracked on this later, but the British High Commisioner was actually summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to explain himself. And in any case, that nice little statement pretty well encapsulates the reaction of a sizeable number of hysterical nutters. Not ‘the Islamic World’ and not ‘Muslims’ but the fucking crazy ones who could well do with being told, to paraphrase Bill Hicks, that ‘If this bothers you I suggest taking a good look at the world in which we live and…
…shutting your fucking mouth.’
The Iranian government may be legendary nutjobs, but check this out, from this BBC report:
“This insulting, suspicious and improper act by the British government is an obvious example of fighting against Islam,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry Director for Europe, Ebrahim Rahimpour, was quoted as saying
There was also, with not a shred of detectable irony, this little gem from Britain’s first Muslim member of the House of Lords, Lord Ahmed (reported: here & here):
“Actually I was appalled to hear that Salman Rushdie had been given a knighthood, particularly when this man has been very divisive,” he said. “This man – as you can see – not only provoked violence around the world because of his writings, but there were many people that were killed around the world and honouring the man who has blood on his hands, sort of because of what he did, honouring him I think is going a bit too far.”
Salman Rushdie, that callous and brutal writer of books has blood on his hands? Well unless he gave himself a papercut whilst doing his research, that is one of the most idiotic statements I have ever heard. His statement basically says that if someone expresses an idea that makes someone so cross he goes out and kills someone to avenge his hurt feelings that the person who expressed the idea is to blame, rather than the person committing the killing. If he truly believes this, he is a irredeemable fuckwit.
Now I can hear cries of cultural relativism echoing through the internets as I speak – respect the difference between cultures, insulting someone’s religion is a serious thing, etc, etc. Bullshit, I’m afraid.
The fundamental difference between Western and radicalised (not all, obviously) Islamic society at the moment is very neatly embodied by this one issue. No matter how theocratic and bonkers Bush and Blair and his followers ever get accused of being, there are more books hugely offensive to Christian sensibilities published, without much more than a mild whinge, in these ostensibly Christian countries than there are books offensive to Islam. By orders of magnitude, I should imagine.
If you wanted a definition of fundamentalism, this can’t be far from it. Drawing the line between causing offence and actual harm is fucking obvious. There are reasons of expediency behind this – just how do you effectively legislate against ideas? – but primarily it is a point of principle at the very heart of the modern concept of freedom: that all people are free to hold and express their opinions no matter what they are.
Trying to make certain kinds of ideas in some way illegal to avoid discrimination against people to whom they are unfavourable automatically discriminates against the person whose idea you are repressing. The only way to actually have freedom of religion is to have complete freedom to criticise and even insult religion because if you attack that right you simultaneously attack your own freedom.
Salman Rushdie may or may not deserve his Knighthood on an artistic basis, this is entirely open for debate, and it is of politically questionable benefit to award it. But would you rather deny someone an acknowledgement of their artistic achievements because you don’t want to inflame psychopathic religious fundamentalists?
So if his Knighthood offends you you of course have the right to be offended, enraged, to complain and to protest. What you do not have the right to do is to cause harm because no actual harm has been done to you. I’ve also had about enough of apologising to these retards. There is only one response to people who are getting their knickers in a twist over this and demanding punitive actions, diplomatic actions and the rest of it: shut up whining and get the fuck over it. You’ll live.
What songs can possibly go with that little rant then? I confess, I am at a little bit of a loss.
The 63 Crayons – Forget the War, Let’s Go Shopping!
Grandaddy – Underneath the Weeping Willow
Elvis Costello & the Attractions – (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding?
Alabama 3 – Woke Up This Morning
I post this one a lot, but it is one of the best songs in existence. You want to talk sensitivity to other cultures, being tolerant of barbaric beliefs such as death by stoning for adultery and suicide bombing as a resonable to response to religious criticism? Fuck it, you go and live with the nutters who advocate this shit then, and then tell me if we don’t have to fight against it.
The Dead Kennedys – Holiday in Cambodia
The first thing this reminded me of was how listening to Linkin Park and Marilyn Manson supposedly sparks school shootings in the U.S. There are a lot of nutters out there, unfortunately.
I know. Utter bollocks. And when the extremists over there are met by extremists over here either insisting that Christianity is therefore superior to Islam or, alternatively, all religion should be abolished, everyone gets so het up that the chances of actually achieving anything resembling dialogue become tiny.
I sigh and reach for the gin…
once again, I am reminded why I became an RMPS (Religious Moral and Philosophical Studies!) teacher. You speak a lot of sense once again, i am fed up of people who assume that because A therefore B. It doesn’t follow. I, for my part,. am not terribly comfortable with a lot of what the british Military has done, but that doens;t justify attacks against civilains. Islam has had a horrendous press, as have many religions, and the extremists do far more damage to their respective religions than the peaceful majority, who don’t make for such good headlines or hysteria.
Around the time of the 9/11 attacks in NYC, there was a cartoon in the Edinburgh Evening News by Frank Boyle, which featured two men throwing stones at a mosque throwing stones and yelling about religious extremism. One was wearing a Rangers top and the other a Celtic top.
Oh we have so much more work to do out there…*sigh*
Bollocks, I forgot about that! I really should know better than to discuss this sort of thing in front of a professional!
As Deuteronomy 14:68 teaches us:
Those who tolerate intolerance out of fear that they’ll be tagged “cultural relativists” should be kicked in the gonads, hard. So saith the Lord.
Amen! I love talking religion!
As for Salman Rushdie, “Midnight’s Children” alone merits a knighthood.
As for the Pakistani Minster for Religious Affairs, he obviously needs a colostomy bag for his mouth. I hope the British High Commissioner told him to cram it where the monkey put the peanut.
I dearly wish the High Comm had wandered in there and said:
‘Ah well, that’s art for you. Everyone’s a fucking critic. Fancy a pint?’
I’d have loved him for it.
Incidentally, the EU is apparently considering some sort of crazy law about Causing Religious Offence. I can’t find the actual proposal itself, but I will try and track it down.
And also, serious consideration is being given to outlawing the ‘gross minimisation of genocide out of racist and xenophobic motives’.
Both these things may be despicable, but outlawing them runs contrary to everything on which Enlightenment society is based. Fucking insanity.
Shutting down dialogue is no benefit to anyone.
Right, here it is, and frankly it makes me want to fuck dogs.
Germany was trying to introduce a law outlawing Holocaust denial, but the description of the law went so far as to descend into lunacy. German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries came out with this piece of utter craziness:
Quite apart from the dubious basis of Holocaust denial laws, that entire statement is complete craziness. By this standard a great deal of modern science would be illegal due to its being offensive to religious groups.
Just plain fucking nuts.
If someone can get that irate about a writer getting a knighthood then they are clearly searching the news looking for something to be angry about. Long gone are the days when a government would respond to this by say: Well Jimmy, your obviously entitled to your opinion, and I’m entitled to dismiss you.” Well I for one dismiss the Pakistani Ministry for Religious Affairs. Ah, feel better now. I invite you all to join me. Don’t respect silly little bullys. Never did.
I suspect that the “Justice” Minister’s comment may have actually subtracted slightly from the sum of human knowledge. I for one feel considerably dumber for having read her words. Perhaps expressions trampling on civil liberties sound less chilling in German, but I have several reasons for thinking this is not so.
Song, by Toad irony champion of the year!
And Ben, the Minister in question did retract a little later by saying that extremists would ‘use it as a justification’. This may be true, but it rather neglects to mention the fact that there may be things that can explain suicide bombing, but absolutely sweet fuck all that can justify it.
I wonder how many of these brain-dead morons actually know what’s even in the Satanic Verses? If you believe your religion is that big and important, surely it can handle a weasly-faced writer’s take on it. Fucking whingers, the lot of them – if they’ve got pent-up angst to shed, go head-butt a wall.
This might be slightly unpopular, but I genuinely don’t have any problem with denying the Holocaust being a punishable offence, especially in countries that were affected by nazi racial policies. People always say that logic is the best way to defeat these people, but that’s just not how they think, and it’s especially important to take a united stance against people with apparent authority like David Irving (as one example).
And believe me, almost everything sounds more chilling in German.
also, meant to mention: I quite like this blog, Toad.
I do know what you mean, Shane, honestly I do. I was raised in Vienna where the attitude was quite frequently: ‘6 million? How did the rest bloody well get away?’
My problem with making Holocaust denial a crime is more to do with the precedent it sets I think. Once you start making this sort of stuff illegal it opens a can of worms I have no real idea how to close – not that anyone’s asking me, of course.
Ultimately the only way I can think of the combat Holocaust denial is not exactly with logic – you’re not going to persuade someone who is capable of convincing themselves of anything so patently false – is merely with more words: debate, historical record, photographs, diaries and all the intellectual energy we can throw at them.
What about AIDS deniers – I only found out they existed a few weeks ago. Or those loonies from Westborough Baptist Church? Basically, if you go around the world silencing objectionable speech then where do you stop? And then what are you achieving other than giving them the soapbox of persecuted visionary to add to their arsenal of deluded lunacy?
I don’t know. Do you think we’re any more or less offended by Holocaust deniers than hardline Muslims are by Rushdie? I doubt it. We may think it’s more reasonable, but unless we can find an empirical way to demonstrate that it will be an impossible principle to apply on a global level.
Oh, and thanks, obviously!
Loved your comments on the Rushdie knighthood. I’d punch the air in appreciation if I was one for such displays! Very, very well said.