La Cucaracha by Lalo Alcaraz for May 18, 2015

The best comedy “punches up.” Geller simply doesn’t get that, or doesn’t want to. Then again, it’s quite likely she was very much hoping for the reaction her little two-hour “cartoon festival” got. So we’re stuck with haters provoking other haters, who provoke those haters back, in a vicious cycle where people who just want to have their normal lives end up getting hurt and killed.

There’s no sniveling here. There’s just a calling-out of deliberate provocation. Freedom of speech and the press does not mean that what you put out there is immune from criticism, and criticism is what Lalo is leveling at this Islamophobic bigot. The criticism would have pertained whether or not the “festival” was attacked.

Things won’t change until we outlaw ALL religious funda"mental"ism. The ordinary religious person is not a problem per se, consider the fact that pretty much the quad of Judeo-Christian-Bhuddist-Muslim religions pretty much teach love, respect and tolerance for one another.It’s when you get some crazy person in a position of trust or is able to sway other idiots in believing their VERY narrow point of view is the right one.That’s when the trouble begins…“My Gods better than your GodMy Gods better than yours!My Gods better because he eats non believers!My Gods better than yours!Nearly each of these religions have failed, because you can’t get everyone to believe the same thing.Religion has a bit of a marketing problem, I hoped when I was little that I would get to see mankind wise up and put all these petty childish things down and truly evolve.I may get to thanks to the singularity.But right now, it only looks like things are getting worse.You have to admit, it all sounds kinda silly. Children are taught to behave, and that some magical being who lives on a cloud will punish them with eternal damnation if they sin. And that they will be rewarded if they are good and just, and dispatch all non-believers with vengeance…Opps!There it goes off the rails again!Jehovah’s witnesses sincerely believe that only they are going to heaven.Sounds like hell to me!What do they do for eternity? Knock on each other doors at inconvenient times hold copies of the watchtower?

Are there any real drawings of Mohammad? Something that shows what he looks like?

^ebsan

No.

Pretty much what happens with most religions; somebody makes something up to hold on to power and says “It’s always been this way.” And people buy it.

I won’t be cowed by those who threaten (and I’ve been threatened for the content of my newspaper column in our city), BUT I also won’t stoop to insulting for the sake of insulting. Whether Charlie Hebdo or Pamela Geller or Danish cartoonists, if they insult for the shock value, I have no use for them.

We need to clarify the difference between Islam which is a powerful religion and muslims who in the US and France are weak minorities. Cartoons that insult Islam are not attacking the weak. Another difference if you only attack Islam you open yourself up to religious hate attacks. Charlie Hebdo covers are more likely to skewer Christianity than Islam. They have also attacked Judaism. They are secular humanists who use profane irony to make their point. The guys in Texas are just Islamaphobes.

Pamela Geller is part of a marginalized group. Just saying.