[Osx-nutters] Egyptian Two-Fer: Racism and Misogyny in One Cartoon

[David Cake]

At 9:27 AM -0500 22/2/07, Chuck Bennett wrote:
><http://www.thememriblog.org/blog_personal/en/682.htm>
>
>I'm thinking it's time for more cartoons making fun of Islam.
>
>Assuming of course that there is anyone left on the planet with the balls.

	Note the speaker is specifically noted as "The Religious Man" 
(presuming translation is correct - translating humour is notoriously 
hard).
	Perhaps the point of the cartoon is that the religious are 
perceived as being racist and misogynist, or are continually 
predicting the downfall of Western civilisation at every turn. Satire 
being interpreted as being what it is satirising is another notorious 
problem (there are many people who perceive Borat as really 
anti-semitic. Some of them probably think that is part of what makes 
it funny).

At 8:01 AM -0700 22/2/07, Chris Gehlker wrote:
>Most jokes about Islam are inane. We simply don't know enough about 
>it to know the funny parts.

	Yes, few of us know enough about Islam to even make good jokes.
	Salman Rushdie did, though. Look where it got him. His humour 
was intended to be deliberately insulting, but he got more than he 
bargained for.

	There is a fundamental problem. Most muslims (and I mean here 
not just the frothing reactionaries, but the average inhabitants of 
muslim nations) , and many governments of Islamic nations, simply 
don't believe that the right to blasphemy is, in fact, fundamental to 
Western civilisation as it is now understood.
	And you can't really blame the average muslim for getting 
confused here. A large number (I think a minority, but I wouldn't be 
sure) of average Christians (and not a small number of Western 
political leaders) are rather confused on that point as well, and 
have some difficulty believing it. None the less, its true - we had 
the Enlightenment, and ever since the right to blasphemy is a 
fundamental way in which our citizens get to demonstrate that reason, 
not faith, is supposed to be in charge around here. Blasphemy still 
isn't polite, or sensible, but its quite definitely allowed.
	And that is something on which Islam is just going to have to 
suck it up. They are going to have to learn that, globally, blasphemy 
is something that you can get upset about, that you can deride as 
graceless, impolitic, hateful, etc - but fundamentally, you have to 
tolerate it. Same as the Christians in the US are going to have to 
keep being reminded of it.
	But once you get past the initial issue of toleration, where 
do you go from there? Chuck isn't proposing we riot or bomb an 
embassy or anything. He just thinks the joke is in really poor taste 
(and maybe he is right). So what?
	Every culture has humour in poor taste, or that carefully 
treads a line between satire and offensive, etc. Every culture has 
some humour that will offend somebody. And probably most cultures 
have humour that to them seems clever and subtle, and in another 
context seems grossly offensive. Is there any point getting worked up 
about it?

	Cheers
		David