Al Quaeda threat causes evacuation at University of Texas (Page 2)

Riff raf
Riff raf: copy and paste alert.

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/the-incredible-muslim-hulk-proves-to-be-no-friend-of-islam-either-20120916-260e8.html

Protesters clash with Sydney police

Hundreds take part in an anti-Islam film protest in Sydney in front of the US consulate.



Muslim group refuses to condemn rioters
Letter: Time for a tolerance march

WHERE do I start? Perhaps with the viral image that will come to define this episode: a child who'd be three or four hoisting a sign triumphantly above his head blaring ''Behead all those who insult the Prophet'' while a woman, presumably his mother, thinks this is cute enough to capture on her smartphone. Alternatively, I could begin with the observation that the trailer for the anti-Islamic film that ostensibly started this all, Innocence of Muslims, is now a blockbuster, with YouTube hits in the millions thanks largely to the protesters around the world who think nobody should see it.

This is the behaviour of a drunkenly humiliated people: swinging wildly with the hope of landing a blow, any blow, somewhere, anywhere.

No. Let's start with the fact that so few of the protesters who descended on Sydney's CBD this weekend seem actually to have seen the film that so gravely offends them. When asked by journalists, they bluntly admit this, one even adding that she refuses to watch something so offensive. It's almost impressive how cyclical this stupidity is. But it's also instructive. In fact, this is the key to making sense of something so gobsmackingly senseless. The protesters - at least the ones quoted in news reports - know nothing except how offended they are.
Muslims protest against American movie. Click for more photos
Sydney CBD protest

Muslims protest against American movie. Photo: James Brickwood

Muslims protest against American movie.
Protesters on the streets of Sydney.
Muslims protest against American movie.
Protesters clash with police on a street in Sydney's central business district.
Protesters clash with police on a street in Sydney's central business district.
Shoppers watch from a glass bridge between shopping centres as police pursue protesters.
A protester hits a policeman with a pole in Sydney's central business district.
An injured policeman is assisted by colleagues.
Protesters on the streets of Sydney.
An injured protester is detained by a policeman.
Muslims protest against American movie.
Muslims protest against American movie.
A protester chants slogans near the US Consulate General.
View all 16 photos

That, you see, is all that matters. This isn't about a film. It's about an excuse. We know because we've seen it all before, like when Pakistani protesters vandalised American fast food outlets and burnt effigies of President George W. Bush in response to the Danish cartoons.
Advertisement

We know because so much of the weekend's ranting was nakedly gratuitous: ''Our dead are in paradise, your dead are in hell''. Pardon? Which dead? Weren't we talking about a movie?

This is the behaviour of a drunkenly humiliated people: swinging wildly with the hope of landing a blow, any blow, somewhere, anywhere. There's nothing strategic or calculated about this. It doesn't matter that they are the film's most effective publicists. It doesn't matter that they protest using offensive slogans and signs, while protesting against people's right to offend. It doesn't matter that they object to insulting people on the basis of their religion, while declaring that Christians have no morals. This is baffling only until you realise these protesters are not truly protesting to make a point. The protest is the point.
Defining image ... a child carries a sign in Hyde Park on Saturday.

Defining image ... a child carries a sign in Hyde Park on Saturday. Photo: James Brickwood

It feels good. It feels powerful. This is why people yell pointlessly or punch walls when frustrated. It's not instrumental. It doesn't achieve anything directly. But it is catharsis. Outrage and aggression is an intoxicating prospect for the powerless.

Accordingly, it is not an option to leave an insult unanswered because that is a sign of weakness, rather than transcendence.

The irony is that it grants an extraordinary level of power to those doing the offending. It puts them constantly at the centre of your world. That's why, when Gallup polled 35 Muslim majority countries, it found that of all the gripes the Muslim world has against the West, among the most pervasive is the West's ''disrespect for Islam''.

And it is this disrespect that is the overarching grievance that subsumes others. Everything, global and local, can be thrown into this vortex: Swiss minaret bans, French niqab bans, military invasions, drone strikes, racist stereotyping, anti-immigrant politics, and yes, even films so ridiculously bad that, left to their own devices, they would simply lampoon themselves.

This is what gives Innocence of Muslims meaning: not its content, but its context. It's a symbol of contempt, which is why protests against it so quickly turn into an orgy of anti-Americanism. So, ''Obama, Obama, we love Osama'' they scream, mainly because it's the most offensive rhyme they can muster. Osama, too, is a symbol; the most repugnant one in their arsenal. How better to prove you exist than to say something outrageous?

That the Obama administration immediately condemned the film in the strongest terms doesn't register. Nor that the White House took the extraordinary (and ultimately unsuccessful) step of asking Google to pull the video. This is invisible to an audience of humiliated souls waiting desperately to be offended and conflate every grievance. Indeed, they need the offence. It gives them the chance to assert themselves so they can feel whole, righteous even. It's a shortcut to self-worth.

The trouble is that in our digital world, there is always something to oblige. Anyone can Google their prejudices, and there is always enraging news to share with others. Entire online communities gather around the sharing of offensive material and subsequent communal venting. Soon you have a subculture: a sub-community whose very cohesion is based almost exclusively on shared grievance. Then you have an identity that has nothing to say about itself; an identity that holds an entirely impoverished position: that to be defiantly angry is to be.

Frankly, Muslims should find that prospect nothing short of catastrophic. It renders Islamic identity entirely hollow. All pride, all opposition, no substance. ''Like the Incredible Hulk,'' observes Abdal Hakim Murad, a prominent British Islamic scholar, ''ineffectual until provoked.''

Sometimes you need a scandal to demonstrate an underlying disease. And that's the good news here. The vast bulk of Saturday's protesters were peaceful, and Muslim community organisations are lining up to condemn the outbreak of violence. But now a more serious conversation is necessary. One that's not about how we should be speaking out to defend our prophet and ourselves. One that's more about whether we can speak about anything else.

Waleed Aly hosts the Drive program on ABC Radio National and is a lecturer in politics at Monash University.
11 years ago Report
0
OCD_OCD
OCD_OCD: The entire upheaval was not caused by a silly video that has been on the internet since July. It was an organized event set to occur on 9/11 in an effort to force a radical muslim uprising. Non-radical muslims should speak louder and decry the violence by extremist sects.
11 years ago Report
0
Becca76
(Post deleted by staff 11 years ago)
OCD_OCD
OCD_OCD: Do you have anything to add to the discussion, Becca?
11 years ago Report
1
Azathoth
Azathoth: She might...if she hadn't been suspended. Likely due to cowardly reporting? Who knows...
11 years ago Report
0
Azathoth
Azathoth: Of course, that's just speculation. See...I'm a mind reader. I read her mind earlier that she was temp suspended. All I know is (for whomever reported and/or suspended her) that she is REALLY sorry. I mean REALLY sorry to upset y'all.

Alright. I am done being silly. Carry on, by all means.
11 years ago Report
1
~LoisLane~
~LoisLane~: "OCD_OCD: The entire upheaval was not caused by a silly video that has been on the internet since July"<<<-----I heard the same thing. I was reading about Prince Harry and wondering why the hell they would target him ect ect....I did not know it was about some 911 thing.
Jeez, wtf I did hear about how they want the "video or short film" taken off youtube .(I still have not seen it but did hear a little about it) Youtube people also said they would not be taking anything down. I agree. Its the principle at this point I would think. I have seen the same kinds of people(extremists and crazies) making their own videos of burning certain flags and saying Death to all So and so's and then some... Hmmm.
Why are people like that watching youtube? You would think they would be trying to come up with a new original way to blow themselves up!......
11 years ago Report
0
OCD_OCD
OCD_OCD: cowardly reporting, dmarks? you need to read her postings for what they are.
11 years ago Report
0
OCD_OCD
OCD_OCD: Lois, that video had been on the internet since July. It is a red herring. The crazies didn't have to look too far to find an excuse for their organized attacks.
11 years ago Report
0
Azathoth
Azathoth: I read her posts as silly...just as I said mine were. Relaaaaaax. Carry on...
11 years ago Report
0
OCD_OCD
OCD_OCD: She passed sillly a long time ago, DM. She trolls threads. If she didn't enjoy it, she wouldn't do it. ANd I do intend to carry on with as little drama as possible, if you don't mind.
11 years ago Report
1
OCD_OCD
OCD_OCD: Dang. They had to evacuate LSU today.
11 years ago Report
0
Stewart75
(Post deleted by staff 11 years ago)
OCD_OCD
OCD_OCD: Do you have anything to add to the conversation, or are you here to troll, as usual?
11 years ago Report
0
davidk14
davidk14: .

US foreign policy for the last 3+ years has been a disaster. And we are feeling it.

.
11 years ago Report
0
OCD_OCD
OCD_OCD: We should have been allowed to drill our own oil. It is ridiculous not to. However, if we do, the arab states that we purchase oil from will have a fit because it will decrease the dollar amount that they can get for oil and they will lose a major source of income if we were to become oil independent.
11 years ago Report
0
davidk14
davidk14: .

OCD,

The US becomes the competition. We will sell our oil to OUR friends and THEY will no longer have a monopoly of control. The world will change against them. THEY can not have that happen.

.
11 years ago Report
0
OCD_OCD
OCD_OCD: In order to keep the status quo in relation to power, we must buy their oil because it is all they have to trade. The middle east would be decimated without the ability to sell oil. That is the reason we will not drill and become self supplying.
11 years ago Report
0
davidk14
davidk14: .

OCD,

Screw them. If they have not learned to save their money and invest in other businesses and such...screw them. Let their FRIENDS help them. They have made our lives extremely difficult. No reason to reward them for bad behavior.

.

.
11 years ago Report
0
OCD_OCD
OCD_OCD: In a sense I can agree. However, are we willing to risk the kind of unrest that would cause? I can't imagine that we would.
11 years ago Report
0
davidk14
davidk14: .

Screw them. Its called let them take care of themselves. Perhaps we would be kind enough to "ween" them off of the USA teet...Let the UN deal with them.

.
11 years ago Report
0
Azathoth
Azathoth: Yeah, the heat in backlash of denying Islamic states their money to further terror will crush the "Free World" . I don't agree with a single part of the reasoning of fundamentalists, but there IS a reason for them wanting to destroy "Little Satan" (Israel) and "Great Satan" (The US) . It may be correct to say they believed they were provoked...by having militaries set up on "Holy" land...and also the cutting off of money funneled to them by way of oil profits. We shouldn't offer more reasons to spill blood. This is why, instead of continuing oil businesses, we should look to alternatives.

My 2 cents...
11 years ago Report
0
davidk14
davidk14: .

The fundamentalists will use ANY reason to continue their WAR with the WEST. If it's not a movie, a cartoon, a book, or even supporting women driving, believe me, they will find something else. We should not stop in finding a way to starve the concept of extreme Islamic fundamentalism.

Freedom...is not free. We have learned that in history and most recently in the last decade when tens of millions died in WW2. We can not allow them to intimidate us.

.
11 years ago Report
0
Azathoth
Azathoth: Personally, I am intimidated by no one. But I cannot speak for the people at the top of the political food chain. I simply believe that fighting fire with fire leads to more fire. Violence causes more violence...then even more after retaliation. I just figured if we say the US is the greatest nation on Earth, we should be responsible for setting an example. Especially an example of what can be deemed righteous.
11 years ago Report
0
davidk14
davidk14: .

323,

Pacifism is great. However, there are those that are happy some people are believe in pacifist ideals. They refuse to defend themselves for what ever the reason. It makes it real easy to kill you.

.
11 years ago Report
0