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| The blasphemer of Islam! |
According to a recent story in the Emirates 24|7 news blog, a 'social activist' in the United Arab Emirates, Mariam Al Ahmadi, was outraged to discover a Chinese made toy at some local shops which, she claims, makes a noise that somehow mocks Islam. Specifically, it somehow gives offense to Mohammed's child bride wife Aisha. One would think she'd be outraged that Mohammed married Aisha at age 6 and consummated the marriage at age 9, but that doesn't seem to rattle her fragile sensibilities. Ms. Al Ahmadi he is now leading an effort to get all of the offending toys removed. Seriously UAE this is your source of moral indignation? This story reminds of primitive animistic beliefs, where ignorant tribes believe that lightning is an angry god shouting at them or something.
Not surprisingly Saudi Arabia got wind of this and confiscated a bunch of them. Well done! Note that both Saudi Arabia and the UAE are Islamist countries where there is no freedom of religion, no freedoms of speech or press, and women do not have the full rights they enjoy in the West. This activist didn't raise so much as an eyebrow over the Christians in UAE who are raped, falsely imprisoned, beaten, tortured and even murdered (all in the name of Islam) for their beliefs. Yet a toy gun making a sound akin to RATATAT stirs up feelings of outrage. This is ridiculous, but sadly not very surprising. In case the offending story is deleted, which seems to happen quite often in such cases, here is an archived copy.
It's natural instinct for those of us not brainwashed to laugh at such an absurd assertion, but there is a very serious, and disturbing, cultural dynamic at work here. We see the archetypal Righteous Defender of Islam at work. Even the most innocuous and innocent things may set them off into a rampage. It's happened numerous times and we must fight it at every turn. Hopefully Islam will finally go through a much needed reformation and purge itself of the Jihadist and Islamist factions, but the calls for moderation and sober introspection from within Islam seem far too few and weak. I would love to hear from Muslims and hear what they think about this story.
And on an economic digression: the Chinese have mastered Western capitalism (including its amoral defects and excesses) and know their customers. Can you imagine some poor factory engineer in Shenzhen, plodding through his 6 day, 100 hour work week, recording an anti-Islam message in Arabic onto the memory chip of the control board of a plastic toy gun! It would be harder to come up with a more implausible scenario.
Islam actually enjoys greater protection in China than Christianity. The Quran is sold in a wide variety of bookstores and mosques are not regulated. Whereas Bibles are only sold in a limited number of state run religious bookstores and the only recognized Christian churches are ones which belong to the Three Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM). Of course the pastors of the TSPM churches are all trained by the Chinese Communist Party! Oppression of Christians in the Muslim world and China is a very serious issue, but the Church is growing mightily. Praise the Lord!
The Islam in China is different from the Islam in the Middle East. Most notably, women enjoy far more freedom and the men agree women are entitled to such freedom. And one must remember that Christianity is a recent Western import; the West tried to destory China in the not so distant past. Meanwhile Islam has been in China for 1200 years.
ReplyDeleteBut yes, all the Middle East countries are dysfunctional. Muslims are taught from childhood that things don't make sense and things need not make sense; they are merely to accept (ie, submit) to purported truths. Failure to accept (ie, submit) to stupidity is death. Why? Because rationality hurts; it really hurts; it is hard to argue against logical reasoning and that rational reasoning versus contradictory Islamic beliefs overloads the human brain.
I did not see why the gun toy is against the Islam. They seem to be the normal toy gun :P
ReplyDeleteGood point. Yes the Muslim women in China enjoy greater autonomy than in the Middle East and African nations. Actually there is archaeological evidence that the apostle Paul was in China nearly 2,000 years ago, well before Islam! :)
ReplyDeleteIndeed! The word Islam literally translates as "submission". Also, I was trying to touch on this exaggerated sensitivity response that has been so deeply culturally engrained, plus a knee jerk reactionary impulse to anything that can be construed as critical of Islam or Muslims. Can you imagine if a popular comic in Saudi Arabia or Iran talked about Islam the way comics here regularly lampoon and outright mock Christianity? They'd probably be shot dead while still on stage! As I said Islam desperately needs a great reformation. If you know any Muslims share this article with them. I'd love to hear their response.
Aler - yes it is just a normal gun that makes a normal sound one expects from such a toy. But some Muslims look for any excuse to get outraged and cause trouble.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's further even more absurd and actually sad that they are so concerned about the perceived damage to Islam a toy gun can cause, yet they are not troubled in the slightest by real suffering they are inflicting on non-Muslims! Tragically in Islamist countries non-Muslims are treated as less than fully human and are denied full human rights. :-(
ReplyDelete@Knight, I wish more people in China will accept Christ in the near future!! Gospel will be spread out like fire across the whole country!
ReplyDeleteAler - en! 福音明火能燃烧到中国强大的复兴与圣灵！数以百万计的人将接受耶稣基督！阿门！
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