We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Publishing Mohammed’s Mugshot

The New Individualist magazine has put one of the Jyllands-Posten ‘Mohammed Cartoons’ on its cover. If any other US publication has published them at all, I am not aware of that (hopefully the commentariat will let me know if I have missed one). In the UK, as far as I know only The Blanket have done the same. As a commenter has pointed out, anyone with an internet connection can see them on a thousand sites, so the point of publishing now in hard copy is to make a statement rather than facilitate people seeing the cartoons themselves.

The media in Britain and America have hardly covered themselves in glory on this issue, leaving European editors to make most of the running in standing up to those who howl for legislated intolerance (and I am not just talking about Islamo-fascists), so credit to Robert Bidinotto for sticking his head over the parapet and pouring some hot oil on the barbarians below.

47 comments to Publishing Mohammed’s Mugshot

  • Nick M

    I’m not as impressed. I mean it’s a bit late in the day and everyone with a internet connection (which is pretty much everyone who matters) has seen them and is probably sick to death of them by now.

  • Big Daddy Cool

    The only major publication in the US to publish the MoToons was the Philadelphia Inquirer.

    Several smaller papers (mostly indies and college ones) did as well.

  • I think that publishing them in a mainstream media publication is still very useful. I’d still say that most people are aware of the controversy, but still haven’t seen the cartoons.

    I have personally shown about five (educated and well read, but not net-savvy) people the cartoons. Their reactions were all the same in substance, if not style – “they’re going apeshit over this?

    All Westerners should see the cartoons so they understand the ridiculous sensitivities of the protesters involved. The more people see just how timid the cartoons are and how disproportionately severe the Islamic reaction was, the more they will view a Muslim call to curtail our freedom of expression as utterly unreasonable.

  • Nick M

    Shame it wasn’t in Detroit. Then we could say “Motoons in Motown”.

    It is too late. It’s like someone saying “and another thing…” twenty minutes after admitting they’d lost the argument. In short, they’re simply not news anymore. Now, it could be argued that publishing now is justified in the context of an article which looks at the “deeper issues after the initial fury has died down” sort of reflection piece.

    Unfortunately, there are no deeper issues, it comes down to one thing: a very large number of muslims are nutters. And we’ve known that since the Satanic Verses fiasco. If you read the “moderate” Islamic forums or news-feeds you rapidly become aware that they live in a complete parallel reality in which Israel rules the world and every bad thing that happens is down to Crusaders and Zionists.

  • Verity

    Don’t forget Ezra Levant publishing them in The Western Standard and the brave Canadian newsagents refusing to sell that issue.

    But I agree with Perry. Better late than never, just because it’s important that these toons be in the common currency so there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that the Islamics are total nutters and there’s no reason to pay a smidgen of attention to them, never mind make concessions to them in our own civilised countries.

  • Johnathan Pearce

    Bob Bidinotto is a tremendous guy. I met him once back in the early 1990s and he is one of the Ayn Rand evangelists I think gets the best out of her ideas while ignoring the doctrinaire side.

  • Nick M

    I still say “too late”. Back in the days that they were burning embassies, these toons were the biggest news story of the day. Not publishing them then was the crime. Publishing them now seems silly and somewhat weak. I think they’re in the public domain to such an extent that they are the common currency. I think, especially in Europe, the Islamic reaction has been noted and done more to warn people of the danger of Islam than 9/11, London, Madrid and Bali combined. Many Europeans had got used to terrorism. This was something new and revealed the essential “otherness” of Islam. I think the commonest response is something along the lines of “if they go that mad over some cartoons, what are they gonna do if someone really offends them…”

  • Let’s not forget the Cardiff University student newspaper, which also published the cartoons, briefly. All copies recalled and pulped and the editor suspended I think.

  • David

    What we really need is widespread publication of a completely new set of MoToons.
    The Islamic reaction to that would be truly interesting……. would we see more organised rioting? Once again would it take months for the rioting to occur “spontaneously”? Or would we see an outbreak of tolerance from the RoP?
    The more we out their attitudes and the essence of their cult the better for us all in the long run.

  • Verity

    David, that is a very interesting idea.

    What would they do? Haul out the JCBs and dig some more? Interesting thought. No one will do it in pusillanimous Britain, that’s for sure. Under the “mature” judgement that it would be “provocative”.

    But I think being provocative is a dandy idea. I’d like to see them provoked and goaded and on the run.

  • David

    I really think provoking them is the answer. We should be provoking and mocking constantly.
    Poke a bully with a stick enough and he will lose his cool and end up injuring himself far more than anyone else. Add to that the effect that belittling and scorn has on these ignoramuses and we will see more and more the truth of what they are.
    The only way to ensure the scales eventually fall of the eyes of the west is to have the issue confront us over and over again.

  • Thon Brocket

    Been thinking about all this. Here’s my SneakyStrategy ™:

    Photoshop the best-known of the KufrKartoons – the bomb-in-the-turban one – to blur it – not alter it – just to the point where it’s recognisably the cartoon – but wouldn’t have been before all the fuss. Now propagate the hell out of it, and insha’allah touch off a second world-wide wave of riotous, autodarwinating AllahLoons.

    A month or two down the line, rinse and repeat. Continue until we’ve reached the point where *any* representation of something large, round and black pavlovs ’em up to the requisite pitch of pyrotechnic Islamaceous righteosity.

    Then show ’em Winnie Mandela.

  • Nick M

    David, Verity,

    I think we are already seeing Islam for what it is. Motoons are OK, but Allahtoons are better! I don’t think there is the need to provoke them. Every day sees some fresh Islamic outrage somewhere. I naively thought they couldn’t top the theatre siege, then they did Beslan. Muslims will continue to outrage the world with their depravity until the end of time. They don’t need us to provoke them. The whole point of the toons was that if it wasn’t the toons it could’ve been anything.

    Where I really differ most strongly with the received wisdom of dhimmiwits is the idea that if we leave them alone, they’ll leave us alone. This is patently not the case. The bombings in Madrid were as much about Isabella’s reconquest as they were about Iraq. They don’t want us to leave them alone. They don’t want a solution to the Israel Palestine thing or anything else. These are handy sticks to beat us with (and keep the Umma in line) because while they can blame everything on the Zionists / Crusaders they don’t have to look at the appalling mess they have made in their own countries. Unfortunately this insanity is not just contained within Umma – it’s contagious.

    I’ve heard allegedly educated people saying the USA engineered 9/11 in order to give itself an excuse to capture Afghanistan. Even if you believe the USA is the Evil Empire and Dubya the Antichrist himself it doesn’t make any bloody sense. 3000 dead, $100billion in material damage, an economic slump and all to annex a total hellhole. Which, in any case, is not what we’ve done. We’ve allowed the Iraqis and the Afghans to draw up thier own constitutions and look at what a success that’s been.

  • Verity

    I think we should goad them for our amusement, and watch them froth at the mouth and make ever-greater fools of themselves. This is the way to wrest control from the multi-culti promoting Left and take our countries back, and there will come a point when their mullahs and imams and wotnots see the drift and tell them to stop it. That way, we triumph in our own countries.

    Also, after all the Islamics in prison have served their sentences, they should be put on a plane somewhere to live under the shariah law they so adore. It doesn’t matter whether they were born in Britain or Holland or Denmark. They don’t recognise man-made governments as legitimate. They all belong to the Nation of Islam. So go, already.

  • Verity

    Incidentally, a phobia is an irrational fear. Referring to people who want to see Islam controlled and Islamics forced to acknowledge that they are living in countries which have developed with Christian underpinnings and behave themselves according to our laws, as “Islamophobic” is leftist lies and manipulation.

    The fact is, many of us don’t fear Islam, but we think it primitive, barbaric and we don’t like to see such witch-doctory in our civilised countries.

  • David

    Yes Nick WE see Islam for what it is but sadly many many people in the world do not. The more appalling behaviour we see from Islam the more people will begin to accept what is clear to us already.
    Whilst you are right that they will continue to behave this way of their own accord, the more we prod them the more they will do so quickly.
    Things like the Theatre seige and Beslan are rapidly forgotten by the mainstream in the fast flowing information storm that is the modern world.
    If however the rioting and appalling behaviour become a constant background, surely our society will not be able to “forget” and ignore the issue, nor will the apologists be able to pass these off as minor isloated incidents as the unsavoury antics of an extremist few.

  • Freeman

    How can one respect a thought process which believes that going to a distant place called Mecca and marching around an ancient meteorite should be a lifetime’s ambition? And to do this because the meteorite came down from the moon gods who still need to be placated by a moon symbol on every minaret?

  • Verity

    I don’t care where they want to make their pilgrimages to. All I care about is that they behave themselves in the civilised countries in which they are fortunate enough to find themselves, and cease and desist from trying to bend these civilised countries to the will of a rather short-tempered, barbaric, aggressive, primitive paedophile who’s been dead for 1500 years.

  • Freeman

    The trouble is, Verity, that good behavior is not enough to secure western civilisation as we know it today. In many countries the long term issue is simply demographics. He who breeds fastest eventually owns the land and the vote.

  • Yes, while its probably good this lot have published the cartoons its a bit late in the day and does not really show much solidarity with those at the height of the row. Wonder what will be the next thing to get ROPMA rioting again; I am sure there will be something sooner or later to get em’ hot & burning again.

  • John Thacker

    The Rocky Mountain News also published them. It’s a reasonable size paper, though second to the Denver Post in the area.

  • Check out the gear the future king of Great Britain and his wife are getting about in.

  • Nick M

    Andrew Ian Dodge,

    There is always something to get muzzie bouncing off the walls. They deliberatedly make that the case. Lets look at the evidence. Chechnya has been part of (what is now the Russian Federation) for nearly 200 years, but that ain’t OK. Osama (and others) took umbrage at infidels fighting and dying to protect Islam’s holy shrines from the very secular Saddam. Nobody in the Islamic world is prepared to offer Israel a peace deal which is realistic. They want to prolong Palestinian suffereing so they can eternally blame the rest of the world for it. Islam requires a continual “us vs them mentality” because without that it doesn’t stand up to rational inquiry. Proper religions concern themselves with morality and metaphysics, Islam has a viewpoint on women plucking their eyebrows – it’s against it, btw. Islam is totalitarian in the truest sense of the word – a complete belief system, that covers every aspect of human life.

  • Verity

    We are complicit in the destruction of our own civilisation, which is what the left has always wanted. We give these people free medical care, free maternity services (and if the kid has a birth defect, and Pakistanis account for 1/3 of all birth defects in Britain, we treat it free), and give them free houses and free welfare.

    Meanwhile, the left tells us we need them to contribute to pension funds, difficult to do when so many of them are passengers, not producers. Meanwhile, although Muslims account for something like 2% of the populations, those in school are now up to 21% according to Laban Tall’s blog.

    What is alarming is, no one is in control of the situation. The left intentionally encourages these individuals not to integrate. Tony Blair’s scared shitless of the Islamics. He can’t salaam low enough. I read that Jack Straw has a kid (the pot dealer) who has converted to Islam. I don’t know whether it’s true. Either way, Jack Straw is in the pocket of a large Islamic population in his constituency – made even larger with postal vote rigging.

  • Islam is totalitarian in the truest sense of the word – a complete belief system, that covers every aspect of human life.

    Too true, and it’s quite astonishing how many Western converts cite this as a good thing about Islam! Specifically, I remember reading one Australian convert proclaiming “it has rules for everything

  • Verity

    NickM – a complete belief system, that covers every aspect of human life. It’s the most controlling belief system in the world. They even tell you which direction your loo should face. They are bonkers.

    Re Palestinian “suffering”, you are correct when you say this is a weapon they cherish. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Emirates import tens of thousands of foreign workers to do the jobs the Saudis don’t want. Maids, gardeners, petrol station attendants, workers in hotels, restaurants, etc. It would make obvious sense to import Palestinians instead of Christian Filippinas or Sri Lankan Tamils. The Palestinians share their religion, their language and their customs. They’d fit right in.

    You have to ask yourself why this situation to the Palestinian problem has never been adopted by the chief financers of their stupid jihad. They need the Palestinians to be eternal victims.

  • Nick M

    Yes Verity,
    Also, those Filipina maids are also rapable because it ain’t a crime under sharia if the victim isn’t muslim. If that sounds horrible, it’s because it is.

  • John K

    and if the kid has a birth defect, and Pakistanis account for 1/3 of all birth defects in Britain, we treat it free

    I suppose that’s one way this situation may pan out: if Pakistanis in Britain will insist on forcing their girls to marry their cousins, eventually the whole community may evolve into banjo playing inbreds. Could Bradford possibly get any worse?

    I read that Jack Straw has a kid (the pot dealer) who has converted to Islam. I don’t know whether it’s true.

    I don’t think so. Straw is a dhimmi because he relies on Muslim votes in Blackburn, and for that reason alone is unfit to be Foreign Secretary (obviously there are very many other reasons). Frank Dobson’s son has joined the religion of peace, and is now called Joe Ahmet Dobson. I hope it suits him, coz there’s no going back.

  • Nick M

    John K,

    Joe Ahmet Dobson – it just rolls off the tongue.

    if Pakistanis in Britain will insist on forcing their girls to marry their cousins

    And this is acceptable in the 21st century? In the UK? Britain outlawed burning widows in India in the 19th Century. Are we just gonna sit around while British Citizens are sold as sex toys because it’s their “culture”? Looks like it but I hate it.

    eventually the whole community may evolve into banjo playing inbreds. Could Bradford possibly get any worse?

    Yeah, and seeing as they’re the fastest expanding sector of the population, they’ll be the ones paying for your pension.

  • John K

    And this is acceptable in the 21st century?

    Seemingly so, hasn’t NuLab just wimped out of banning forced marriage? Odd that, they usually have a hard on to ban anything that lot, but not something which is obviously evil.

    Britain outlawed burning widows in India in the 19th Century

    Well, that was cultural imperialism and therefore wrong. Still, I think that’s one whacky ceremony Cherie won’t be nagging Toni to take her to (if only).

  • Verity

    John K – Still, I think that’s one whacky ceremony Cherie won’t be nagging Toni to take her to (if only).

    Funny!

    This is the Dobbo who wanted to be mayor of London?

  • Verity

    Frankly, although not yet on the ropes, I think the RoPers are beginning to be on the run. We need to jibe and goad them a bit more. Their repulsive halal food should be off the school menu. If they want to eat this repulsive food, their mother should pack them a sandwich. We should ban all religious symbols in schools, as the French have done. That would be the end of Islamic school uniforms, which are repulsive anyway as they are degrading to girls. No concessions. You’re in Britain.

  • Verity

    (Of course, their mother may be too half-witted to pack them a sandwich if her parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were first cousins.)

  • John K

    This is the Dobbo who wanted to be mayor of London?

    The very man. Always reminds me of a guinea pig.

  • RAB

    John K, I think, to be strictly accurate
    That should be something like “Sitar ” or “Sarod”.
    We’ve been having a bit of bother with “Banjos” lately.
    Yes more toons by all means-But this time get someone who can bleeding draw!

  • Verity

    Halal meat is actually very tasty indeed.

    I have often eaten Halal Lamb, for example, prepared in the traditional English manner (putting it in the oven for a bit). I’m no expert on food criticism but it is soft juicy and therefore morish, no pun intended.

    SJG

  • Verity

    It doesn’t matter how good it tastes. It is a cruel end to a life. It makes me sick.

  • RAB

    Do you eat Kosher?
    Cos it’s done the same way.
    My father was a master butcher with his own slaughterhouse. Back in those days there was no Halal, just Kosher.
    The rabbi , a man of books and prayer, had to come in to give that first vital slash accross the thoat of whatever animal (not pigs natch!) , then my dad used to whisk him into the back room and give him a big whiskey whilst the real butchers finished the job. Because… well the rabbi was a man of books and prayer and didn’t like killing things personally.
    Strange how people who hate each other so much
    are so similar.

  • Verity

    No, RAB, I’ve never had kosher food either.

  • RAB

    Well that’s ok
    It’s nothing to write home about
    Ask my wife
    Fancy a steak?
    You think that was more humanly killed?

  • Nick M

    Leaving aside, for a mo, the morality of halal meat. Any of you been near a halal butchers recently? There’s plenty of them round here. They stink. The meat is condemnable in quality and I once saw a bunch of muzzies in overalls which had clearly not been laundered since big Mo’s last cough offloading lamb carcasses from a van directly onto the pavement.

    Health inspectors do nowt about it because it’s their culture and must be respected. Of course my right not to retch while walking down a suburban street because of the truly appalling Dame Judi doesn’t matter.

  • John K

    Health inspectors do nowt about it because it’s their culture and must be respected.

    Or more likely because they want to keep their jobs long enough to retire at 60. It would be career death to attack diversity in action. Far safer to smash up scales with pounds and ounces on them.

  • DL

    Actually, in the US the Weekly Standard magazine published them. It’s arguably the most influential opinion journal in Washington at the moment and run by Bill Kristol. http://www.weeklystandard.com (not to be confused with Canada’s Western Standard, which also published them)

  • Verity

    The Western Standard has now been hit with a (legal-aid financed) nuisance suit from a bunch of these bastards. I don’t really approve of legal aid at all, but legal aid to bring harrassment suits seems to be in itself a mockery of both justice and the taxpayer.

    It is going to cost the Western Standard $75,000 to defend itself in a case it can only win because freedom of the press is enshrined in the Canadian constitution.

    Meanwhile, other adherents of the Religion of Peace, 2,000 miles away in Denmark are suing the Jyllands-Posten (Jeeze, these woodenheads just don’t give up, do they?) claiming defamation. They are also claiming that the crime of defamation was so immense that the Jyllands-Posten had no legal right to defend itself.

    When is the tipping point in all this? As permanent expat is fond of writing, tick, tick, tick.

  • RAB

    Well we used to call them Vexacious Litigants once upon a time- and knew how to deal with them
    by dismissing the claim before it even got to the court door.
    Now they appear to be “concerned citizens” or some such. Just like that pretty young lady, Satchmo Booth QC and her dress code problems.
    We won that one (for now) Tick tick tick indeed.

  • Verity

    Well, they’re still vexacious litigants, but now we pay for them to be vexed.

    The RoPers are surging forward with their ridiculous barbaric claims and somehow, we are so shocked at their ignorant posturing and infantile, temper-tantrum demands, we (not me, babe) give in.

    Tick, tick, tick …