Saturday, December 01, 2007

Unbearable Insult

Yes, yes. I know you've heard that the Iraq War is alienating Moslems and making them angry at America. Angry enough to kill us. You have friends who earnestly tell you this is why Moslems get all riled up at us and yell "death to America."

Let's leave aside the fact that you would have to believe that Moslems don't like the liberation of 25 million Iraqis from the grip of a sick despot.

Basically, you are operating at too high a level of sophistication for the average Moslem agitating for jihad on the West and ulutating over the latest infidel beheading video on YouJihad.com.

Really, as we already know, pretty much anything can set off the Easily Excitable.

Even Teddy Bears named Mohammed, as the British teacher Gillian Gibbons discovered after she was sentenced to 15 days in jail after "being convicted of inciting religious hatred for letting her pupils at one of the city’s schools name a toy bear Mohamed."

The locals are, shall we say, miffed:


Sudanese authorities have moved the British teacher Gillian Gibbons to a secret location tonight after thousands of people called for her execution in an angry demonstration in the capital.

The protesters emerged from Khartoum’s mosques after Friday prayers and gathered outside the presidential palace shouting slogans against Ms Gibbons.


And the fact that Ms. Gibbons is in a Moslem land teaching Moslem children and has no desire to insult Islam should show you just how futile it is to pretend their anger at us is our fault.

Yet her son tries hard to be even more understanding:


Ms Gibbons’s son, John, 25, a marketing consultant, told the Daily Mail that the family was struggling to take in the punishment. He said: "It’s really difficult at the moment, my head is everywhere. I don’t want the verdict to lead to any anti feeling towards Muslims.

"Everyone has been very nice, but one of my fears, and I imagine my mother’s also, will be that this results in any sort of resentment towards Muslim people."


His head is "everywhere"? No, it's planted firmly up one very specific location.

Yes indeed, the real problem is that the British people might get the strange idea unsupported by the facts that a lot of Moslems are pretty much nuts. The problem is that the British people might "resent" Moslems for how they've treated his mum. Good luck on marketing that idea.

I'd say that his stiff upper lip came at the price of a backbone. If my mother was being tried for such a ridiculous crime, I think I'd be talking about JDAMs and cruise missiles. My worry for those imprisoning mom would be pretty low.

So a quick note to the Vermont Teddy Bear Company this holiday season. You've scored with the Doctor Bear and the Soldier Bear and all the other cute little dressed-up bears. Market research clearly indicates the Mohamed Bear is right out.

I'm sorry. Where were we? Oh yes, you were telling me about how liberating Iraq caused angry Moslem jihadis.