The only people that make more fun of jews than westerners are the jews themselves. It's just nobody makes FUN out of the Holocost, it's too real and too horirific. Just like everyone laughs at someone getting hit in the balls but nobody ever laughs at getting burned....except Richard Pryor.
As you rightly stated there is a extrem fine line between making a joke and denying a genocide of unsurpassed propotions.
The point of the cartoons isn't to make fun of the Holocaust - it's to demonstrate the hypocrisy of the west's notion of "Freedom of Speech". There is a political purpose behind it, which does make it a form of political expression, no matter how disgusting the wrapper is.
The difference is that they are state sponsored, and there is no rioting in the streets about it. And, 2 wrongs do not make a right. DD
Just curious, why are there so much anger against the Iranian government for saying Holocaust did not happen. But you hardly a hear a whisper when the Japanese government rewrite textbook about Japanese atrocities in WWII?
Only because it is more closely related to the riots over the Danish cartoons. And rewriting textbooks has happened for centuries. DD
Personally, not being a Muslim, it's hard for me to understand why people would find an image of Allah so offensive. And for me not being Jew, I don't know why I'd find it so offensive if someone thought it was less then 6 million or whatever. But that's me...I don't exist in there shoes...and for what reasons, both of these things are very offensive. That's all that matters. Whether it should be or not isn't for anyone to question. Being offended has nothing to do with logic or rationale...it's purely emotional. But hey, do I get offended by things? Absolutely. but I try to not let it control me. No one can really make me offended - it's up to me to let them have that power over me. And it's rare that I allow that to happen. The real question is this....why do Iranians want to believe the holocaust didn't happen? Why do they hate Jews so much? These are things we should be considering...and how do we reverse this hatred?
The same reason the Arab nations do it, they want to paint Israel in a bad light using whatever means they can. If they can have the Jews (which they use interchangably with Israel) making up the holocaust that does not put them in a good light. We reverse the hatred through education and getting rid of the people that are spreading the false propaganda. Unfortunately, it appears the only way to get these propogandists out of power is through an outside military force, as revolution from within in Iran has always been a failure against the Mullahs.
That image was Allah wearing a bomb as a turban is even offensive for me as a non-Muslim. The Danish media and whoever else published it were idiotic and tasteless, but I don't know if its offensive to the extent of getting ape**** violent over random Danish people/embassies who didn't have a single thing to do with it. ME nations can unify their masses by portraying the Jews as an imperialist threat. It diverts attention away from the troubles of their own home by propping up nationalist feelings. Given our failures in Iraq, these nations could play the US as a threat, but in some nations, it's more lowkey because their leaders are our allies.
Yes, you're right. That's why we will soon have a Jew-loving leadership in Iraq. The use of outside force for regime change has proven quiet effective so far, it's a great tool to have...
I think it goes beyond this. I don't think it's the ME nations that spread hate for Jews and produce extremists. I don't think that's how Osama Bin Laden came into being. And it's not just Jews...it's anyone who they perceive in "their" terrority...hindus, christians, buddhists..whoever. Why this hate? And we know it may not be related to poverty - this is the tricky one. We see muslims in Britain getting in on the act. Why Muslims? Why not Hindhu communities or black communities in america? Why is this coming from Muslims?
Saddam is no longer in Iraq murdering his own people and putting out propaganda. I never said it was going to be a quick and painless process, but in 60 years I think there will be a better situation in Iraq if we stay the course and make sure democracy continues. Japan was worse than Iraq, Iran, or any other country in the ME. The US went in, forced change, and now they are an ally and a reasonable nation in global politics, the same for Germany. We still have troops in Japan and we still have troops in Germany, and in 60 years we should still have troops in Iraq, because it takes a lot of time and effort and resources, but building up nations that are democracies that we can get along with is worth the effort. Destroying a nation and leaving it in ruins was tried with Germany in WWI, and that didn't work out too well. Letting a nation run wild led to 80 years of tyranny in the USSR and now they are making noise again as communists. We gave up in North Korea and look at them now, while we stayed in South Korea. Is there any argument that North Korea turned out better? Military intervention has worked in the past and can work in the present and the future, but it requires the will to continue in the face of adversity.
Were Iraq a cohesive coherent unified nation-state like Japan or Germany, this argument might make some sense. However, Iraq is not now and has never been really such a cohesive nation-state. There's a huge difference in conducting nation building when a nation already exists to be rebuilt versus the state of Iraq under Saddam which was held together solely by authorian dictatorship. Furthermore, Japan and Germany declared war on the US, Iraq never did such a thing. The US had no choice regarding the Axis Powers but Iraq was an elective war. Therefore, on both of these counts, the analogy to Japan and Germany fails.
C'mon, Japan was a democracy pre-WWII, sort of like parliamentary democracy. While Japan committed multiple war crimes and human rights offenses in highest possible order on international stage, it was doing OK domestically, probably mainly because of its nearly homogeneous ethnic composition. The only significant thing the U.S. did after occupying Japan was to force the Japanese to adopt a pacifist constitution. The Imperial House of Japan got to stay, althought its influence was reduced to nominal.
Ditto. Iraq is much more analogous to Lebanon than it is to either post-WWII Germany and Japan...that's a very bad comparison.
I don't know what's in his head but neither do you. I'm going by what he has said and he has said he was doing this show to expose western hypocracy regarding free speech. So what you're saying is that since Iran is on shaky terms with Israel that Ahmedinajad's rhetoric will make the world less secure. What that sounds like is that you are implying that Israel will attack Iran because of Ahmedinajad's anti-semitism?
Others have already pointed out why Germany and Japan are bad comparisons but pardon me for piling on I have to respond to this point which is also another terrible comparison. US troops in Germany and Japan aren't there to maintain domestic peace but were there as part of the Cold War to deal with the external threat of the Soviet Block, PRC and NK. The troops in Iraq are there trying to maintain internal security. The argument that US troops have been in Germany and Japan have been there for 60 years justifies a long term US presence in Iraq for nation building is wrong since the purpose of those troops in Germany and Japan have had nothing to do with nation building since the early 1950's. Its even more of an off base comparision when considering no US soldiers died from hostile insurgencies in postwar Germany and Japan. When the Nazi and Tojo governments surrendered the war was over where as US soldiers are still dying almost daily from hostile action in Iraq.
So they have a right to brainwash their people by omitting the truth and denying their complicity in past atrocities? How is this any different than Holocaust denial? Or is it because Japan is our 'ally' and makes cool toys and cars and the such?
