Evangelicals, Scientologists, Flat Earthers, Mormons and Hare Krishnas may be spoofed until the (holy) cows come home. Not so with our Islamist friends.
A staff revolt at the Daily Star prevented publication of a spoof Islamic version of the paper called the "Daily Fatwa". [...] The mock-up "Daily Fatwa", which promised a "Page 3 Burkha Babes Special" and competitions to "Burn a Flag and Win a Corsa" and "Win hooks just like Hamza's", was prepared to run as page 6 in Wednesday's edition of the Daily Star, one of the stable of newspapers owned by publisher Richard Desmond. The page also included a spoof leader column under the headline "Allah is Great" but left blank save for a stamp with the word "Censored".
The newspaper's own union members intervened, and issued a statement:
"The chapel fears that this editorial content poses a very serious risk of violent and dangerous reprisals from religious fanatics who may take offence at these articles. This may place the staff in great jeopardy. This chapel urges the management to remove the content immediately."
Management then "promptly complied," writes the Independent.
What's interesting about the union members' statement is the candor about the reason for yanking the page. To their credit, they didn't beat around the bush with namby-pamby declarations about religious respect, or about the grave responsibilities that come with freedom of speech. They stated, pure and simple, that they were afraid for their lives.
And their fear is not without reason (see Salman Rushdie, Theo van Gogh, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Robert Redeker, Hitoshi Igarashi, Wafa Sultan, Bat Ye'or, Flemming Rose, and on and on). Today, you can get killed for telling a couple of jokes, or for publishing a cartoon.
And so we fall in line like vanquished milquetoasts — scared, submissive, silent, only speaking up to tell religionists with medieval mindsets that we understand how they feel, and mister, please please don't hurt us.
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BONUS LINK: I missed this at the time, but earlier this year, the BBC began appending the letters PBUH ("peace be upon him") to the prophet Mohammed's name, at least in print and on the web.
Good dhimmis, wanna cookie?!
[thanks to Frank Fisher for the link to the Independent article]
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