A point of comparison
Pam has a most amazing, excellent post on the whole "Cartoon of Mohammed" thing here. The first GLBT Lefty blogger I saw mention it was Jay (here). And I made it a point to comment on her post - when a closer read led me to see there are links to "never protested" images of Islam and Mohammed. You can see the images here.
Which, given my Muslim upbringing, I can verify: my own Islamic primers were illustrated with stylized-but-realistic images of people (including Mohammed). Some of the images on the site noted above look, in fact, like they could have come from my primer.
What really gets me, though, is this image below.
Given I was much like that London-Style Pakistani chap, I actually offered such arguments for public consumption - and would be the first to call you a "racist" if you did not agree.
Shame it took this moment for the Left to really look at itself and where it stands in relation to Islam as a political movement and how that plays into the whole Israel-Palestine issue.
I am not a terribly warm, sentimental, kind, or cuddly man - as many of you here know.
But I am VERY Left.
Indeed, I am not a terribly patient man, either.
But I am, indeed, VERY painfully Left.
I may or may not be bright or well educated - you'll have to decide that for yourself.
But I am, indeed, VERY damn painfully Left.
But first-hand experience counts for a hell of a lot - and that, I think, I have in spades.
May free speech and thought lead the West until the end of time. Which, of course, means tossing the Right out of our own politics ASAP.
ADDENDUM: I did not intend to leave this our originally, but there are a set of critical points I need to note in the interests of being ethical: (1) Yes, I really was born and raised as a Muslim; (2) When, in my teens, I intellectually left Islam because I found it angry, painful, and oppressive, I evolved to atheism; (3) as a result of life-experience, a time came when I was open to a God-concept. When that happened, I discovered the Jewish perspective was tolerant, accepting, compassionate and humane, so I formally converted within the Masorti/Conservative/Reconstructionist area of the tradition.
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Which, given my Muslim upbringing, I can verify: my own Islamic primers were illustrated with stylized-but-realistic images of people (including Mohammed). Some of the images on the site noted above look, in fact, like they could have come from my primer.
What really gets me, though, is this image below.
Given I was much like that London-Style Pakistani chap, I actually offered such arguments for public consumption - and would be the first to call you a "racist" if you did not agree.
Shame it took this moment for the Left to really look at itself and where it stands in relation to Islam as a political movement and how that plays into the whole Israel-Palestine issue.
I am not a terribly warm, sentimental, kind, or cuddly man - as many of you here know.
But I am VERY Left.
Indeed, I am not a terribly patient man, either.
But I am, indeed, VERY painfully Left.
I may or may not be bright or well educated - you'll have to decide that for yourself.
But I am, indeed, VERY damn painfully Left.
But first-hand experience counts for a hell of a lot - and that, I think, I have in spades.
May free speech and thought lead the West until the end of time. Which, of course, means tossing the Right out of our own politics ASAP.
ADDENDUM: I did not intend to leave this our originally, but there are a set of critical points I need to note in the interests of being ethical: (1) Yes, I really was born and raised as a Muslim; (2) When, in my teens, I intellectually left Islam because I found it angry, painful, and oppressive, I evolved to atheism; (3) as a result of life-experience, a time came when I was open to a God-concept. When that happened, I discovered the Jewish perspective was tolerant, accepting, compassionate and humane, so I formally converted within the Masorti/Conservative/Reconstructionist area of the tradition.
