1. Golden Compass author hits back

Comment #91205 by twblalock on November 27, 2007 at 3:30 pm

I certainly don't know of any Catholics who support the views of Mr. Donohue, who always seems to be invited onto CNN when more reasonable Christian leaders fail to take the bait (chocolate Jesus statue, anyone?)

After they supported the Passion and the Narnia movies, the Christians can hardly say that their views are not represented in cinemas.

2. CNN Debate on Koran in Toilet

Comment #60823 by twblalock on August 3, 2007 at 12:29 am

Most of us Americans have indeed heard of the Bali bombings, which were trotted out by our government as another example of Al Qaeda terrorism which deserves a response (namely, the response considered was the invasion of a country that had nothing to do with Bali or any other attack, but that is for a different discussion).

As regards the theft of the Koran which had been deposited in the toilet, if that is true then the person responsible should be charged with theft of property and destruction of property. I am against hate crime laws in general and so I do not think that they should be applied in this or any other case. However, this would probably qualify under the statute, according to my reading of it. Not that it should, but it does.

Placing an object in a toilet is a clear expression of the opinion that it is worthy of being placed in the toilet, i.e. that it is shitty and worthless. If the perpetrator had placed the Koran in his own toilet, then an opinion could not have been expressed because presumably no-one would have seen it other than the person who put it there. The exercise of free speech requires an audience, willing or not. Given that it was placed near a Muslim meditation room, it is clear that the intended audience was Muslim students, who would be shocked by the display. And perhaps intimidated. I don't think that it should be illegal to intimidate people, certainly not in the non-explicit and vague way in which this was carried out. However, it did constitute intimidation in my opinion.

3. CNN Debate on Koran in Toilet

Comment #60458 by twblalock on August 2, 2007 at 2:03 am

I am always annoyed when certain things are overlooked in these debates, such as the fact that the majority of Muslims are southeast Asian and south Asian:

http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_islam.html

Arabs comprise one of the smaller racial groups within Islam, only about 20-25% of Muslims are Arab. The distinction needs to be made between south Asians (such as Pakistanis), Turks, and Arabs as they are different ethnically, culturally, and linguistically. The aforementioned facts are usually not known by the average American, who seems to feel that all Muslims are either Arab or "darkies" in general. Sikhs are commonly mistaken for Muslims in the US, and in my hometown of San Jose, CA a Sikh was murdered because the killer thought he was a Muslim.

It seems to be unspoken that the racism spoken of in these debates is anti-Arab racism, and it is associated with opposition to Islam because most ignorant people assume that all Muslims are Arabs, and that all Arabs are Muslim.

4. Hitchens on Falwell, Part 2

Comment #43528 by twblalock on May 21, 2007 at 11:02 pm

I didn't catch what his last comment was. What was it?