mediawatchwatch.org.uk

Two brothers accused of setting fire to the house of Mo-doggie artist Lars Vilks have appeared in a Swedish court, charged with arson.

The evidence against them is quite convincing, and reads like a Chris Morris script:

The evidence against the men included two fire-damaged jackets, a knife, two plastic bottles and a lighter, as well as a pair of underwear and a jackknife.

In one of the jackets that police found at the crime scene, they found a key to the home of one of the brothers.

Further incriminating evidence supporting the charges against the brothers includes the fact that one of the brothers admitted himself to hospital on the same night as the with burns to his legs. The man also smelled of gasoline, according to a hospital employee that chief prosecutor Eva-Marie Persson has called as a witness.

Police were able to demonstrate from the analysis from a seized PC that one of the brothers had searched for Vilks’ address on the internet.

They left their keys and a pair of their pants at the crime scene.

Still, Vilks’ house “suffered extensive damage”, so these mujahideen were more successful in their mission than these clowns, who tried to burn down a publisher’s house with diesel.

Fears fears put about by Geert Wilders et al of an imminent Eurabia are almost certainly misplaced. The evidence suggests that the would-be jihadis in our midst are functional morons.

More Mujahidiots: Dude, that doesn't even rhyme properly. (Photo from onelawforall.org.uk)

UPDATE: (15 July) They have been found guilty and jailed.

A court in Pakistan continues the trend of insulting the intelligence of that country’s entire population by ordering seven major websites to be monitored for “blasphemy”. Offending links appearing on Yahoo, Google, MSN, Hotmail (?), YouTube, Amazon and Bing will be blocked, apparently without affecting the main website.

In addition to those seven major sites, another 17 lesser known domains have been blocked.

Facebook was not one of the mentioned sites, in spite of the fact that a court is investigating the possibility of prosecuting its founder, Mark Zuckerberg for blasphemy – an offence which carries the death penalty or life imprisonment.

The crackdown is based on Section 295-C of the penal code which refers to the

Use of derogatory remarks etc, in respect of the Holy Prophet … either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly.

This time it’s an ice-cream manufacturer that has upset the biscuit-munchers with an ad which contains religious imagery.

The Advertising Standards Authority has received 40 complaints about the Antonio Federici poster depicting a pregnant nun about to tuck in to some posh dairy-based dessert

because it mocks the virgin birth of Jesus.

Here it is:

This is not the first time Federici has got into trouble with the ASA. Last June it was ordered not to republish an ad with featured a nun and a priest about to kiss. The judgement concluded that it breached COP Code 5.1 (decency):

We considered that the portrayal of the priest and nun in a sexualised manner and the implication that they were considering whether or not to give in to temptation, was likely to cause serious offence to some readers.

Here’s that one:

They’re getting offended rather a lot these days, the Catholics. If they weren’t Catholics, they wouldn’t be offended so much. An obvious answer presents itself.

A 30-second commercial which aired in America during the USA v. England World Cup game has been pulled because of complaints from Catholics.

The Hyundai ad, it was claimed, mocked the Eucharist by showing worshippers receiving slices pizza instead of the traditional communion crackers. At one point a football was shown sporting a Crown of Thorns.

Fr Marcel Taillon, a priest in Rhode Island, said:

This ad is an outrageous affront to Catholics and a mockery of our most sacred beliefs and practices.

Hyundai has stopped running the ad.

The unexpected response created by the ad… prompted us to take a more critical and informed look at the spot. “Though unintentional, we now see it was insensitive.

Sadly, MWW has been unable to find a copy of the ad.

Islam in Europe has a helpful report on an egging received by a female singer popular in Denmark, who had the temerity to call herself by the same name as a city in Saudi Arabia.

Medina on stage Click the pic to see the video

Medina, Denmark’s queen of pop, apparently took her name after a visit to a numerologist, not thinking that it might offend a certain section of the population. At an open air concert in Ishøj on Saturday, she was showered with eggs by a group of Muslim boys.

One of the eggers explained the logic behind his actions:

Men can go in t-shirts and shorts and show bare skin. Girls can’t do such things in Islam. Medina is a holy city for Muslims, and therefore she should change her name… when she has a name that is so significant in Islam and does a video where she shows her ass to the public, she makes the religion look like crap.

No, you silly boy. It is you who makes the religion look like crap.

Watch the video. If you do not speak Danish, you won’t know what she’s saying – but it is clear that she gives these clowns a right old bollocking.

UPDATE: (11 June) Here is a translation of that bollocking (thanks to Maggie in the comments):

Somebody obviously haven’t been brought up properly. It’s really disrespectful to the people who have come here to have a good time to fuck it up like this. It’s fair enough if you don’t like my music that you’ve come here to throw rotten eggs or whatever. Bur your parents should be ashamed! Don’t ruin it for those of us who are feeling happy and having a good time. That sort of behavior is fucked up!

Comedy Central, which recently censored a South Park show because of death-threats from Islamists, has enraged Christian groups with a still-hypothetical show based on the adventures of Jesus Christ in modern-day New York.

The hilariously named Citizens Against Religious Bigotry – an amalgam of various nut-job fundamentalists including Bill Donahue of the Catholic League – are demanding that Comedy Central abandon their plans to make “JC” and have written to advertisers asking them to boycott the station.

Their main argument is that there is a “double standard” involved, because other religions are not mocked equally. Essentially, they are expressing their wish that Christianity should enjoy vicarious protection from mockery – a protection only given to Islam because of the violent propensities of a small-but-significant number of its followers. They see the benefit Islam gets from threatening violence, and want the same benefit for themselves without actually threatening violence.

Sorry guys. You’re going to have to be murderous as well as stupid to get away with that one.

They have done a service, however, by making an amusing compilation of some of Comedy Central’s un-Christian irreverence:

South Africa’s Globe & Mail, which last week published a cartoon by Zapiro featuring Mohammed talking to a shrink, has issued an apology to the various Muslim groups after a meeting  last week.

Here is the official statement:

The M&G communicated to the meeting its regret for the harm caused by the publication of the cartoon, and apologises for the effects thereof. The newspaper in no way intended to cause injury, or to associate itself with Islamophobia, which it repudiates in the strongest possible terms.

We have learned an enormous amount since the publication of the cartoon about the depth of reverence in which Muslims hold the prophet. We invite community leaders and ordinary readers to communicate their devotion in our pages, as some have already begun to do.

In light of the injury caused by the cartoon we are reviewing our editorial policies on religious matters broadly, and the depiction of the prophet in particular. This review process will be informed by consultation with religious leaders including, but not limited to, the United Muslim Forum of South Africa. We commit during the review period to honouring the prohibition on representation of the prophet.

Any final policy that emerges from the review process will be informed by the experience of the past week, and by what we now know of the depth of feeling in the Muslim community on this matter.

The M&G is committed to editorial independence and press freedom. We are guided by the Constitution and our own values of social justice in dealing with South Africa’s diverse religious and secular communities.

So, an apology for “injury” caused and an undertaking to refrain for further Motooning until a review is complete. It is not as bad as it could be. Indeed the editor Nic Dawes claims to be “delighted.”

The South African Muslim groups have done something quite remarkable. They have transformed what was merely a very good cartoon into a brilliant piece of situational art. The cartoon claimed Mohammed’s followers had no sense of humour, and they played their role to perfection – demonstrating the essential truth of the original by their reaction, and doubling its impact as a work of satire. And, of course, ensuring that it reaches a far greater audience than it ever would have had they simply ignored it.

Brilliant. Just brilliant.

Good news from Sweden, where Lars Vilks has been invited to have another go at giving his lecture at Uppsala University.

The first time he tried to deliver his lecture on freedom of expression and art, he was rudely interrupted by a handful of Islamists baying “Allahu akbar” (he isn’t). There were three arrests.

The Department of Philosophy’s director of studies, Rysiek Sliwinski said,

Violence and intimidation will not silence people at the university or elsewhere in society.

The New Humanist brings our attention to a bizarre story from Spain. A popular songwriter, Javier Krahe, and the TV station which interviewed him in 2005, face possible fines of 192,000 and 144,000 euros for the crime of showing stills from a video he made in 1978 which showed a woman cooking the body of a Christ she had cut from a crucifix.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7P-TIi386o[/youtube]

The villains of the piece are those troublesome Catholic cretins, HazteOir.org and Javier Maria Perez-Roldan of the Tomas Moro Centre, who have crossed our radar several times before (atheist buses, blasphemous photos, defamatory gay pride parades, and a toy guitar for the Pope, respectively).

A translation from Público gives us the transcript of the video above:

Let’s take a gaunt Christ for every two persons. Remove the spikes and take the body from the cross, which will be left aside. The stigmas can be stuffed with bacon. Uncrust with warm water and dry carefully. Abundant butter will be spread on the Christ, which will be then placed on an ovenproof dish, over a bed of onions. Spread over it some salt and pepper, other spices and fine herbs can be added to suit your taste. The mixture is to be left in a moderate fire oven for three days, after which He will get out on his own.

The singer himself is shocked but hopeful:

My lawyer estimates that the trial will not be held before Christmas, but we believe the case will be dismissed due to insufficient arguments.

There are also two Spanish language Facebook groups set up to support him: liberty and creativity: no to the prosecution of Javier Krahe, and Me, I eat Christ raw.

Fingers crossed that this case will be another expensive drain on these censorious organisations’ funds.

The South African Globe and Mail was today beset by tiresome, bullshit-believing cretins with an inflated sense of self-importance. Resident cartoonist, Zapiro, had drawn a cartoon, and the newspaper had published it:

Before publication, the The Council of Muslim Theologians had gone to court in an attempt to block it, but they were turned down.

Ihsan Hendricks, the Council’s president, has no sense of irony:

It seems to be provocative in many ways on the very eve of the World Cup in South Africa, when we need peaceful co-existence and co-operation amongst religious communities in South Africa. What is behind this agenda?

Having kicked up the stink in the first place, Hendricks is now putting on a display of diplomacy:

We have called for calm in the Muslim community.

The Muslim community, however, have other ideas. The newspaper has been receiving threatening phone calls all day. Zapiro himself, whose real name is Jonathan Shapiro, got one from someone called Mohammed: “Which Mohammed is that?” he asked, before the caller became abusive.

Asked about the offence his cartoon caused to Muslims, Zapiro replied:

They should get over it.

Hear bloody hear.

I don’t regret doing the drawing. It was one of the safest of its kind. It poses the question and it has some empathy with those Muslims who feel others are too fanatical. If we can’t express opinions in a democratic society, we really are in trouble.

His editor, Nic Dawes, is standing behind the decision to publish:

In my view no cartoon is as insulting to Islam as the assumption that Muslims are incapable of reacting to a challenging image with anything but violence. I know that Muslims share our constitutional values, and are capable of having the most robust, angry and painful conversations in rigorous and peaceful fashion

The Guardian’s report of this story is helpfully illustrated with a photo of demonstrators in Pakistan. Wouldn’t the cartoon itself been a bit more useful?

UPDATE: (25 May) The Mail & Guardian set an example for the rest of the world’s press by insisting that there will be no apology for publishing the above cartoon.