Posted on 02/14/2006 10:40:54 PM PST by neverdem
An art show in Milan has illustrated once again the deep affinity between the Left and the forces of the global jihad. As Muslims the world over call for the deaths of those who have "insulted Islam," anyone who wants to see the author of the seminal post-9/11 books The Rage and the Pride and The Force of Reason beheaded can go to the Galleria Luciano Inga-Pin in Milan, which is exhibiting Giuseppe Veneziano's "American Beauty" from January 19 through March 18. This is a series of paintings designed to highlight the "weakness and perversity of the 'American way of life'" -- including Oriana Fallaci's decapitated head.
Although I find the picture of Fallaci decapitated offensive, I have no plans to attack the Italian embassy, boycott Italian wine, phone in a bomb threat to the gallery, kill innocent people who had nothing to with the painting, or threaten to kill those who are actually responsible for it. Veneziano's painting is the sort of obnoxiousness that has become commonplace on the Left, and is one of the prices of freedom of speech.
Veneziano’s painting is doubly offensive, however, in light of the fact that Fallaci herself has been driven out of Italy by frivolous charges that she has "defamed Islam." Veneziano is not on trial for depicting Fallaci decapitated, but Fallaci faces trial for making a series of heated but largely true statements about Islam and Muslims. Veneziano’s painting is triply offensive in that it depicts exactly what the Muslim exponents of cartoon rage around the world would like to see done to Fallaci -- and thus manifests the ever-closer empathy between the Western Left and Islamic jihad.
Both the Left and the mujahedin envision a totalitarian state that cleanses the world of evil by force, establishing a just society at the price of an unspecified number of dead. Both advocate a supremacist ideology unable to tolerate criticism from others. And now as the European Union contemplates new laws that will, in the words of Franco Frattini, EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom, and Security, "give the Muslim world the message: We are aware of the consequences of exercising the right of free expression," the marriage of the European Left and Islamic jihad can proceed all the more speedily. Frattini has since denied that the EU has any such plans, but there can be no denying that voices all over the West have called for the media to exercise "responsible self-regulation" so as to avoid trampling upon Muslim sensibilities. But Muslim sensibilities only: those who depict Fallaci beheaded, or Jesus Christ with the face of Osama bin Laden, will continue to be subject to the same protections enunciated by Josh Wainwright, the producer of the art show that featured the Christ/Osama painting: "I don't think it's anyone's job or vocation to limit the expression of artists." Right. Except cartoon artists, of course. Or at least those who have the temerity to suggest that there might be some connection between violent actions done by Islamic jihadists and the Prophet who said that "Paradise is under the shades of swords."
Fallaci decapitata is a fitting emblem for the new Europe, in which the Swedish government closed down a political party's website for displaying the cartoons of Muhammad, the Norwegian editor who ran the cartoons abjectly apologized, and European companies doing business in the Middle East can't dissociate themselves quickly enough from Denmark. This is the New Dhimmi Europe, eager to "give the Muslim world the message: We are aware of the consequences of exercising the right of free expression."
Europe is already well aware of those consequences. They are clear in Veneziano’s painting. Not enough of those in Europe who still have their heads seem willing to stand up to Islamic violence and intimidation long enough to allow the heroic lady to keep hers. All around the Continent the parliamentary heads of government are losing their heads trying to avoid offending Islam; all too soon they will realize that Fallaci's head alone was not enough to appease their sworn enemies. Not nearly enough.
I know this must be a Cliche but isnt Islam the Religion of Peace? Just a question.
Anybody who hates America and Israel more than they hate Islamofascists are influenced by Satan. Simple as that.
Anybody who hates America and Israel more than they hate Islamofascists are influenced by Satan. Simple as that.
the muslims are like cockroaches, once they spread, stopping them is difficult
Nah, no need to anthropomorphize this. It's the totalitarian impulse, pure & simple. Some people just gravitate towards a framework based on dominance & submission. For a century in the West, it was expressed in secular Marxism. Now that Marxism has died of exhaustion, many leftists feel a strange, inexplicable pull towards the one remaining moral system left that's based on dominance & submission.
IMO the lesson is that for leftists, it's not the secularism that they're fundamentally drawn to. It's the slavery.
The Mooselimbs have taken the infidel's tolerance for granted.
In their eyes, the Koran is above the Constitution. All Islamic troubles spew from this fact.
Terrifying but true. There are those who, while they grew up in free societies, hate freedom. Some fear self-responsibility and long to just "follow orders" in a totalitarian regime. Others crave power and want to be commisars and executioners.
Islamofascism is the only growing totalitarian movement, so people displaced as it were by the fall of communism see a new hope for destruction in jihad. These spoiled Westerners are nihilists who will follow anyone who promises death and destruction. These nihilists are anti-humans who crave destruction for its own sake.
BTTT
I wonder what the mohammeden "street's" reaction was to the ignominious crushing of the formerly invincible holy warriors of the taliban?
Any insights?
Waqf's rxn => "WTF?"
good article
Fallaci is ill, and to do this when she is very sick is shameless.
And to use decapitation as a vehicle in his art, the same method used by these terrorist has me speechless, how twisted is this man?
Let me get this straight, we have a media and country obsessed with a hunting incident, while certain members of a given faith have no self control and lack of rule of law has them attacking many things including embassy's which is an act of war, and the UN is taking it's sweat time an behaving as if it is not an issue about these same types potentially getting the "Bomb"?
Beam me up Scotty.....
I used to ask the same question but I soon concluded that the left would have no compunction to do as they insists we not do - kill or enslave them all even if it meant nukes.
The left and the Islamists have been in cahoots for a long time. As the author says, they have a lot in common. However, the most important thing they have in common is not totalitarianism, that is a fundamental part of their system, but their desire to destroy the USA. That is the goal they are working together to accomplish. It is a "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" relationship.
Under Communism, Nazism, Fascism, or any other tight control, top down system, you are either the in crowd or you are a slave. Under Islam you are either predator or prey.
I do not claim to have any knowledge of the "Muslim street."
The only thing I can say is that, according to the Muslim End-Time prophecies, the Dajjal is extremely powerful militarily, and has wide influence over the globe, except for the most faithful of Muslims. When the Mahdi goes up against him, the Mahdi's army is extremely small by comparison. And the Mahdi does not have an easy time of it. He will lose two-thirds of his original army before the serious fighting begins. And he has many setbacks and losses as his jihad with the Dajjal goes forward.
So any Muslim who believes that we are in the End Times will find any particular Muslim losses easy to assimilate into his belief system.
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