Cornellians React to Muhammad Cartoons (Profs blame the Danish, not the Muslims)

The Cornell Daily Sun - All Rights Reserved ^ | By Katy Bishop

[Behind Liberal Lines]

After weeks of protests worldwide sparked by cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, Cornell students and staff are struggling to understand the controversy's implications.

"...there has been a lot of coverage about all the violence in response to these cartoons, and it concerns me," said Aneesa Mitchell '06, president of the Muslim Educational and Cultural Organization (MECA). "I don't think that's the proper reaction according to the teachings we have from Muhammad. The violent reaction is not going to get the response that we want."

"It's dismaying if newspapers are frightened [to publish]," he said.

Some professors, however, placed the primary blame on the newspapers that first printed the cartoons.

"Part of what you have to think about as an editor, as a reporter, when something is of questionable taste, is whether it is important for the readers to actually see the image to understand the story," said Prof. Mike Shapiro. "There's a difference between what you have the right to print and what makes sense to print."

Prof. David S. Powers, near eastern studies, explained that though the Qu'ran does not specifically forbid pictorial representations of Muhammad, there has been a strong cultural and religious tendency to avoid the representation of any human being, especially in public places.

"It's not just that they represented Muhammad," Powers said. "That's important, but it's the way they represented him. For Muslims, Muhammad is a special type of human being, and there's a certain sacredness associated with him. No one should say anything derogatory about him, scorn him, humiliate him."

"I think that the newspaper used very poor judgment when it published the cartoon, considering tensions in Denmark and what's going on in general in the Muslim world," Powers said.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

Ithaca is the City of Evil.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

City of Evil bump:

[CarrotAndStick]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1581023/posts

Tolerating Islamist intolerance

EXCERPTS:

Crucially, it is precisely this tolerance of intolerance that has allowed vocal and violent radicalised Islamist minorities to silence Muslim majorities and to transform the global image of Islam into the grotesque parody of the faith that the Danish cartoons sought - perhaps indelicately - to reflect.

Europe would be, not only foolish, but suicidal, if it succumbs to this terrorism and coercion to invent new curbs on the media and on the freedom of speech.

[SmoothTalker]

Liberal weenie alert. Honestly though publishing the cartoon was a very slight provocation. The reaction of deadly riots, of boycotts of goods produced in the same country as the newspaper, of bounties being put on the cartoonists heads, and of ambassadors being recalled is ten thousand times worse. That'd be like if I gave you a dirty look, and you shot me in the face. One action doesn't come close to justifying the other. The Muslims need to become more civilized. If you don't like a cartoon you have a couple choices. 1). Ignore it, in a modern global world it is impossible to avoid being offended. 2). Write a letter to the editor or boycott the paper.

[Redbob]

"...said Aneesa Mitchell '06, president of the Muslim Educational and Cultural Organization (MECA). "I don't think that's the proper reaction according to the teachings we have from Muhammad. The violent reaction is not going to get the response that we want."

THIS should be front-page news!
That a muslim said this!

[Tokra]

For Muslims, Muhammad is a special type of human being, and there's a certain sacredness associated with him. No one should say anything derogatory about him, scorn him, humiliate him."

Oh really? And what about Piss Christ? I don't recall profs at Cornell upset about that - in fact they were all full of "freedom of expression" and "artistic courage".

[roses of sharon]

The world-wide leftist media are NOT afraid of cartoon deaths.

They are afraid of the adverse publicity their terrorist friends receive when they riot.

Afterall, the story-line they have been pushing for 30 years, ie, the cultists are simply victims of oppression by the US and Israel.

[EBH]

"I think that the newspaper used very poor judgment... what's going on in general in the Muslim world," Powers said. "But, the Muslim community seems to be holding non-Muslims to the standards of Islam and Islamic law? [which] non-Muslims living outside of the Islamic world are not required to observe."

No we are not required to observe and that is the danger in caving to their violence, threats, etc. That is the danger of not arresting those who issue fatwa's for murder, bounties, etc. That is why we must, we must, continue to defend Free Speech in the face of theocracy. We must continue to condemn and bring the light of truth to bear upon that which would have us beholden to submission.

[coloradan]

Seems the media's outrage over certain cartoons merely depends on whose ox is getting gored.

[coloradan]

I should have said, "...the Left's outrage..."

[Zuben Elgenubi]

How many Moslems have donated buildings or programs at Cornell? I can't think of any off hand. I can quickly recall Olin, Rockefeller, Johnson, Uris, McGraw and Sibly.

[WorkingClassFilth]

Article quote: "Part of what you have to think about as an editor, as a reporter, when something is of questionable taste, is whether it is important for the readers to actually see the image to understand the story," said Prof. Mike Shapiro. "There's a difference between what you have the right to print and what makes sense to print."

Literal reality: Comrade Mike Shapiro said "Part of what you have to think about as a propagandist, as a molder or public thinking, when something is disquieting or counter-productive to the cause, is whether it is productive for the readers to actually see all of the facts for themselves and, thus, fully understand the story and make autonomous decisions. There's a difference between what people might know in a free society, and what makes sense to print in media organs under Marxist control."

[NativeNewYorker]

Prof. Mike Shapiro. "There's a difference between what you have the right to print and what makes sense to print."

This POS is positioning himself to work in Hillary's press office....

[reformedliberal]

That'd be like if I gave you a dirty look, and you shot me in the face. One action doesn't come close to justifying the other.

It does in gang culture. It is called "dissing" and the one dissed, apparently, from MSM coverage, is justified in killing the disser.

[Vaquero]

we needed some representative images in this post.

[chs68]

It seems to me as though some of these professors from Cornell are engaging in exactly the same sort of moral equivalance that happened just after 9/11/01.

Recall how, after 9/11, some said that the west had "provoked" the terrorists. The terrorists were somehow justified in hijacking airplanes, killing innocent people on the airplanes, and then killing even more people in the WTC and Pentagon. We were asked to excuse the terror because the USA had supported Israel or had done something else that provoked the terrorists into doing what they did.

Of course, that was sheer nonsense.

The terrorists were responsible for making their choices to blow up innocent people. We were not guilty. THEY were.

The same thing here. Rioting and burning buildings and killing people are the responsibility of the people who CHOOSE to behave that way. It is NOT the fault of the people who publish the cartoons.

[popdonnelly]

These professors obviously do not understand freedom of speech. Judging by the standards imposed by most universities, that doesn't surprise me.

[Earthdweller]

Yes ..smack the "good" semi-enlightened child into submission while the wild child of Islam runs wild.

And this man calls himself a Prof?

He can not see that there is a backlash to enlightenment and the docile child has become irreconcilable discontent with being continually told to shut up.

Coward.

[henbane]

Some professors . . . placed the primary blame on the newspapers that first printed the cartoons.

Professors Mike Shapiro & David S. Powers--we now know you by the company you keep.

[Max in Utah]

For Muslims, Muhammad is a special type of human being, and there's a certain sacredness associated with him.

Yeah. Something about a virgin child's blood. Sacred.