Showing posts with label provocation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label provocation. Show all posts

Monday, March 15, 2010

Culture Clash: European Art Provokes Muslims

Tell us what doesn’t provoke Muslims? – Mark

ASSOCIATED PRESS: LONDON — With the West locked in conflicts across the Muslim world, why would anyone throw fuel on the fire?

A small group of Europeans have been doing just that — provoking death plots and at least one murder by turning out art that derides the Prophet Muhammad and the Quran in the name of Western values.

Behind the scenes is something bigger: a rising European unease with a rapidly growing Muslim minority, and the spreading sense that the continent has become a front in a clash of civilizations.

Recent events — including surprising electoral success by an anti-Islamic Dutch party, moves to ban veils in France and minarets in Switzerland, and arrests in Ireland and the U.S. this week in an alleged plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist — are signs of the rising tensions.

Swedish artist Lars Vilks says he was defending freedom of speech when he produced a crude black-and-white drawing of Muhammad with a dog's body in 2007. Authorities say that set him in the crosshairs of an assassination plot by extremists including Colleen LaRose, a 46-year-old Muslim convert from Pennsylvania who dubbed herself "Jihad Jane."

Vilks said in a recent interview with The Associated Press that he wasn't interested in offending Muslims as an end in itself, but wanted to show that he could make provocative art about any topic he chose. "There is nothing so holy you can't offend it," he said.

The Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten also said it was defending free speech in 2005 when it printed 12 cartoons of Muhammad, one in a bomb-shaped turban, setting off protests and the torching of Western embassies in several Muslim countries. And bottle-blond Dutch populist politician Geert Wilders said he was promoting European values by producing Fitna, a 15-minute film that lays images of the Sept. 11 attacks alongside verses from the Quran. The film was shown in Britain's House of Lords this month.

The cases are extreme, but millions of moderate Europeans also are re-examining the meaning of the liberal values widely cherished across the continent. How, many are asking, should a liberal society respectfully deal with immigrants who often espouse illiberal values? Should the immigrants adopt the values of their adoptive land — or, to the contrary, should society change to accommodate the newcomers who now form part of it?* >>> Michael Weissenstein | Sunday, March 14, 2010

Associated Press Writers Karl Ritter in Stockholm and Art Max and Mike Corder in Amsterdam contributed to this report.

*This is an absurd question to ask! It is clearly incumbent upon the immigrant to adapt to the host country, not the other way around. Many of these immigrants, after all, are here in Europe ILLEGALLY. And even when they aren’t, they came here for a better life. They came here to get away from backwardness and poverty. We should stop engaging in such banal and useless belly-aching! Were I to have house-guests refusing to abide by the rules of the house, I would show them the door. So it should be with a country. Abide by the laws of the country, or get out! – © Mark

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Syria: A Nuclear Iran May Provoke Israeli Strike, Says Sarkozy

AKI: Damascus - The Iranian nuclear programme is a dangerous security risk which may lead to a "catastrophic" Israeli military strike, French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned on Thursday.

"Iran is taking a great risk when it continues to arm itself with nuclear arms – of this we are certain – because we may wake up one day and find out that Israel, regardless of who its leader will be, launched an attack," he said.

"The question at hand is not whether such a strike would be legitimate or wise, but rather what we would do in such a scenario. It would be a catastrophe and must be prevented."

During a two-day visit to Damascus, Sarkozy urged Israel and Syria to hold direct talks, adding that France would be willing to sponsor direct negotiations when appropriate.

"It is very important that the time for Syria and Israel to talk directly comes soon, to build the peace that everyone needs," Sarkozy told a joint media conference with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The French president was speaking at the opening of a summit on Middle East security being held in Damascus with the leaders of Syria, Turkey and Qatar.

After arriving in Damascus on Wednesday, Sarkozy asked Al-Assad to persuade its ally Iran to cooperate with the international community and curtail its nuclear ambitions. Syria: A Nuclear Iran May Provoke Israeli Strike, Says Sarkozy >>> | September 4, 2008

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