Cartoon Raises a Stink

Washinton Post ^ | Friday, November 21, 2003 | Johnny Hart

[livesbygrace]

Did Johnny Hart -- the beloved creator of "B.C." and one of the most widely read cartoonists on Earth -- sneak a vulgar defamation of Islam into the comics pages last week? The question was raised yesterday by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington-based civil rights group, in an e-mail to its membership.

Hart and his syndicate say no -- that a simple, straightforward joke is being misconstrued. That may well be true, but the 73-year-old cartoonist's history of evangelizing his Christian beliefs through his comic cavemen have left many people doubtful.

The cartoon, which appeared Nov. 10 in more than 1,200 newspapers worldwide -- including The Washington Post -- shows a caveman entering an outhouse at night, and then saying, from inside, "Is it just me, or does it stink in here?"

The first public questioning of this cartoon arose in a washingtonpost.com chat Tuesday, when a reader noted that the cartoon seemed to make no sense, except metaphorically. The reader noted that the cartoon contained six crescent moons -- three in the sky, and three on the outhouse door -- and wondered if this might have been a veiled slur on the world's 1 billion practicing Muslims.

[madison10]

Hehe @ "remedial reading." I hate outhouse...prefer corn fields or forests.

[Jim Cane]

If there was a star with the crescent moon, I could see the reason for offense...maybe.

I'm getting tired of the sensitivity nazis. First the muslis co-opt the crescent moon, then they take offense to outhouses...what's next? They're going to come after me Lucky Charms?

[null and void]

Maybe he should have put an "I" above "slam" ~ Portnoy

Maybe that's what he wants your sub-conscious to do. Maybe that's why he put the "slam" in there.

Brilliant. ~ Bloody Sam Roberts

Nope. If he meant it he would has said it. It's not ISLAM, it IS SLAM...

[mewzilla]

LOL. My in-laws finally tore down their two-seater last year. I'd never seen one of those before.

[joesnuffy]

In Defense of the Constitution

Anti-CAIR Press Release 031/03

November 20, 2003


- Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Islamophobe?

Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Islamophobe?

On 19 November, 2004, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), issued a press release (link not available) calling on nationally syndicated talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger to apologize for
comments she made on her radio talk program.

To quote part of the “press release”:

“The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said it received a number of complaints from Muslims who said Schlessinger’s remarks crossed the line from legitimate commentary on
terrorism to Islamophobic bigotry.

The Offensive comments came in response to a mother who asked whether her 16-year-old daughter should take part in a Catholic High School class field trip to a local
mosque. The purpose of the field trip was to have the students in a “moral themes” class learn how “Muslims are treated” in America.

Schlessinger said in her response: “This is a class on morals. What is the point of going to a mosque?...You’re joking of course…How many Americans have tortured and murdered Muslims…I think you ought
to stand up against this class and this teacher. This is despicable. You tell him you are willing to go to the mosque only if it is one that has done its best to route out terrorists in its midst…instead of
complaining…I am horrified that you would let her go…I am sick and tired of all the Arab-American groups whining and complaining about some kind of treatment…What culture and what religion were all the
murderers of 9/11…they murdered us…. That’s the culture you want your daughter to learn about?

“Dr. Laura’s anti-Muslim tirade demonstrates a level of hostility toward Islam that should be of concern to her program’s audience and sponsors,” said CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper.”

Mr. Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR Communications Director, has a selective memory when it comes to Islam. In the past, CAIR has claimed that 70% of American Muslims want Wahhabi instruction in their mosques.
Wahhabi Islam is a dangerous cult that is bigoted, intolerant and strongly supports the terror murdering of non-Muslims and non-Wahhabi Muslims.

So, this begs the question: “Is Dr. Schlessinger an Islamophobe for recommending that a mother carefully screen a mosque before her daughter is allowed to visit?” Or is Dr. Schlessinger simply using
common sense?

Since you cannot tell a Wahhabi-supporting mosque from a non-Wahhabi-supporting mosque, what do you do? Do you err on the side of caution and refuse your child permission to visit, or do you urge the
mother to check the mosque for Wahhabi cult influences first? As the first duty of every parent is to protect their child, ACAIR supports Dr. Schlessinger’s recommendation to the mother to check the mosque
first, as a means of verifying that it is indeed a place of worship and not a meeting place for Wahhabi terrorists plotting the murders of more Americans. To do otherwise would be to expose the child to Islamist,
anti-American propaganda.







ACAIR is pleased to answer any questions from the public and press.

Your comments, suggestions and tips are appreciated and all e-mail is read.
You may request our press releases by writing:

Andrew Whitehead
ACAIR
ajwhitehead@anti-cair-net.org
www.anti-cair-net.org

[mewzilla]

...what's next? They're going to come after me Lucky Charms?

They'll have to pry them out of my cold, dead fingers....Grrrr....

[Sloth]

They're going to come after me Lucky Charms?

LOL...

Sacrilege!

[bmwcyle]

The Washington Post has nothing better to write about?

[SquirrelKing]

Wonder if Muslims would be offended by this?

[cinFLA]

From your link:

(Where have I seen a crescent moon and stars before?)

And now for the most ask question - What about that cutout of the moon on the door?
A moon and stars were used in colonial times to designate the sex of the outhouses. Originally the moon was for women and the star was for the men. But the men's outhouse was usually in such disrepair, everyone wanted to use the women's outhouse. ...so, eventually they quit using the stars altogether.

[mewzilla]

LOLOL!!!

Or this...?

[stuartcr]

True, I believe there are a lot of people that truly look forward to being offended, and may even go out of the way to be offended....sometimes you have to work at it.

[Dr._Joseph_Warren]

From article: ...drawn a prominent sound effect -- "SLAM" -- between two frames to accompany the closing of the outhouse door. The SLAM was stacked vertically, in the shape of an I, and could be seen to signify "Islam." The cartoon appeared on the 15th day of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month.

The cresent moons, the clever I-SLAM, the timing. Pretty darn clever if you ask me. If he didn't do it on purpose, he should have!!

Maybe you guys aren't giving God enough credit. Obviously God is working through Hart to deliver a message to all Christians.

Wake Up! ... and smell the ... well, it ain't roses!!

[livesbygrace]

Obviously God is working through Hart to deliver a message to all Christians.

I have thought this for a very long time...

[muawiyah]

The 5th century was decidedly better than the 6th century turned out to be, what with the arrival of the Dark Ages about 538 AD.

Contrasting the 7th century Islamic polity with those of the 6th century would give you a much different opinion.

I think what you really want to do is compare things with the 11th century when the Arabs went under the Turkish boot. They've been locked into that period (when Sharia law became closed, never to be changed again) for the last millenia. (Although an exception would be for Spain where the dissolution of the Umayyad Dynasty into a myriad of independent states resulted in a vigorous interaction with Carvajal, Castile and Leon, nascent Cornish colonial ventures which eventually swept all before them in a 500 year long series of convlict and resulted in the Empire of Ferdinand and Isabella and the discovery of America.)

[texaslil]

"...ignorant of our rural history?" (here, that's a fairly dangerous state of affairs)

Some time back, there was a Muslim family in our rural community. One summer my three daughters were home from college to help with the ranch work. It was 110 degrees and after picking seven 200 ft. rows of green beans in blistering heat, we went to our rural store for ice and drinks. A woman in the store wearing a full burga kept staring at us with looks that screamed, "infidels." My daughters were wearing very short cutoffs, bikini tops, and flip flops. We left wondering if she was really working on her farm in all that volumnous regalia. My girls (bless them) never heard an ambulance the rest of the summer without chirping, "Uh, oh, hope no one we know has gotten themselves mangled in the farm machinery."

[elli1]

Heck, even those all-plastic construction site portable johns have springs on the doors & they always SLAM shut.

Three frames in the cartoon = 3 moons in the sky, 3 moons on the outhouse door. Big Deal. Each frame is a separate "snapshot". Cartoon would have looked strange if Hart had omitted the crescents.

I confess to being dumb. What do 3 crescent moons have to do w/ Islam anyway?

Anyway, if Hart had drawn a cartoon showing BC going into the Jim & Tammy Faye Baker "outhouse" w/ the "Is it me, or..." caption, most people would have laughed their butts off.

[battlegearboat]

He who smelt it dealt it.

[international american]

Hell no, I dont CAIR!!

[NYCVirago]

Thanks for posting the cartoon in question. I can't believe they're making such a big deal over that.

You know, the media made fun of Jerry Falwell saying that the TeleTubbies acted gay, yet they won't mock CAIR for reading anti-Muslimism in a bathroom-humor cartoon. But there's no liberal media bias, right?