Posted on 11/22/2003 12:26:43 AM PST by ovrtaxt
'B.C.' cartoon seen as slur of Islam
Muslims allege veteran artist Hart made cryptic attack
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
The Council on American-Islamic Relations once again is demanding an apology for an alleged slur of Muslims, this time asserting a veteran cartoonist has cryptically defamed Islam.
The Washington, D.C.-based group sent out a dispatch to its e-mail list after a "B.C." cartoon last week by Johnny Hart was publicly questioned on a Washington Post Web chat page.
The cartoon shows a caveman entering an outhouse at night, and then saying, from inside, "Is it just me, or does it stink in here?"
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The Post reader said the cartoon only made sense metaphorically, noting the strip contained a total of six crescent moons, and wondered if it might be a cryptic slur on Muslims.
Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR's spokesman, is sure it's a defamation of Islam.
"I think the reason there might not have been initial complaints is that it's so cryptic," he told the Post. "If you know who the cartoonist is, what he's done in the past, then it becomes clear. Otherwise, it's just an unfunny joke."
CAIR also is demanding an apology from radio counselor Dr. Laura Schlessinger for an alleged "anti-Muslim tirade" on her program this week.
Hart, 73, is known to be a devout Christian who often has communicated religious themes in his strip.
Along with the moons, CAIR's e-mail noted that Hart drew a sound effect – "SLAM" – between two frames to accompany the closing of the outhouse door. The SLAM, which was rendered vertically in the shaped of an I, could be viewed as "Islam," CAIR said.
The group also noted the cartoon appeared on the 15th day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Hart and Creators Syndicate insist, however, the cartoon is just a simple joke that is being misunderstood.
"My goodness. That's incredible," Hart told the Post after hearing of CAIR's claims. "That's unbelievable!"
The cartoonist explained it as a silly bathroom joke. The SLAM simply depicted the caveman walking into the outhouse and the moons indicated it was nighttime. Also outhouses often are shown with crescent moons.
"This comic was in no way intended to be a message against Islam – subliminal or otherwise," he told the Post. "It would be contradictory to my own faith as a Christian to insult other people's beliefs. If you should have any further silly notions about malicious intent from this quarter, you can save yourself a phone call."
Several years ago, Hart drew protest from Jewish groups for an Easter Sunday strip that showed the candles of a Jewish menorah flickering out one by one alongside one of Jesus' last utterances. It culminated with the menorah turning into a cross and the words "It is finished." Hart insisted the cartoon was meant to honor both Judaism and Christianity.
The Post interviewed a number of analysts who believed Hart's outhouse strip was an intentional defamation of Islam.
Marshall Blonsky, professor of semiotics at the New School in New York, said for one thing, people don't slam outhouse doors.
An expert in the interpretation of signs and symbols, Blonsky said he didn't get the joke, and the cartoon makes sense only in light of the religious interpretation.
The paper also interviewed six leading cartoonists, who all admire Hart. Five of them thought the religious interpretation probably was right, including Berkeley Breathed, creator of "Bloom County" and "Opus," and Jef Mallett, creator of the nationally syndicated cartoon "Frazz."
Only Doonesbury's Garry Trudeau sided with Hart.
"We cartoonists are simple folk. We don't write on that cryptic a level," he told the Post. "Leave Johnny alone."
Blonsky opined that when it comes to artistic criticism, it is a mistake to give much weight at all to the artist's stated intention.
All that matters, he said, is the way people interpret it. Therefore, even if Hart intended no offense, the offense is there.
As WorldNetDaily reported, CAIR and another Muslim group demanded an apology last year from Pulitzer-prize winning political cartoonist Doug Marlette for his depiction of a Middle Eastern-looking man behind the steering wheel of a nuclear-bomb laden truck under the headline, "What would Muhammad drive?"
The cartoon shows a Ryder rental truck like the one used by convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
Marlette told WorldNetDaily he would not apologize, though he had received thousands of e-mails from angry Muslims, with some threats of death and mutilation.
Always keep in the back of your mind the reason why this turd's voice is heard and yours isn't. CAIR and the mainstream media have a common goal - and it is antithetical to what made the US great.
Yep, definitely. But I have to admit that what I find even more amusing is that those sensitive souls who whooped it up on 9/11, glorify homicide bombers and screech about Jihad get *so* wounded *so* easily over the most obscure slights, real or imagined.
This comment alone makes the cartoon funny.
Thanks for posting the larger image, veronica.
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"Lili Taylor turns in an excellent performance as Kathleen, a philosophy student who is plunged into the dark world of the vampire. As she is transformed gradually in the movie the fact that she is a philosophy student plays a large role. She is forced to reconcile her new life with the existentialism that is the focus of her studies. As she becomes more sure of herself in her new life, an elder vampire Peina (played by the creepy Christopher Walken) throws a wrench in the works. Lili Taylor's voice is marvelous in the dark settings where her character contemplates her new existence with philosophy. Where will her journey into darkness take her...?" |
CAIR ! Easily offended or guilty conscience. Either way, what Maroons !! ...
Not anymore. I believe they upgraded to "New School University" some years back...if I'm not mistaken.
But it's the other quote from Blonsky that disturbs me:
Blonsky opined that when it comes to artistic criticism, it is a mistake to give much weight at all to the artist's stated intention.
All that matters, he said, is the way people interpret it. Therefore, even if Hart intended no offense, the offense is there.
"Heads I win, tails you lose." Or worse: "You will offend me, no matter what you do. You offend me by your very existence."
How do you fight that?
I've noticed how over the past year, this philosophical quip is being made more and more routinely. Perhaps merely another step past 'political correctness'. When I observe situations in Scripture where the issue arises, such as Jesus Christ and the Pharisees and Sadduces, I notice there is no righteousness assigned to those who simply interpret an issue as an offense.
Even if countered by recomendations regarding eating foods not observed by those being witnessed or visited, the lesons are not that the offended are righteous. Instead the issue is how to avoid contrived arguments.
In contrast, we seem to live in an age where ay perception or interpretation of offense is given more respect than those seeking not to offend.
IMHO, the entire 'PC' philosophy is best handled by a simple philosophy of 'Get a Life' (preferably receive life eternally,..it's very simple).
Definitely a slam at Conservatives. It actually shows the Libs idiocy, I think."Brevity is the soul of wit" ...
How do you fight that?
Laugh at it. As St. Thomas More said, "the devil, that prowde sprite, cannot bear to be mocked."
read it!!
The WWII cartoonists ripped on the Japanese and German civilians, their leaders, their military... everything was fair game. No one walked around on eggshells worried that they might offend the poor widdle kamikaze pilots, the Nazis, or the cultures that spawned them. Even Dr. Seuss got into the act, and drew cartoons of cute little characters with big smiles on their faces as they bombed German cities and sunk U-boats.
In case the Muslims hadn't noticed, Americans enjoy satire (or at least we used to). It's part of our culture (or it used to be, anyway). We ridicule everyone and everything, including ourselves (though now it seems we increasingly fear ridiculing anything but ourselves).
I've seen some of the nasty cartoons that Muslims have published about the Jews. Muslims have a lot of nerve complaining about American cartoonists who make subtle little jabs, when their newspapers spew some of the most vicious hatred ever put in print on a daily basis.
what a Twit!...What if the outhouse leans?...The one @ the our civil club leans...he's a MORON, from New York City, NY.
>>>Marshall Blonsky, professor of semiotics at the New School in New York, said for one thing, people don't slam outhouse doors. <<<
Blonsky doesn't sound like he was a farm boy. Every outhouse I was ever in had a big spring on it that made it slam after you entered. Usually a spring exactly like that was on the screen door on the house!
Bunch of hyper-sensetive idiots expanding their circle of hate!
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