Posted on 02/05/2006 4:58:10 AM PST by governsleastgovernsbest
by Mark Finkelstein February 5, 2006 - 07:51
Hey, I'm a multi-culturalist. I'm happy to see people observing their various religious holidays, from Christmas to Chanukah to Ramadan. But somehow, my multicultural enthusiasms run out of steam when it comes to . . . condoning the sacking of foreign embassies.
Not Julian Phillips. The co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend blithely condoned the current rioting and burning of foreign embassies around the world by Muslims angered by depictions of the Prophet Mohammed. His explanation-by-way-of-excuse: "different religion, different culture."
In the course of the show's opening segment, Fox's Yasmina Ykelenstam reported live from Beirut, where rioters had set fire to the Danish embassy. She reported that there has been violence across the city, including at the Norwegian embassy, and cars smashed and burned. Back in the studio, Kiran Chetry reported that in Damascus, Syria, rioters had also set fire to the Danish embassy.
Co-host Page Hopkins then opined: "I've seen these cartoons and don't find them that offensive when you see other things that are depicted." Hopkins was presumably referring, among other things, to the kind of vile anti-Semitic cartoons that, as here, are frequently published in the Arab media.
Phillips took exception to Hopkins' remarks: "Oh, Page. You put a bomb on the top of Jesus and I'm offended."
Hopkins: "I am too, but does it incite that kind of violence in the Christian community?"
That's when Phillips began his multi-culti riff:
"You can't compare apples and oranges. We're two different kinds of people. It's blasphemy to even show the Prophet Mohammed. This is how they're responding, hey," literally shrugging it off.
Page, seemingly sensing that she might have put her foot in it with her remark that she didn't find the cartoons "that offensive," decided to 'revise and extend her remarks' in these terms:
"Just to clear up what I said. It is offensive to depict Mohammed in a comic. However, what I was trying to say was I think the reaction is really upsetting. There's a double standard here, we're all tip-toeing around it. Jesus is depicted in blasphemous ways all the time in the media, and Christians are made fun of all the time and you never get this kind of outcry."
Phillips again rode to the rioters defense: "As I said, it's two different religions, two different cultures."
Chetry put things in proper perspective: "It's a double standard. You can't condone this kind of violence."
Fox & Friends Weekend ping to the Today show ping list.
I can no longer watch F&F weekends..it has jumed the shark..I now turn to (gas) MSNBC and the bodacious Alex Witt...NO nonsense, serious news.. in a very sexy way..
I think he's right...terrorism and rioting is part of Islamic culture.
My favorite part is when he says there ISN'T a double standard, because those people don't think like we do, so we shouldn't incite them.
As I told Peach, he managed to wrap condescension and appeasement into one sentence!
And I would like to say that I HATE THE VERMONT TEDDY BEAR COMMERCIAL! "Oh, it's so much bigger than I thought! I could just kiss it and kiss it!"
If you think I am referring to anything other than a teddy bear, you are in the same brain wave as the moron office guys on the commercial.
My husband has heard me rant about this commercial for 2 years in a row. He thinks Murdoch's son owns Vermont Teddy Bear. LOL!
Most of the loudmouth multiculturalists fail to realize that the tolerance they seek from others is a two-way street - they need to tolerate me & mine too. Those most likely to preach tolerance are least likely to practice it themselves.
Are you sure they aren't playing some kind of Abbot & Costello routine? I suppose if rioting is okay for Julian, flying planes into buildings is just free speech. Different people, different cultures, y'know.
Man, what a mouth breather.
I saw that too. I reached for my changer and fled F&F. Julian is an idiot! I just a few minutes returned to F&F and Julian said he is getting hate email. Now he is trying to wiggle out. HaHaHa
Julian hits a new low every week.
Julian is sitting there in NYC in a TV studio getting paid a comfortable salary and opining on whatever he wants and he thinks he knows about persecution?
Normally I can chalk his remarks off to stupidity, but this one is really enraging me. Maybe it's that STUPID VERMONT TEDDY BEAR COMMERCIAL that is adding to my anger.
Yea, I saw it live. Thank God for Page Hopkins & Kiran Chetry !
>>>Phillips is that charming combination of stupid and arrogant. FOX has decided he is their new star.<<<
Gotta disagree with that last part...if he was being groomed for a better timeslot, he would not be working on weekend mornings - he'd be in prime-time on the weekend.
I turned on F&F this morning just to see if I would encounter some jaw dropping stupidity and, by golly, there it was. Thanks for reporting it.
I didn't send an e-mail because I was afraid I would get myself in trouble. Boy am I steamed at that guy!!
Julian would not let it go..Totally dense. I cannot believe he explains it away by "different cultures"..I guess he thinks everything is relative. I say it is time for the "followers" to learn to express outrage in ways other than violence and arson.It would be nice if they stopped the hypocrisy,too.
Hope you are right. I can't watch when he is on. I have to change to gasp CNN!
Just once I would like him to be forced to make a formal apology for some insulting thing he has said, and I think this is it. He should have to face the camera and read a statement saying that he was shooting off his mouth without really considering the implications of what he was saying.
Gee, I don't know. I kinda like the Vermont Teddy Bear commercial. I'm thinking of giving one, particularly after that one girl said "I can't wait to give him MY surprise!"
OK, I've donned my full body armor. Go ahead ;-)
May I be presumptuous enough to assume you won't be sending him a VERMONT TEDDY BEAR either? My husband and I can't stand that commercial. It looks a though it should appear on the Playboy Channel, not Fox News.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.