Blake. Not really a blood-n-guts man.
Posted on 04/16/2006 6:51:09 PM PDT by blam
Muslims outraged by new cartoon of Prophet in Hell
By Malcolm Moore in Rome
(Filed: 17/04/2006)
An Italian magazine has infuriated Muslims by publishing a cartoon showing the Prophet Mohammed cut in half and burning in Hell.
The drawing appears in Studi Cattolici, a monthly magazine with links to the ultra-conservative Roman Catholic group, Opus Dei. It shows the poets Virgil and Dante on the edge of a circle of flame looking down on Mohammed.
"Isn't that man there, split in two from head to navel, Mohammed?" Dante asks Virgil.
"Yes and he is cut in two because he has divided society," Virgil replies. "While that woman there, with the burning coals, represents the politics of Italy towards Islam."
Cesare Cavalleri, the editor of the magazine, said last night that he had not meant to cause offence. "If, contrary to my intentions and those of the author, anyone felt offended in his religious feelings, I freely ask him in a Christian manner for forgiveness."
That was a marked change of tone from an earlier statement, when he said: "We must not fear freedom of opinion." If the cartoon provoked an attack, it would only confirm "the idiotic positions" of Muslim extremists.
"This is not a cartoon against Mohammed. It is a cartoon which addresses the loss of the West's identity.
"Why all the fuss over a cartoon which only represents that which has already been written centuries ago by Dante Alighieri?"
Dante placed Mohammed in Hell in Canto 28 of The Divine Comedy. His work inspired a painting by William Blake, depicting Mohammed with his entrails hanging out, and a fresco in Bologna Cathedral showing him being tortured by a devil.
The new drawing threatens to reignite the controversy over a series of cartoons published by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten last September and reproduced in France in February.
A spokesman for the Union of Italian Muslim Communities called it "odious and racist". He said: "The rage was just calmed and here, with an absurd and criminal logic, they go and stir things up."
Opus Dei was quick to distance itself from the magazine. "Studi Catollici is not among our official publications," a spokesman said.
The new controversy has emerged just as Danish and Muslim youths are taking part in a summit aimed at reconciling the two sides.
At the time of the Danish row, Roberto Calderoli, the Italian reforms minister, wore a T-shirt showing one of the Danish cartoons during a television interview. He was forced to resign.
Blake. Not really a blood-n-guts man.
"The rage was just calmed and here, with an absurd and criminal logic, they go and stir things up."
I agree.
The illustration is a reference to the passages in Dante's Inferno that describe Mohammed and his son in law (and first cousin) Ali in Hell with their guts spilling out.
The question that the magazine (and with it presumably Opus Dei) is indirectly asking is:
Are we going to ban Dante next?
How much of our culture do we have to destroy in order to make Muslims feel "comfortable?"
Between his legs were hanging down his entrails;
His heart was visible, and the dismal sack
That maketh excrement of what is eaten.
While I was all absorbed in seeing him,
He looked at me, and opened with his hands
His bosom, saying: "See now how I rend me;
How mutilated, see, is Mahomet;
In front of me doth Ali weeping go,
Cleft in the face from forelock unto chin;
And all the others whom thou here beholdest,
Disseminators of scandal and of schism
While living were, and therefore are cleft thus.
A devil is behind here, who doth cleave us
Thus cruelly, unto the falchion's edge
Putting again each one of all this ream,
When we have gone around the doleful road;
By reason that our wounds are closed again
Ere any one in front of him repass.
- Longfellow's translation
The scenery in Wales is beautiful. I've enjoyed every trip there, but I don't care for U.K. lefty politics. The platform of the Welsh Party, Plaid Cymru, is laced with line after line of reference to "socialist" principles. When I was participating in Welsh language mailing lists, a member asked if it was possible to participate in Welsh activities and politics without embracing socialism. The flame war that erupted ended my participation permanently.
don't these idiots have anything else to do but get angry over nothing???
Easy answer.
All of it.
All of it. Become a muslim or a dhimmi paying jizya and renounce everything you hold dear. That MIGHT be enough.
Keep up this great cartoon work, and set these short fused gomers off as many times as possible, so the world will really wake up to what Islamofascism really is!!
Viva Italia!!
Sure. Bomb making classes and lovely evenings at the mosque bathing in hateful rhetoric.
The big story will be any day when Muslims are not outraged.
"How much of our culture do we have to destroy in order to make Muslims feel "comfortable?"
_______________________
Let me take a WAG at that...hmmmmmm.....how about....ALL OF IT!
Thanks for info., interesting. It always makes my day when I hear of some of these thin-skinned chuckleheads blowing themselves up/`checking out'.
I got on an English political group site a long time ago. They were out-of-control leftists: hated their own party, hated us, hated Blair. I shared my photo: `Che Guevera w/ Mickey Mouse ears' and took my leave.
FYI, regular gasoline, stir in powdered laundry detergent until thickened, let sit: `Poor man's napalm'.
Muslims can take a hike! We have spared much more of their culture, than they wish to spare of ours. Muslims...better realize... Christians.....are not Christ, and we do not always turn the other cheek.
What an excellent link. Thank you.
See:
http://www.zipperfish.net/free/yaafm12.php
Attention Muslims: That is no cartoon, but an actual photo of Mohammad in hell, courtesy of dead MSM news photographers on eternal assignment in hell.
What's a muhammed?
Wow, it's been a long time since I've read a "Muslims outraged" story. In fact, it's been almost two days.
Of course, I didn't read the news yesterday...
I find that styrafoam works better.
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