Comments on: Figure of Speech

By: towards God is our journey

towards God is our journey — Wed, 24 May 2006 13:40:55 +0000

The State of the Ummah II…

Well, in keeping with GMT (Good Muslim Time) I have finally bothered to get around to this. Over 2 months late(r). Sorry to anyone who was really keen on this concept. (I still am!) My apologies, especially to Umm Yasmin,…

By: ~hedayah~

~hedayah~ — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 23:39:39 +0000

I meant ‘..can’t help BUT feel a certain lack of dignity..’.

By: ~hedayah~

~hedayah~ — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 23:26:03 +0000

There is a famous saying, actually a hadith which would suffice what you really want to say to the western media, ‘ If you have no shame, do as you wish’.

I admire your diplomacy, however, can’t help not to feel a certain lack of dignity.

May Allah reward you for your intentions!

salaam.

By: sepoy

sepoy — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 03:53:14 +0000

Sin: It’s all you, mate. Whatever you’d like to share with the CM audience on khusras.

By: Sin

Sin — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 23:39:46 +0000

Done and done. I’ll be happy to give you something. Let me know if you have any particular preferences, yes?

By: Di

Di — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 14:36:20 +0000

Your blog is a pleasure to wander through.

By: emullah

emullah — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 05:11:45 +0000

It is very unfortunate that no one in Muslim countries is teaching the Muslims about the tradition of the Prophet rather they are catering to the sensibilities of the illiterate masses.

By: Interlingua

Interlingua — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 16:32:24 +0000

Super post. I was expecting to read some sorry, tepid mix of the same ideas from the various sides in this issue. But you tricked me! You quickly sailed through the facts most readers should already be familiar with and then, with confidence and intelligence, set up far more interesting lines of debate, disagreement and conversation. I am reading more chapati mystery from this day on!

By: sepoy

sepoy — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 01:26:45 +0000

zack: thx. & trackback, i gave up figuring THAT out….

By: Zack

Zack — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 00:01:18 +0000

Good post. I linked to it on my blog. Your trackback thingy isn’t working (what’s new, it wasn’t working on your MT installation either!)

By: crunkistan

crunkistan — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 07:27:31 +0000

The historical context is appreciated, but there needs to be more political contextualization of this controversy specially as ‘europe’ moves further away from the benign facade of multiculturalism to a more exclusivist position… It seems to me that 21st century EU identity will be fashioned in opposition to the “fanatic muslims”, or more “objectively” those who cant understand principles of ‘freedom of speech’.

What pisses me off in this game of secular righteousness is how the idea of free speech is being exercised and defended as a high moral principle when similar caricatures of other communities will be condemned for intolerance, hate speech, for example you will not find homophobic, anti-semitic, anti-black representation, cartoons (that were staple of humanist secular Europe until fairly recently) in Europe today. Perhaps such caricatures might even be prosecuted under hate speech laws in UK and Germany. I am not interested in whether those who published these cartoons had the right to do so, of course they did as they have the right to publish racist cartoons about other communities.

If these cartoon illustrators/publishers are exercising free speech then why not the same rights for Holocaust revisionists… I am only using this example to say that free speech is in fact not free but an exercise of power. ‘Free speech’ is largely (but not fully) a noble fiction given how money, corporate, geo-political interests, racial prejudice, moral imperatives shape public discourse …and good luck finding the figure of Iraqi casualties in American media or for that matter Pentagon Arm‚Äôs sales dictatorships throughout the world.

By: sepoy

sepoy — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 20:22:40 +0000

the burning of embassy in a damascus where every move is centrally managed worths a lot closer look.
and dear sinster, you are hereby tagged for a guest post on CM [on your own schedule, of course].

By: Sin

Sin — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 19:59:13 +0000

While I understand how it can found offensive, the reactionary manner in which people are behaving is something that just irks me beyond belief. (If you want a piece on khusras or hijras though, don’t be shy about asking!)

By: No End But Victory :: "Figures of speech" by Aziz

No End But Victory :: "Figures of speech" by Aziz — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 16:35:18 +0000

[...] admission: The title of this post shamelessly stolen from sepoy’s excellent piece. Also worth reading is the discussion at Mahmoud’s Den. [...]

By: johann

johann — Sat, 04 Feb 2006 21:37:34 +0000

thanks. thought this was a balanced perspective from the guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,1701985,00.html