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Afghanistan/South Asia
Koranic Kontroversy - With a Little Help From Our Friends
2005-05-26
... For me, after three years in southern Afghanistan, something felt not quite right about the more virulent demonstrations across the country. The instant tip-off was that they were initially led by university students. Afghans and Westerners living in Kandahar have often wondered at the number of Pakistani students in what passes for a university here. The place is pathetically dilapidated, the library a locked storeroom, the medical faculty bereft of the most elementary skeleton or model of the human body. Why would anyone come here to study from Pakistan? Our unshakable conclusion has been that the adroit Pakistani intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, is planting operatives in the student body. These students can also provoke agitation at Pakistani officials' behest, while affording the government in Islamabad plausible deniability. ...
I'm not too sure how "unshakable" the conclusion is. They can also be agents of the Pak religious parties, who're busy running their own shenanigans in Pakland, Kashmir, India, Nepal and Bangla, sometimes in concert with ISI and sometimes, I strongly suspect, on their own. See today's festivities at good old P.U. The key point is that they and the bulk of the "Taliban" are Paks.
Posted by:john

#8  amen Pap!
Posted by: Frank G   2005-05-26 19:50  

#7   Common decency? An upbringing that teaches one to be tolerant, "love thy neighbor" ?

Wasting your time, John. Religions to 'moose are like blacks to David Duke.
Posted by: Pappy   2005-05-26 18:41  

#6  Theocracy is here. We have de jure punishment for blasphemy in Italy, with the Falacci trial, and de facto prior restraint of blasphemers in Seattle. Funny that none of the Bush-haters anticipated it would be an exclusively muslim theocracy.
Posted by: thibaud (aka lex)   2005-05-26 13:17  

#5  Whether it's the ISI or Pak religious parties (some of which are ISI), the point is that it's Pakiwakis who are behind it. We need a security fence around the whole place. Let 'em kill each other and leave the rest of the world alone.
Posted by: Spot   2005-05-26 13:00  

#4  What puzzles me is why some US preacher hasn't tried to whip up a Korn defiling.

Never mind preachers, what about "artists"?

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=5530


Last December Geissel was invited by Kirsten Anderson, owner the Seattle art gallery Roq la Rue, to mount "Koran with a Buddha Shape Carved Into It" in her exhibition titled "Gods and Monsters", in which work interpreting religious icons in provocative ways are on display through the end of January. The exhibition includes a painting depicting the Virgin of Guadalupe as a "com-hither" nude (Lisa Petrucci’s "Naughty Guadalupe") and a pencil drawing of Frankenstein wearing a crown of thorns (Chuck Demorat’s "Frankenkriest"). Geissel welcomed the "Gods and Monsters" show as a perfect fit for his own work.

Prior to mounting "Koran with a Buddha Shape Carved Into It", Anderson and Geissel did discuss potential risk in showing such a piece. The quality of the work, however, outweighed any reservations either of them might have entertained. For his part, Geissel was impressed with Anderson’s seemingly genuine commitment to edgy, risk-taking artists.

On public display, Geissel’s Koran made it through the few days prior to "Gods and Monsters" December 7th opening night without incident. In fact the piece garnered mostly praise. Geissel was especially happy to receive positive comments from Seattle’s internationally respected art curator Larry Reid. The Friday opening of "Gods and Monsters" was by all accounts a success with Geissel’s carving getting its share of positive notice.

The following Monday Geissel received a phone call from Anderson asking him to come remove his piece from the Roq la Rue Gallery.

What had happened? Had Anderson received threats? No. Anderson simply told Geissel she just didn’t feel safe displaying his piece.

*snip*

"Researching a recent article about how art that has shocked the rest of the country hasn't raised an eyebrow in Seattle, Seattle Post-Intelligencer art critic Regina Hackett visited Roq la Rue and was particularly taken with Geissel's piece. ("For all the excesses committed in God's name," she told me, "a little sorrow is welcome.") She decided not to include it in her article, largely because she thought it irresponsible to feature such a work--and she told Roq la Rue owner Kirsten Anderson so. ‘"I was afraid to publicize it, because Kirsten sits there alone in the gallery,"’ Hackett said. ‘"It's a particular kind of flag to a tiny group of people."’ Anderson, after talking to a lot of people and thinking it over, asked Geissel to remove the work--which he did, albeit unhappily."


Evvybody's 'fraid of a fatwa.
Posted by: Robert Crawford   2005-05-26 12:48  

#3  The easiest thing to do is lower ourselves to their idiot medieval level, however, whatever satisfaction we gained would be offset by an increase in troop fatalities. I think this is why the Bush administration is bending over backwards to patronize these Muslim morons.
Posted by: canaveraldan   2005-05-26 11:20  

#2  Common decency?
An upbringing that teaches one to be tolerant, "love thy neighbor" ?

One cannot equate the islamic fundos with christian ones, or jewish ones, or buddhist ones, or hindu ones.

islam is unique...
Posted by: john   2005-05-26 11:15  

#1  What puzzles me is why some US preacher hasn't tried to whip up a Korn defiling. Are they afraid that some Moslem would track them down? Guaranteed they would get the national, maybe international limelight for a while, and possibly big bucks. So what's holding them back?
Posted by: Anonymoose   2005-05-26 11:00  

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