Cologne - Carnival parades accompanied by the shrieks of crowds and the thump of loud music drew crowds of an estimated 3 million people to three of Germany's western cities Monday, but there were also complaints at crude humour by float designers. A Muslim leader criticized a float in the city of Dusseldorf that satirically suggested Islam was not peaceful.
The float carried two identical cartoon-style papier-mache figures, each wearing a suicide-bomber's belt and carrying a dagger and a pistol. The first was labelled 'the cliche,' the second was labelled 'the reality.'
Heh.
Both scowling figures were labelled 'mullahs,' a term used to describe both Shiite and Sunni clergy. The float was part of a carnival parade watched by more than half a million people in the western city of Dusseldorf.
'This hasn't got anything to do with humour,' said Aiman A Mazyek, general secretary of the National Council of Muslims in Germany. 'The message it gives me is: 'We love our prejudices, we'll stand up for them, even if they are flagrantly untrue.''
"And we'll kill you and enslave your family if you say otherwise, kufrs!"
However 'as a born-and-bred "Rhinelander", I wouldn't get too upset about it,' said Mazyek. 'I'm sure most of the revellers don't want to spread anti-Islam cynicism.'
"I mean, come on, they're germans, they don't have a sense of humor, it must be a mistake".
Mockery and rule-breaking is a key element in carnival, which is celebrated mainly in Germany's heavily populated Rhineland where Catholics form a majority. The floats, built by clubs of amateurs for the Dusseldorf parade, often have crude messages.
Another float showed Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler with his pants off and represented a far-right-wing German party as his bodily waste.
How brave.
In Mainz, a float depicted US President George W Bush being held down and spanked by the Statue of Liberty.
Did the muzzies complain?
The biggest parade of carnival floats, bands and clowns, in Cologne, was too long to fit on the 6.5-kilometre route.
The head of the procession reached the dispersal zone before the tail of the parade had departed from the marshalling area.
Sigrid Krebs, an organizer of the Cologne parade, said it comprised 99 floats, 124 bands, 440 horses and about 10,000 people who were occupied during the parade throwing gifts of flowers, chocolates and sweets to the crowds.
The festivities climax on Monday, known in German as Rosenmontag. The event has its origins as a prelude to the Catholic fasting season of Lent, which begins in 2007 on Wednesday, but many area Protestants and Muslims attend the parades.
Many of the revellers in the three cities dressed as pirates, reflecting the popularity in Germany of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
Clearly, this is an attack against the Prophet™ and his Defensive Jihad™ against loot-carrying caravans. Obviously, they must be killed, or else.