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| For Christ's sake, Flush! | |
Guantanamo guards were in the poo over allegations in Newsweek that soldiers
had put copies of the Koran on toilets to upset the inmates, and (horror of
horrors) even flushed some down the loo. This had the expected respons: cries of 'desecration!' from the
Religion of Peace; riots which killed over a dozen people in Afghanistan
before spreading to Pakistan and Indonesia; and frantic efforts by the
Whitehouse and US state department to calm the situation, declaring that any
"perpetrators of the abuses will be held responsible". Art lovers may remember a related incident in Melbourne in 1997. The Victorian
Art Gallery put on an exhibition for painter Andrew Serrano, including his work
'Piss Christ' - a painting of a crucified Jesus immersed in the artist's own
urine. Admittedly this was some time ago, and we've all passed a lot of water under
the bridge since then, but it's interesting to recollect the responses. The
Catholic Church went to court to try to stop the (government owned) art gallery
from displaying the work, lots of Melbourneans took the artists picture, and
one loony damaged the artist's work. Stupid behavior perhaps, but it was all
calculated to gain publicity, no-one was no-one was attacked, no-one was hurt,
and an obscure artist got his ten minutes of fame on talkback radio. The Left at the time mocked the Catholic church, and made proclamations about
freedom of speech. The quiet response at the time was 'what if the work
was Snot Crescent Moon, or Shit Digeredoo? Would freedom of speech remain the
dominant paradigm?' Apparently not. Desecration of the Koran is punishable by death in Afghanistan
and Pakistan, and it seems that the Kaffir are expected to follow Islamic law
even in non-Muslim countries. The fact that Newsweek later retracted their Koranic desecration claims, and
said that their original report was based "only on the testimony of detainees"
didn't make any difference of course. The outrage, and the violence promise to
continue. The truth rarely gets in the way of a good story, and even less often
gets in the way of religious zealotry. Another report said that inmates had deliberately clogged their own toilets
with pages of the Koran as a protest. Maybe. It will take some time to flush out
the truth.
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