Protests over Mohammad cartoons reach Venezuela

[sabra]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N10359428.htm

Protests over Mohammad cartoons reach Venezuela


CARACAS, Venezuela, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Around 200 mainly Muslim protesters marched to the Danish Embassy in Caracas on Friday and burnt a Danish and an American flag, as protests over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad spread to Latin America.

The demonstrators left a prayer session at a Caracas mosque and marched together, chanting in Arabic, to the embassy where they doused a Danish and an American flag with gasoline and set them alight on the building's steps.

It was the first such demonstration in Latin America in a sweeping global protest over the cartoons that has brought tens of thousands of Muslims to the streets from Jakarta to Nairobi, killing at least 11 people so far.

The drawings, considered blasphemous by many Muslims, were first published in a Danish newspaper, but have since appeared in a number of other publications in Europe.

[Lance_Boyle]

1. ***snarf***

"burnt a Danish and an American flag"

I think they really mean "burnt Danish and American flags" or "burnt a Danish flag and an American flag." Or maybe it really WAS a pastry protest...

[htuttle]

3. You laugh, but...

...Pastry makes an excellent fuel.

See:
Strawberry Poptart Blowtorches
http://www.pmichaud.com/toast/

[lapfog_1]

6. I've been wondering if the Islamic nations

would insist on renaming the pastry known 'round the world as a "danish" (except, probably, Denmark) and insist on calling it a "jihad roll", much in keeping with our "Freedom Fries" of a couple of years ago...

[Peace Patriot]

2. How convenient that this event, which makes Muslims seem foolish and

dangerous (to me anyway), would occur on cue for Bush, with Bush trying to cover up numerous crimes and scandals by playing the "terrorism" card (i.e., the phony L.A. story), and trying to drum up hatred of Iran. I just don't believe any more that news items like this that get big play by the war profiteering corporate news monopolies, and serve the interests of warmongers and war profiteers, are anything but manipulated. I don't know much about the Danes who printed the cartoons, but I'd like to know more, and I do suspect them, OR, more likely, those who promulgated the cartoons, of being part of a dirty Cointelpro type black op to stir up trouble and cause riots.

Of particular interest to the Bushites would be to divide Iran from its European supporters--especially from those who want peace in the Middle East (lots of Europeans!)--and to reduce the influence of large Muslim populations in some European countries. Muslim riots against some cartoons seem exactly timed to offend the people in democratic countries who cherish freedom of speech and separation of church and state.

I heard an Islamic nutcase they had on the BBC calling for the Danish gov't to turn the cartoonists over to a Sharia court. They could as well have a nutcase from the Chalcedon Foundation (pet project of rightwing nutcase billionaire Howard Ahmanson, who also was the initial funder for electronic voting firm ES&S, which counts about half of the nation's votes with "trade secret" programming) who would rail about instituting the death penalty for homosexuals. Everybody has their nutcases (although not very many countries have them counting everbody's votes). I could get real riled up myself by bigoted cartoons against gays or blacks or women, although, unlike some Muslims, in my view (and that of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison), censorship is never the answer.

Anyway, my point is: Why this, now? It just seems too, too, too-oo-oo-oo well-designed to make nuking Iran seem like a reasonable idea.

[ECH1969]

4. Do you think these Muslims in Venezuela were US plants?

[pocket]

5. maybe not, but the controversy in general is

Just ask who gains from this.

[High Plains]

8. I'd argue that both Washington and Teheran gain from this

On the one hand, the whole controversy helps bridge the gap between the US and Europe on the relative danger of the "Muslim threat."

On the other hand, it looks like Iran is using this to help solidify its position as the most radical defender of Islam.

[genie_weenie]

12. That's interesting

US does have alot of SOCOM forces in South America, and the CIA has god knows what down there. Get a few together, make CNN focus on this and not Jack what-his-name... Or any of the 6,713 other scandals of BushCo.

[Mika]

7. Part of PNAC/Bushco's "agitate, then attack" plan.

I seem to remember reading about use of that exact phraseology in some PNAC/Bushco/Pentagon plan here on DU years ago.

[PsychoDad]

9. Peaceful demonstration makes them look foolish?

Oh, I forgot... Muslims are supposed to sit back and be quiet when they are offended. Free speech for cartoonists but not Muslims?

I applaud my South American Brothers and Sisters for their use of non-violent protest.

Peace

[auagroach]

10. Rules Clarification needed please.

Excuse me, it's against my nature to report anybody but I need to learn the rules here. The poster uses the phrase "Islamic nutcase" without it being pulled so is it safe to assume a phrase such as "Jewish nutcase" or "Israeli nutcase" or "Zionist nutcase" or "Christian nutcase" is allowed?

[Igel]

13. I've used the words

"Jewish loonie" and "Xian loonie" in the past. Possibly "Zionist loonie", but maybe not. Almost certainly "Israeli fruitcake".

Miss Manners had an apropos story about a woman who was wearing a strapless gown at a glitzy event, apparently in a private residence. There was a buffet, with food and a punch bowl. The woman entered the room, tripped, fell the length of the room and landed face down in the punch, simultaneously popping out of the top of her gown.

The question was, "Was it improper to laugh and make a fuss, or should we all have just acted as though nothing had happened?"

The advice was that to not laugh would, in fact, been nearly impossible, and not remark the incident would have been to say that such a thing was unremarkable, standard fare--whether for that woman, or women in general. This advice applies in many situations.

To say that a nutcase, Islamic or otherwise, is in no way a nutcase is to imply that his (her) is merely acceptable, standard, run-of-the-mill behavior. It may be an impolitic way of saying "a person holding a minority view among Muslims, one so extreme that the person can almost be considered insane", but is hardly defamatory of a larger set of people.

[rayofreason]

11. Sorry...

...but that is just too silly.

A corollary to Ocham's razor is to take idiots at face value. And that is where I put these protestors, even if they didn't burn a pastry.

Boy, someone made a killing in the Danish flag production business!