I follow the Facebook page of British Asians UK. It has great well balanced articles. Very fair in reporting. A good place to come for honest articles when the mainstream press is too afraid to be un-PC.
But some of the followers do not do it justice. The outrage over a Fireman Sam episode that contained a page depicting script from the Quran just shows, in the context of Islamic terrorism and honour killings, the professional victimhood, and hypocrisy, within our Muslim communities.
There were many sensible Muslim voices too – but it’s setting a low bar when I have to point that out.
None of the Muslims commenting have all the details about the episode, but the importance of this fact is a crucial part of the fiasco that is an embarrassment to any credibility Islam has.
The Charge
The charge is that a fictional character, Fireman Elvis, steps on, slips, and causes a page of the Quran to appear on screen; and that this is highly disrespectful to Muslims, Mohammed, Allah, Islam and goodness knows what.
You can look for the video, but of course that may disappear.
The Evidence
The most relevant screen shots are these (from Metro, but source credited to HIT Entertainment):
In other screen shots the page stepped on looks blank, or contains text that isn’t the Quran page in question. So that part of the charge, perhaps the most ‘disrespectful’ aspect, stepping on pages of the Quran, is entirely bogus.
What seems to be the case is that poor Elvis disturbs a pile of papers (supposedly a report) and one of them, the Quran page, flies up and is seen on screen. Some other blank pages and some with other unintelligible text and images are also shown, but there is, very clearly this ‘page of the Quran’.
Bear in mind that this is an animation, of fictional characters, a fictional report, with an animated page of a book, the Quran (which to non-believers is about a fictional deity), in which the text is not legible. Even the most technologically naive know from lots of internet exposure that a suitable arrangement of pixilated mush can appear to to anything our brains make it out to be.
But nevertheless, as this next clip of tweets shows (also taken from Metro’s page, but available on Twitter) it does seem to match the page in question.
How does Surah Mulk begin?
And conceal your speech or publicize it; indeed, He is Knowing of that within the breasts. Does He who created not know, while He is the Subtle, the Acquainted? … Do you feel secure that He who [holds authority] in the heaven would not cause the earth to swallow you and suddenly it would sway? Or do you feel secure that He who [holds authority] in the heaven would not send against you a storm of stones?
Now, given that opening, how does the whole thing look to you? I’ll tell you how it looks to me …
The Revelation
It looks very much like a Muslim animator has taken the sneaky opportunity, at HIT Entertainment’s request for unintelligible text, to pop a page of the Quran into the episode, knowing full well the ignorant non-Muslims will not spot it, but all good Muslims that diligently read the Quran, in Arabic, will spot it and have a little Islamic supremacist chuckle, a quiet “Allahu Akbar” at the marvel of Allah’s ability to spread his word.
It backfired. So many Muslims are intent on being victims they took it as obvious that the page was the one stepped on – they can’t let an opportunity go by to point the finger at the western persecution of the poor oppressed Muslims.
What it doesn’t look like is an attempt to disrespect the Quran, especially given the text that starts out telling Muslims straight up to “conceal your speech or publicize it … He is the Subtle“.
It also asks, “Do you feel secure” – Well, no. It seems all too many Muslims feel very insecure. I wonder why.
Muslims Embarrass Allah
I’ll just remind you, as if you really need it, of the terror that can be pinned on literal ‘interpretations’ of Islam: List of Islamist terrorist attacks. The list grows.
A common theme on many a leading light Islamic apologist page is that when an attack occurs their first post is one of sorrow and sympathy. But what then usually follows is a stream of tweets explaining why it has nothing to do with Islam or why it’s all the fault of the west.
The comments that follow such terrorist events are mixed, but include some Muslims supporting the attack – albeit with cautious language these days, if they are Muslims in the west, because the hate speech laws and rules apply to them too.
What you don’t get with each terror incident is the storm of Muslim outrage that Fireman Sam has elicited. And, based on the little information we have it could well be that a Muslim was using Fireman Sam to spread the word of Allah, rather than it being some western Satanic plot.
Priorities?
Blame?
Should we blame HIT Entertainment for not being able to distinguish Arabic script and a page of the Quran from the gibberish they asked for? No, certainly not. I blame Islamic supremacism for expecting those with not the slightest interest in the religion to recognise it; and I blame professional victim Muslims for the same reason.
Should we blame the animator? That depends. I have ZERO doubt that had Muslims been forewarned that a good Muslim had sneaked a page from the Quran into the story, to be recognised by diligent young Muslims that have these pages shoved in front of their faces for hours at a time, then they’d have not heaped blame but the utmost praise of Allah upon them:
However, even if it was put there by Satan himself, the young Muslims haven’t been as diligent as they should have been, since it’s a 2014 episode and nobody has been making a fuss until now.
I blame some Muslims…
I don’t blame the poorly educated heavily indoctrinated Muslims that have been persuaded that a book is so elevated with respect it amounts to the sin of idolatry.
I don’t blame the many sensible Muslims that have tried to dismiss this as insignificant, such as Maajid Nawaz, and many Muslim commenters on British Asians UK who recognise that this is a trivial matter in the context of the problems Islam has right now.
I do blame the many otherwise intelligent Muslims that are professional victims that bang on about human unity, why we shouldn’t criticise Islam, how we shouldn’t be divisive, and have highlighted this and used it as another divisive finger pointing tool.
And I do blame the jumped up self appointed Islamic organisations that are inciting Muslims to make a fuss about the slightest nonsense, while barely raising an eyebrow to the terror done in Islam’s name, that spend most of their time defending Islam come what may – you are a disgrace to whatever passes as ‘good’ Islam:
Deserved Response
Is it any wonder anybody with any sense has no respect for Islam, and no respect from some of its self appointed spokespeople. They give the rest of us all the warrant we need to take the piss.
You got off lightly. There are far more vicious piss take photoshopped images out there, and far more people laughing at Islam than there were the day before, even in these sorry times when Islam’s texts are so easily being used to incite the killing of Europeans – and, as a reminder, far more Muslims elsewhere in the world.
To all you secular democratic decent Muslims out there, I’m sorry you are stuck with such muppets as fellow Muslims. I know we non-Muslims are stuck with our own irrational angry groups that blame all Muslims for everything, and out barmy left that blame the west for everything, but you have a difficult enough case as it is actually rationalising your religion at all, let alone having to deal with its crazy violent stuff.
Being Offended Has Consequences
So, what if this Quran page was put there by some animator expressing his love for the Quran, Islam, Allah? Will he now be fired? What will be the Muslim response then – victimhood again, no doubt, for the sacking of a Muslim expressing his faith, a sacking caused by offended Muslims?
Rings a bell? Farkhunda, a Muslim girls, falsely accused of destroying a Quran, beaten to death, body run over, body stoned, body set alight. The ultimate consequence of religious fervour out of control.
And the Muslim women falsely accused of carrying beef on a train in India, and beaten, because cows are sacred – only to discover they were carrying buffalo meat?
The religiously offended are the most egregious bunch of idiots one can imagine. Some of them become terrorists, they are so easily inflamed.
Ramblings 