Taiwan, China, and other things. Recovered from the defunct TypePad platform.
It’s official: Sudanese Muslims have now reduced their religion to Monty Python sketch material.
"Our chief weapon is surprise…surprise and fear…fear and surprise…. Our two weapons are fear and surprise…and ruthless efficiency…. Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency…and an almost fanatical devotion to the Prophet…. Our *four*…no… *Amongst* our weapons…. Amongst our weaponry…are such elements as fear, surprise…. I’ll come in again."
Long-time readers will know that this blog has had a soft spot for Denmark ever since that country came under assault from global Islamic totalitarianism last year. Pleasing to see that Taiwan received some support from Denmark recently:
The Jutland Post contributed a half-page in last Tuesday’s edition to publishing readers’ letters in support of Taiwan. Most of the letters were written to rebuke Jin Zhijian (金智健), a counselor with the Chinese embassy in Copenhagen, who claimed in a letter published in the Post dated Sept. 6 that "according to the Cairo Declaration [1943] and the Potsdam Proclamation [1945], Taiwan is part of the People’s Republic of China."
Jin wrote to the Danish daily in response to Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang (黃志芳), who published an article in the Post on Aug. 25 about the nation’s bid to enter the UN using the name "Taiwan."
Now, I’m not sure that one foreign paper publishing a few pro-Taiwan letters qualifies as news, but the story concludes on an intriguing note:
Also responding to Jin’s claim, Pia Kjaersgaard, chairwoman and cofounder of the Danish People’s Party — the third largest political party in Denmark, which regards itself as center-right — almost immediately issued a statement saying that Jin’s letter to the newspaper was an attempt to cover up the fact that the People’s Republic of China’s sovereignty has not for a single day extended to the island of Taiwan.
Kjaersgaard said that from now on, the Danish People’s Party would extend every assistance to help Taiwan be accepted as a normal member of the international community.
Kind of makes me wonder exactly how many other foreign political parties are Taiwan-friendly. Of course, I realize that it’s easy for opposition parties to adopt pro-Taiwan planks; it’s a whole lot harder to hold that position once you’ve won an election and the Chinese ambassador starts pounding his shoe on your desk, threatening your country’s commercial interests.
Still, the Danes showed a lot of guts in not caving to Muslim boycotts during the Battle of Khartoon. It’s not inconceivable that they might someday stick to their guns in the face of Chinese bullying as well.
Postscript: A quick google reveals that the Jutland Post is the English name of Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper which first published the Mohammed cartoons in 2005.
The story’s from a few weeks ago.
Bilateral trade between Taiwan and Denmark
set a new record of US$907.8 million in 2006 thanks to the signing of
a double taxation avoidance treaty between the two countries in
August, 2005, according to Taiwan’s representative to the North
European country.
Those numbers, of course, could easily change – particularly if some Danish newpaper takes it upon itself to publish cartoons of the Prophet Chiang Kai-shek. Peace Be Upon Him.
British Islamofascist Umran Javed was convicted of soliciting murder after he tried to convince a jury that his cries of, "Bomb, bomb Denmark! Bomb, bomb U.S.A.!" during the Danish Mo-toon crisis were merely harmless slogans, and that he didn’t LITERALLY mean what he said.
Greg Gutfield has a bit of helpful advice:
In the future, radical fundamentalists (or Radfuns, for short) could avoid confusion by shouting, instead: "Bomb, bomb Denmark, Bomb, Bomb USA, in a purely figurative sense, of course!" [Emphasis added]
Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but sometimes ya gotta CYA.
(I believe video of Javed and his fellow Gandhi-wannabees can be found here.)
All this reminded me of a Dec 7/06 China Post editorial, which defended the right of members of the Taiwanese military to threaten the president of their country with death:
A drillmaster was recently arrested for participating in an anti-President Chen Shui-bian rally in September wearing his full dress uniform and for distributing a letter in which he stated the "army will turn their guns inwards" [on the president in the event of a war]…
A member of the MILITARY participated in a political rally? I’d say that’s Strike #1. Strike 2 would be doing it in full dress uniform. And handing out literature saying that in wartime, the Taiwanese army would SIDE WITH COMMUNIST CHINA and kill the Taiwanese president?
Strike 3, you’re outta there.
But that’s just the way I see it. The China Post however, invoked the Umran Javed Defense:
In our opinion, the remark "the army will turn their guns inwards" was meant mainly to remind the public of a danger and can hardly be interpretted as the incitement of a rebellion.
No wonder the capitulationist People First Party threatened to freeze the entire budget of the Ministry of National Defense for putting Tung in the brig. Why, the way the paper put it, the man’s a HERO.
And if you disagree, you’re obviously some kind of fascist, or something:
What happened to Tung became a focus of attention because his arrest smacks of a return to martial law rule.
[…]
[It] reflects an attempt by the government to suppress the display of discontent by members of the Armed Forces. The attempt is a violation of human rights and represents a slip back on the road to democracy.
Expect the China Post to do a major rethink on this issue if a KMT president is elected in ’08. At that point, it’ll suddenly become VERY UNCOOL for the army to "turn its guns inward".
UPDATE (Jan 11/06): Thanks go to Tim Maddog, for finding the link to the China Post editorial in question. Truth be told, my biggest concern in writing this post was that readers unfamiliar with Taiwan might think I was distorting the Post‘s position, or even making the whole thing up.
The link has been added, so readers can decide for themselves.
Ahmed Akkari, one of the Danish Muslim clerics responsible for instigating the "The Battle of Khartoon" earlier this year, recently suggested murdering a moderate Muslim leader in Denmark. He was quoted in Arabic:
"If [Naser Khader] becomes the Minister of Foreigners or Integration, why don’t we send out two guys to blow up him and his ministry?"
When he heard the news, Akkari gave a little smile and replied: Oh yeah? Prove it.
Well, Ahmed, you’re busted. Turns out you were being secretly taped in an automobile when you said it. The tape’ll soon be part of a French documentary.
Akkari’s reaction to the news? Backpedallin’ time!
"If they think I have said that, then I must have been jesting.
[…]
You also need to understand, from the context, that I wasn’t being serious because I usually don’t say stuff like that – not even in jest. But sometimes things happen."
So your excuse is that you were just joking? About what? About whether the moderate would actually GET a cabinet post? Or about whether you would only need TWO of your terrorist buddies to blow up the building?
As you might guess, Danish journalists could just SMELL the blood in the water:
Interviewer: Do you understand that it might be hard for Danes to accept that it’s not okay to make caricatures of Muhammed, but that it’s okay to threaten – in jest – to kill a Danish politician? (emphasis added)
Akkari: That’s a wrong conclusion and comparison to make of this.
Interviewer: Isn’t it very natural? You’ve been very angry, very offended that your prophet has been offended, but now you’ve – in jest – threatened to kill a politician.
There’s more, but you get the idea. Word is that the Danish "Islamic Faith Community" organization is now looking for a new spokesman.
Y’know, if members of the Religion of Peace™ need spokesmen, they really ought to start rejecting job applications from Imams who’ve lost their jobs as student teachers because they pinned 4th grade pupils to the ground and beat them until their faces were bloody.
But, they know their business…
Wanna be an intelligence analyst, but the CIA & KGB turned you down? There’s still hope.
Sounds like a joke, but one commenter had this to say:
Most corporations are trying to build similar functions…Disney runs a cruise line… Think of the symbolism for the jihadists…if they can slaughter infidels’ children at a Disney temple to materialism. Would you be giggling if this job were at a chemical plant, medical research lab or sea port? But how often have you taken your kids to any of those places?
It’s a sick, sad world.
Further adding to Iran’s lofty reputation for academic excellence, an Iranian professor has critically analyzed Tom and Jerry.
His conclusion?
Zionist plot, what did you think?
Here’s a few quotes from one of Professor Hasan Bolkhari’s interfaith relations lectures. If you check out the video, you’ll see Iranian university students in a lecture hall, earnestly taking notes:
"The Jewish Walt Disney Company gained international fame with this cartoon…"
"Some say that the main reason for making this very appealing cartoon was to erase a certain derogatory term that was prevalent in Europe."
[…]
"If you study European history…[the] Jews were degraded and termed ‘dirty mice.’ Tom and Jerry was made in order to change the Europeans’ perception of mice.
[…]
"The mouse [Jerry] is very clever and smart. Everything he does is so cute…This is exactly why some say it was meant to erase [the previous negative] image of mice from the minds of European children, and to show that the mouse is not dirty…"
I can see that he’s put A LOT of thought into this. But I’m puzzled by one thing, though. The good doctor says that "Jewish Disney" feverishly spent its valuable time and money just so that it could rehabilitate the unfavorable image of a few European rodents. But then that very same "Jewish Disney" turns around and undoes it all by remaking "The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy", which portrays mice as greedy, sneaky and manipulative puppetmasters.
Maybe the doc could use some of that valuable edjamacation to figure THAT ONE out for us.
[“Laughing Jerry” lost and replaced from original blog.]
UPDATE (Apr 6/06): Whoa, wonder how much grant money that prof’s been getting. Turns out Tom and Jerry were created by Warner Brothers, not the Disney company.
Facts sure are inconvenient things…
UPDATE (May 10/07): Another well-known Zionist organization, Hamas Al-Aqsa TV, seeks to further redeem the reputation of mice by featuring it’s own version of Mickey on a program for Palestinian children.
(Unlike the Disney version, however, Hamas Mickey calls for Islamic world domination and the annihilation of Jews.)
UPDATE (May 15/07): A Cox & Forkum cartoon on Hamas Mickey:
UPDATE (Jul 1/07): Amid the outcry, Farfur (otherwise known as Hamas Mickey) meets his end:
In the final skit, Farfour was beaten to death by an actor posing as an
Israeli official trying to buy Farfour’s land. At one point, Farfour called the
Israeli a "terrorist.""Farfour was martyred while defending his land," said Sara, the teen
presenter. He was killed "by the killers of children," she added.
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AsiaPundit has a piece informing us that Roger Rabbit is now banned in Beijing. Meanwhile, Imagethief reveals the secret backroom discussions that led to the ban. As for myself, I think Roger’s own words provide us with a clue as to why authoritarians of any stripe would want to silence a harmless ‘toon. For as Roger once astutely observed:
"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it’s the only weapon we have."
And that is what they fear.
Video of a Feb 3/06 anti-Danish demonstration in London. (Click on "Prophet Mohammed Cartoon Protest".) Hat tip to The Counterterrorism Blog.
One slogan:
"Europe, you will pay. Your annihilation is on its way."
(Their wordsmiths must really be sleeping on the job because that one’d roll off the tongue a whole lot smoother without the "your". Ordinarily I’d say heads oughtta roll, but in this case, someone might take me literally!)
Watch for the animated fellow at the 1:47 mark:
"And we can bomb little Denmark, so we can invade their country, and take their wives as war booty!"
(And yet, the National Organization for Women has been shamefully slow in backing this important policy initiative. Don’t they know that Mohammed was "the world’s first feminist"?)
More slogans:
"George Bush, go to hell! USA, go to hell!" (Cindy Sheehan – they’re stealin’ your stuff.)
"Denmark, watch your back! Bin Laden’s coming back!" (Catchy. Gets the point across, and the metering’s perfect.)
"Kill, kill Denmark! Kill, kill Denmark!" (Aww, come on, guys, you’re not even trying. That one doesn’t even rhyme!)
"Europe, you will pay! Mujhadeen are on their way!" (A bit derivative – too much like slogan #1.)
"UK, you will pay! 7/7’s on its way!" (But don’t you DARE question their patriotism, you McCarthyite.)
"We want Danish blood!" (And here’s me, with a hankerin’ for their CHEESE. Guess there’s no accounting for taste.)
"Khaibar, Khaibar, o’ Jew. The Army of Mohammed is coming for you." (We are smelly, we are hairy. We got a rhymin’ dictionary.)
"Today’s threat to our national security is not a matter of military weapons alone. We know of new methods of attack. The Trojan Horse. The Fifth Column that betrays a nation unprepared for treachery. Spies, saboteurs and traitors are the actors in this new strategy. With all of these we must and will deal vigorously."
– FDR, May 26, 1940, fireside chat
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Denmark’s been in the news of late, so The War Nerd has written a good, funny piece on Danish military history. Be warned, some of it’s a bit rude.