Lest anyone think that the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten has the market cornered on tasteless anti-Muslim provocation, we have to look no farther than Clear Channel Media’s right-wing Los Angeles talk radio station KFI, whose host, Bill Handel, mocked the Muslims killed in a Mecca stampede during Hajj this year:
At least 363 pilgrims were killed and hundreds injured in a stampede Jan. 12 in Mecca, where thousands of people were rushing to carry out a symbolic ritual of stoning the devil.
According to the civil liberties group [CAIR], Handel imitated the people screaming and then joked that the Muslims at the pilgrimage should use a helicopter to monitor pilgrimage traffic, as is done in Los Angeles with the freeways.
The group quoted Handel as saying: “This is Mahmoud Nolan. Hajj in the Sky. There is an accident. … Ali lost his sandal on the on-ramp to the Martin Luther King Jr. freeway.”
(KABC-TV)
After the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights group demanded an apology from Handel and KFI, our right-wing friends at Little Green Footballs were up in arms. They urged both to stand fast against the “radical Islamic front group” (whose leader, Ibrahim Hooper, meets with George Bush and is consulted by the White House on matter related to the U.S. Muslim community).
I guess LGF doesn’t carry enough juice though because Clear Channel and Handel “caved to CAIR” as Charles Johnson’s headline whined. Clear Channel took a look at those burning Danish diplomatic buildings in Lebanon and Syria and decided that discretion was the better part of valor. Not to mention, they might’ve been afraid of an FCC license challenge by CAIR when KFI’s license came up for renewal.
If anyone cares to hear a juvenile right-wing bigot eat crow on air, you may listen to Handel’s apology. KFI’s right-wing corporate parent also tasted of the bird:
Clear Channel Communications Regional Vice President Greg Ashlock wrote in part: (Clear Channel is KFI’s parent company.)
“We would like to offer a sincere apology to members of the Muslim Community for recent comments airing on our station related to the unfortunate deaths for those taking part in the Hajj. KFI AM 640 does not condone making light of the deaths of people engaged in religious observances…
“On this particular program, we crossed the line in reporting the Hajj incident in an insensitive manner. We have discussed the content and timing of this ‘bit’ extensively with Mr. Bill Handel and his crew and are confident that everyone now understands the gravity of the situation. Mr. Handel expresses his sincere apology for the insensitive remarks.”
Does anyone want to argue that mimicking the screams of dying Muslims on air exemplifies one of those sacred rights of freedom of speech that our country was founded to uphold?
LGF also denigrates CAIR as a “fringe Islamic group.” One has to wonder whether Johnson has any idea of American-Muslim groups and whether there are any he would find mainstream or acceptable to his way of thinking? And if CAIR is a fringe radical front group does that make the Anti-Defamation League (a comparable American-Jewish group) the same within the Jewish world? You can see by the analogy that LGF’s overheated phrasemongering doesn’t even have a semblance of rhetorical reality.
Hat tip to LGF Watch, those intrepid monitors of Johnson hate.
In answer to the question
“Does anyone want to argue that mimicking the screams of dying Muslims on air exemplifies one of those sacred rights of freedom of speech that our country was founded to uphold?”
it’s interesting that you choose to use the word “sacred.” In this country, references to the term “sacred” imply not Christianity, but American civil religion (which has nothing to do with Christianity).
I argue, as a U.S.A. Christian, that the United States was founded to protect the mimicking of Muslim screams, the placement of a cross in urine, the denial of the Holocaust, and, no less importantly, the ridicule of the civil religionists who pray to the American flag and think that Canadians are grossly inferior.
At the same time, there is the question of what we *should* do. This I believe is a matter left to the individual. If NBC wants to air a parody show called Crucifixins, they can choose to do that. And Donald Wildmon can choose to tell them that they’re a bunch of idiots for doing so. And when NBC retracts, Donald Wildmon can dance around like a loonybird and say “Yeah! Yeah!” And I can make fun of Wildmon.
And people can call Bill Handel a right winger, which is extremely amusing to those who have heard him. Freedom of speech allows people to be wrong.
Ontario Emporer: Personally, I don’t know what the term “American civil religion” means. America is a predominantly Christian country and minorities like Jews, Muslims & others are made to feel it alomst every day. And certainly many if not most evangelicals would have Christianity become America’s official religion if they had their druthers.
I believe in freedom of the press & speech. But since radio and television stations hold federal licenses which provide for operating standards, Bill Handel and his idiocy is in a slightly different category than standard freedom of press issues. While he has the right as an individual to say almost whatever he likes; when he uses the public airwaves to insult Muslims then he may be endangering KFI’s FCC license. That is one of the reasons he & the station apologized as I noted in the post.
NBC CANNOT air a showing parodying the crucifixion for the reason I outlined above. Besides, half of the country would descend on their corporate headquarters in a rage that would quickly end the life of such a show & the careers of all those who created it & put it on the air.
Another view surfaced today on Blogdex, the MIT diffusion index, referencing this blog:
http://egyptiansandmonkey.blogspot.com
The blogger found the cartoons in an Egyptian newspaper of wide circulation in October 2005. He lists the countries in the Muslim world, their current social issues, and opines that the cartoons were used as bait to divert the citizenry from the real issues.
You may not see these tactics from Bush/Rove on the West Coast, but in the bible belt the tactic works nicely at the National and State level. One generation with broadband will solve many of these problems. If any readers have clout in any corner of the world, consider helping the youth gain broadband access.
Voltaire comes to mind when reflecting on the events of the past 2 weeks.
“”As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities.”
I look at some of the bloody messes, and I mean literally bloody messes, that pass for blogs these days, and I can’t imagine how this is supposed to be helpful. Am I supposed to get riled into a frenzy of anger and inspired to harm a Muslim? Quite the contrary occurs. It’s not that I’m ready to go around embracing people whose motives I haven’t established, but neither am I whipped into a pathological, patriotic vitriol of mob mentality.
I prefer this Voltaire quote,
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
The USA Military needs soldiers. My own son voluteered, but could not serve due to a medical condition. He is serving his community as a police officer.
Somewhere in the middle of repression of free speech, and the pie fight free-for-all, are people who work for a living at trying to keep the peace. I believe, as a mother, and an educated woman that there is a responsible road to unfettered self-expression, and freedom of the press. We all have our agendas, our desires, but would it be too much to ask to just take a deep breath?
RICHARD –
America is a predominantly Christian country and minorities like Jews, Muslims & others are made to feel it alomst every day.
I totally disagree and since I know Richard lives in LA a place hardly considered the Bible Belt it’s safe to assume he’s being quite the melodramatic.
America is a Christian country and unlike Europe has a much better history of religious tolerance.
And certainly many if not most evangelicals would have Christianity become America’s official religion if they had their druthers.
Another exagerration and a very unprofessional one at that. Most Evangelicals are in fact moderate and reasonable. I am very friendly with a Rabbi that has worked with them his entire life and says there is only a small minority that is fundamentalist and which he is concerned about.
While he has the right as an individual to say almost whatever he likes; when he uses the public airwaves to insult Muslims then he may be endangering KFI’s FCC license. That is one of the reasons he & the station apologized as I noted in the post.
Really? Well if that’s the case than I guess South Park and the Simpsons should be pulled off the air tomorrow? And for that matter they should can almost all of Prime Time Television bcs conservative Christians and Jews as well as the Amish would likely find the gratuitious violence and sexual content insulting to their “sensibilities”
You don’t sound like such a 1rst Ammendment liberal right about now?
NBC CANNOT air a showing parodying the crucifixion for the reason I outlined above. Besides, half of the country would descend on their corporate headquarters in a rage that would quickly end the life of such a show & the careers of all those who created it & put it on the air.
I don’t know “what country” you live in. But the NY Times just showed Mary covered in Dung and I don’t see this so-called hysteria from the Christian world? I also recall there have been several films made mocking the Christian religion. I’m not religious but it seems the main buffoon and bad guy is usually them “ignorant right-wing bible belters”? Not that they don’t sometimes deserve a good rivving but you’re presentation of reality is wayyyy off. And I guess this is the case bcs you live in LA and “believe” you have a good grasp on different crowds but are subject to the same judgmental prejudice that you then criticize others for.
Once again your purview of the “oppressive Christians” and the downtrodden Jews and Muslims in the US is a fantasy in my opinion.
And you of course completely discount the domineering and brutish over the top nature of a good sized minority in the Muslim world and a good more that sympathize with them. This “cartoon controversy” I think proves that for anyone that really paid attention.
And reading some liberal Muslim bloggers who state this is so is even more convincing.
Mike: I wrote–
to which you replied: “I totally disagree.” And on what basis are you disagreeing? Not Jewish. Not Muslim. So how would you know how Jews or Muslims are made to feel in this country?
Next, Mike writes that I live in LA. He was a troll here a ways back & during that period he constantly noted that I live in LA-LA land, etc. The same old stupid L.A. banalities. Only problem? I don’t live in Los Angeles. I don’t live in California. But Mike, don’t let that stand in yr way. Keep those inane California/LA insults coming.
That’s all relative now isn’t it. As the home of the Holocaust, Crusades & Spanish Inquisition it’d be hard to beat Europe as the all time most hostile to religious tolerance. So yes, America is a more tolerant country. But how much more tolerant? The Ku Klux Klan hated Catholics, Blacks & Jews. The Know Nothings hated Catholics. Today, evangelicals make no bones about wishing Christianity was the official religion of this country. They make no bones about wanting their fundamentalist view of Christianity enshrined in our legal system. Just how tolerant is this country?
Evangelicals are moderate and reasonable? There is one liberal evangelical group, a single one. The rest are about as conservative as they come. Everyone except Mr. Mike knows that evangelicals form the ideological/theological backbone of the right-wing Republican movement.
As for rabbis working with evangelicals, I’ve profiled two of them here–Yechiel Eckstein & Daniel Lapin. They’ve never met an evangelical they didn’t like. So how credible are they?
To my knowledge, no South Park or Simpsons character has ever imitated the screams of dying Muslims on air. If they had, I have no doubt there would a station license challenge. In fact, I strongly doubt the TV network would allow production of the scene to begin with.
What poor memory you have, Mike. You don’t remember Rudy Giuliani’s huge stink about that painting in which he threatened to withdraw the city’s budget allocation for the Brooklyn Museum? You don’t recall Christian groups being up in arms about that? Hmmm.
Oh, please do tell us the “liberal Muslim bloggers” who call their religion “brutish,” “domineering” & “over the top.” I’d really like to see this.
ONE MORE TRY WITHOUT BOLDS THIS TIME?
Rich,
A troll?
Hurling insults when I didn’t call you a name?
How soon after are comments simply deleted, being the big 1rst Amendment proponent that you are?
How do you know what religion I am? How do you know what religion my family and good friends are? Do you know what community I grew up in and what interaction I had?
I would say my handle on different communities in this country is a lot better than the liberal fantasyworld you live in. Since many of my friends on the Upper West Side have a similar simplistic view of this country since they’ve never been out of the like community your simplistic unchallenged America purview is not surprising – your dripping arrogance is another issue.
Yes considering part of the reason the Pilgrims left was religious intolerance.
I wonder how much of the Arab press in today’s world would compare to the Ku Klux Klan’s imagery of Blacks and Jews and Catholics? Much of today’s Arab and Muslim media consistently goes beyond this.
I’m not interested in engaging in this debate as it’s more unrelevant. Whether or not one believes abortion should be legal or not and whether that qualifies one as a “fundamentalist Christians” is probably among your definitions…
yes, Rich you are just quite the intellectual and quite the defensive petty one as well……….
yes those ‘evil’ evangelicals are oppressing the jews and muslims… lol!
So your addendum to the 1rst Amendment is –
This 1 particular case of “free speech” should not be allowed…
Is this your legal brief you would prepare for the Supreme Court?
Funny I remember the ACLU defending Neo Nazis right to march in Skokie and I imagine they and Vanguard do print a lot more vile things than that.
I also remember Penthouse drew a picture of Fartwell (as he referred to him) f***ing his mother in an outhouse. The Supreme Court upheld Penthouse’s rights in that case to Falwell’s dismay. Btw, Fallwell has since become friendly with the guy at his own initiative.
WAIT? You mean the Evangelical Ministers called for a Jihad against Free Speech and urged members to riot in NYC, burn down buildings and the Museum stab some Imams and violently riot throughout the country?
I MUST HAVE MISSED THAT ONE EH?
Yeah, Rich you can start by reading Sam at Egyptian Sandmonkey whom I have personally met. He’s the one with FreedomforEgyptians, whom I have spoken with as well, who broke the story that the Egyptian newspapers ran the same pictures back in November! That would ummmmmm……………….. 3 months before the Arab League planned out this Muslim show of muscle.
You can also read Bigpharaoh.blogspot.com
You might find their views dissappointing and may want to enlighten them as to the errors of their ways. You see unlike you they are very respectful and tolerant of vivacious dissent from their views…
I would strongly suggest leaving some of your strong commentary over there and seeing how well it holds up.
Best Regards,
Mike