"Muslim Leaders Did Not See the Humor"

[BPSCG]

Link (http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-lipost0208,0,3675967.story)
A video by five students at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University depicting ski-masked "hostage-takers" speaking in cartoonish Middle Eastern accents has drawn condemnations from local Muslim leaders.

The university dismissed the students from their jobs as residence hall assistants in Brookville Hall, saying they had engaged in activity that violated their employment contract and that reflected "insensitivity."

In the video, which mocks those aired by real-life terrorists, five figures speak in exaggerated accents as they threaten their captive, a rubber duck dubbed "Pete," according to an account in the student newspaper that knowledgeable campus sources agreed was accurate. The subtext is understood to many on campus: The duck is the mascot for Brookville Hall.

While friends of those who created the film amphasized it was made in jest, Muslim leaders did not see the humor. They acknowledged students' right to freedom of speech, but said that right carries responsibility.

"I think it's not a prank," said Ghazi Khankan of Long Beach, a member of the board of the American Muslim Alliance, which he described as a regional and national group that advocates for Muslim participation in the political process. "Campuses are for enlightenment and for teaching us to get along, to respect each other, to know how to live together."Yes, if it involves a rubber duck named Pete, it is clearly "not a prank."

"Muslim leaders did not see the humor." Of that, I have no doubt (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433116/plotsummary).

[Geckko]

Link (http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-lipost0208,0,3675967.story)
Yes, if it involves a rubber duck named Pete, it is clearly "not a prank."

"Muslim leaders did not see the humor." Of that, I have no doubt (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433116/plotsummary).

So how did the "Muslim" leaders know that this was insensitive to Muslims, or did they just make an assumption that anyone making death threats with middle eastern accents could only be Muslims (as opposed to for example Christian Lebonese)?

This begs the question...

[ingoa]

:faint: A hostage duck is not funny!

I am not a muslim but for some reason I belive it is just not right! :catfight:

:D

[Darth Rotor]

"I think it's not a prank," said Ghazi Khankan of Long Beach, a member of the board of the American Muslim Alliance, which he described as a regional and national group that advocates for Muslim participation in the political process. "Campuses are for enlightenment and for teaching us to get along, to respect each other, to know how to live together."
Really, Ghazi? So you are the sole arbiter of what a campus is for? And what if Jerry Fallwell says that "campuses are for study, not for pro abortion marches and gay rights rallies." Should we honor that sentiment? Should we also demand that campuses are for study, and no sex is allowed? Should we also suggest that campuses are places of harmony, so professors and students should never ask embarassing questions of others? If that is the case, please hire Dr David Duke to give the next course on American culture, as visiting professor of cultural studies. :rolleyes: No need to ask the hard questions, you might offend him. :p

It's a prank, in poor taste but a prank nonetheless. I think its funny.

Ghazi, you are welcome to suck a fart.

DR

[brodski]

This begs the question...

[pedantic git] No it doesn't. To beg the question is to engage in circular reasoning, it is not generally accepted to mean "to raise the question".
[/pedantic git]

[Darth Rotor]

[pedantic git] No it doesn't. To beg the question is to engage in circular reasoning, it is not generally accepted to mean "to raise the question".
[/pedantic git]
Seconded.

DR

[BPSCG]

Thirded. I demand that mods be compelled to remove all posts which improperly use "beg the question" to the AAH thread.

[BPSCG]

:faint: A hostage duck is not funny!

I am not a muslim but for some reason I belive it is just not right! :catfight:

:DLook, Muhammad Ralph, a duck! Off with its head!

[WildCat]

Wasn't there some group in Iraq (maybe Afghanistan) that took a pic of a GI Joe doll (or a similar one) and claimed it was an American soldier they had taken hostage? I think we had a thread about it here.

[Ladewig]

[pedantic git] No it doesn't. To beg the question is to engage in circular reasoning, it is not generally accepted to mean "to raise the question".
[/pedantic git]

I was of that opinion also, until someone on this board showed me that it can mean both things. There are reference materials which indicate that it can mean "brings up the question."

[Ladewig]

Link (http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-lipost0208,0,3675967.story)
Yes, if it involves a rubber duck named Pete, it is clearly "not a prank."

"Muslim leaders did not see the humor." Of that, I have no doubt (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433116/plotsummary).

I do hope these Muslim leaders never watch "Team America: World Police." They won't find it nearly as funny as I did.

[hgc]

Should we also demand that campuses are for study, and no sex is allowed?
Pshaw!

[JamesDillon]

There are reference materials which indicate that it can mean "brings up the question."

Respectfully, those reference materials don't know what the hell they're talking about. I, for one, plan to resist this dilution of the phrase "to beg the question" to my last dying breath.

[chocolatepossum]

"Muslim leaders did not see the humor."

If we can't rely on religious leaders to have a sense of humour then who can we rely on? :eek:

Respectfully, those reference materials don't know what the hell they're talking about. I, for one, plan to resist this dilution of the phrase "to beg the question" to my last dying breath.

When a phrase is so widely used to mean something, I think we should just accept that that is one of its meanings. I would consider the original definition to be one used by academics more than anything else.

[Darth Rotor]

Respectfully, those reference materials don't know what the hell they're talking about. I, for one, plan to resist this dilution of the phrase "to beg the question" to my last dying breath.
I'll be right there, on your wing.

DR

[brodski]

I was of that opinion also, until someone on this board showed me that it can mean both things. There are reference materials which indicate that it can mean "brings up the question."

Yes, some reference sources indicated that it can be used both ways, and it won't be long until common usage means that the new use becomes the "correct use" and the using it to indicate the fallacy of "begging the question" becomes an anachronistic use. However I said the new usage of the term is not "generally accepted", which is currently the case.

[E.J.Armstrong]

Look, Muhammad Ralph, a duck! Off with its head!
Thank you for showing so clearly your real intentions.

[ponderingturtle]

Respectfully, those reference materials don't know what the hell they're talking about. I, for one, plan to resist this dilution of the phrase "to beg the question" to my last dying breath.

what about buxom as busty instead of pliant?

[Tony]

Stupid fundies, someone needs to punch that douchebag in the face.

The university dismissed the students from their jobs as residence hall assistants in Brookville Hall, saying they had engaged in activity that violated their employment contract and that reflected "insensitivity."

Really? It really says that they have to show "sensitivity" to hostage takers in their employment contract? I'd like to see that. Hopefully, the students will sue to get their jobs back.

[Tony]

Wasn't there some group in Iraq (maybe Afghanistan) that took a pic of a GI Joe doll (or a similar one) and claimed it was an American soldier they had taken hostage? I think we had a thread about it here.

Yes, there was. I completely forgot about that until you mentioned it.

[ponderingturtle]

Stupid fundies, someone needs to punch that douchebag in the face.



Really? It really says that they have to show "sensitivity" to hostage takers in their employment contract? I'd like to see that. Hopefully, the students will sue to get their jobs back.

Making fun of terrorists is totally insensitive. Next we will get Mel Brooks for hate crimes with the insensitive "Hitler on ice" and "Spanish inquisition" parts of history of the world part one.

That completely failed to show proper respect for the catholics. Hey the pope can take issue with them both, being the head of the renamed inquisition and a member of the Hitler youth.

[baron]

I don't know whether to be relieved or annoyed that the desire to assuage the affected outrage of these pompous bearded baboons is not exclusive to our own fair English land.

[BPSCG]

Stupid fundies, someone needs to punch that douchebag in the face.Yeah, that'll teach him to call us intolerant!

Y'know, Tony, violence never solved anything...

[ponderingturtle]

Yeah, that'll teach him to call us intolerant!

Y'know, Tony, violence never solved anything...

Yea, just ask the Carthaginians.

[Tony]

Yeah, that'll teach him to call us intolerant!

Y'know, Tony, violence never solved anything...

Ok, I take it back. Not a punch, but a slap. A hard slap. So he feels it through the thickness of his maingy muslim beard.

[BPSCG]

Yea, just ask the Carthaginians.Sorry, forgot to use my sarcasm font.

[Sir Robin Goodfellow]

Didn't the Ayatollah Khomeni once say that in Islam there is no room for play, that Islam is deadly serious about everything?

[Giz]

Didn't the Ayatollah Khomeni once say that in Islam there is no room for play, that Islam is deadly serious about everything?

I thought he said that "Islam is not a pacifist religion. It will hit back, and will sometimes hit back first!"

but he lived to a ripe old age, so he might have said other things now and then as well...


ps
"They acknowledged students' right to freedom of speech, but said that right carries responsibility."
- Translated; if you don't censor yourself, others will.
Quite a robust discourse they must have at that college.

[steverino]

Didn't the Ayatollah Khomeni once say that in Islam there is no room for play, that Islam is deadly serious about everything?

Hey, stop! That Ayatollah dude was funny.

Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Albert Brooks, Bill Hicks, George Carlin, the Ayatollah, all great comedians.

[hgc]

Didn't the Ayatollah Khomeni once say that in Islam there is no room for play, that Islam is deadly serious about everything?
I don't know about that, but I do know that the Taliban banned kite flying. That's some f-ed up stuff.

[Tony]

I don't know about that, but I do know that the Taliban banned kite flying. That's some f-ed up stuff.

The wind is evil. Only Allah has the power to make things fly.

[Tony]

"They acknowledged students' right to freedom of speech, but said that right carries responsibility."
- Translated; if you don't censor yourself, others will.
Quite a robust discourse they must have at that college.

Exactly. Someone should send this ******* a picture of a dog ******** on a koran.

[Beerina]

I don't know about that, but I do know that the Taliban banned kite flying. That's some f-ed up stuff.

Oh come on, it's not all that bad. The desire of some women to be educated, and of some men to keep them stupid and docile, are equally arbitrary, equally valid worldviews. Don't jam your Western cultural imperialism down our throats! Your views aren't superior! Get off your high horse. :mad:

[Psi Baba]

I guess those students are just a bunch of anti-terrorites. Apparently terrorists are a protected culture now. We must never imply that there might be Muslim terrorists out there because muslims might be offended. Why? Because it is the truth that offends most. This was demonstrated in a Peanuts cartoon many years ago (funny I recall it word-for-word after all these years--I guess the message must be important) in which Linus is calling out to Charlie Brown (who is out frame), "Charlie Brown, you blockhead!"
Lucy comes up to Linus and says, "Linus, you shouldn't call Charlie Brown a blockhead, it might offend him."
Linus says, "Offend him?"
Lucy says, "Sure, he might really be a blockhead."

[Checkmite]

This video might've been funny - I don't know, I'd have to see it. Just a bunch of people standing around a rubber duck pretending to talk with Arabic accents isn't funny.

[Skeptic]

Yeah, that'll teach him to call us intolerant!

Y'know, Tony, violence never solved anything...

Well, apart from defeating Hitler, and Tojo, and Mussolini, and...

If anything, history shows that while violence, too, often fails, it is only violence--actual or threathened--that ever defeated or deterred the bad guys, ever. Nothing except violence, it seems, ever solved anything important.

[Skeptic]

This video might've been funny - I don't know, I'd have to see it. Just a bunch of people standing around a rubber duck pretending to talk with Arabic accents isn't funny.

I guess you had to be there.

[Giz]

This video might've been funny - I don't know, I'd have to see it. Just a bunch of people standing around a rubber duck pretending to talk with Arabic accents isn't funny.

I dunno, the way you describe it... it sounds pretty funny....

Anyway, that shouldn't be the deciding factor in whether free expression is protected or not.

[brodski]

If anything, history shows that while violence, too, often fails, it is only violence--actual or threathened--that ever defeated or deterred the bad guys, ever. Nothing except violence, it seems, ever solved anything important.

Well, yes, violence, the threat of violence and the restriction and control of violence are the very basis of all societies, so anything which acts on a societal level is going to involve violence in one way or another.

[steverino]

Hey, stop! That Ayatollah dude was funny.

Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Albert Brooks, Bill Hicks, George Carlin, the Ayatollah, all great comedians.

He killed 'em in Isfahan.:D

[SimonD]

Perhaps we need to inject a bit of Muslim humour here and see if we can get a reaction.

If you don't use your rights you will loose them

I'll start the ball rolling

Entitled - What's the point??

[steverino]

Here's another one:

[Tony]

Muslim Humor:

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a71/Coverbetty/gorrell.gif

Party Time Warf:

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a71/Coverbetty/partytimewarf.jpg

[SimonD]

I thought that this was the best of the Danish cartoons

[Checkmite]

I dunno, the way you describe it... it sounds pretty funny....

Anyway, that shouldn't be the deciding factor in whether free expression is protected or not.

Oh no, I know that about the free speech and all that - I'm just saying.

Now, if these same folks decided to respond by dressing up like rubber ducks and squeaking while standing around a photograph of Osama Bin Laden, that would be funny.