Letters to the Editor
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Is this all there is?
You have got to be kidding! This strip was what all those papers were worried about?
No matter how I look at it, I'm not seeing anything here that could be construed as offensive to Islam.
What a waste of a good controversy ...
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The controversy has nothing to do with Breathed's lame cartoon and everything to do with American journalism's cowardice
I'm sorry Joan. This strip is just flat lame. The only controversy surrounding it is the fact that American journalists and editors (Yourself not included, thank Allah) are a bunch frightened sheep who have shamed themselves in front of all the men and women who have fought and died for the First Amendment rights that they are too timid to use.
I applaud you, I applaud Salon, for running these panels because in doing so, you are showing the rest of these cowards in newsrooms across America what freedom is really all about.
American editors have no qualms whatsoever about skewering the Catholic Church or the fundamentalist greedheads like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. Occasionally, even Israel takes a jab or two. But these Muslims have America and the world cowering in fear.
It's time to stop that. Exercise your freedoms or lose them.
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Courage?
Joan Walsh returns to (bad) form. She thinks there's nothing really daring about this strip. And she doesn't get why others aren't running it. But somehow she believes that running it highlights Salon's "courage." How?
You disply courage only when you face a danger. To believe Salon is displaying courage, she must there's a risk here. Either from fundamentalist Muslims or from other American media outlets. In which case the strip isn't as innocuous as she claims.
What risk does she think Salon incurs by running this strip? Who does she think will attack Salon, and why?
As if all too often the case, Walsh is her site's own worst advocate.
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That's so brave! I hope to see Mormon Temple Underwear, an Expose of the Mikvah, and and the Sex Secrets of Presbyterians next week
Joan,
Since Salon isn't known for how you tread on other religions, I am not sure that your bravura is really all that.
Let's see you run some hilarious Temple Underwear exposes, Secrets of the Xenu, some video from inside the Mikvah, and Paris' secret baptismal font videos.
That's when we'll know how brave you are.
Although actually, if you wanted to be brave, you would stand up for science, even when it goes against the feminist propaganda you are catapulting in Broadsheet.
Are you still deleting polite letters simply because they disagree with you and calling it moderation? Next up, you're going to call the netroots DFH.
Elias T. Salon is rolling over in her grave.
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Controversy
There really isn't much (from my perspective) that is controversial at all about these two comics. They are mildly witty. Both have more to do with male/female relations than Islam... in fact, they don't really have anything to do with Islam at all as far as I can tell (she could have picked Amish Nudist and it would have been just as witty, just less topical).
The controversy arises from the fact that such mild, tame, and inoffensive social commentary in comedic form is actually being censored in the United States of America. That is truly shocking, and I for one appreciate Salon and Joan Walsh for pointing it out to us.
I would not call it "Courage" but I would call it "Vigilance" and that's OK with me. I choose thoughtful vigilance over numbskull courage any day.
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Again with the "feminist propaganda you are catapulting in Broadsheet."
Anonymous, if you can't get a life, at least get a screen name. You are an annoying twit. Nothing more.
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But I do like the Mormon Temple Underwear theme.
Or maybe that would get you killed too, especially if Mitt gets elected and it's either tithe or die.
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Fatima's swim suit
Now if Fatima had come out in a bikini, that might have been offensive, but the cartoon shows her respecting her faith. So why not publish it? I don't understand the reason.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. has just shot a second season of "Little Mosque on the Prairie," a comedy about a group of Musilms in rural Saskatchewan and their adventures, which I think is very funny, and which does poke gentle fun at Muslims as well as Christians and others. (See the show's description on the CBC's website, the link for which Salon prefers I not post.) I do wonder if any television networks in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave will pick it up.
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The issue is your last sentence, Joan. But who's watching Salon's discriminating choices?
Joan, I was greatly offended by the story Salon recently ran regarding trolling for sex in public bathrooms. This site did so mainly for business reasons. You stirred up a hornets nest Joan, and only to draw people to this site so they can argue.
That was marketing news which is just another form of exploiting facts. Censorship is only one form of using the press for corporate purposes. It cuts both ways, man. You can't use any derivative of the age old tactic of saying, "We didn't report this salaciousness; we only covered the reporting we felt was disproportionate."
Truth be told, I find the explotation of Senator Craig's conduct much more out of bounds then the outright censorship of the Washington Post. Joan, quite frankly, we all know WP has an agenda of corporate interests. Salon is supposed to be the next generation of news and when it resorts to the same old standards at a minimum hypocrisy is the result.
For some time now I've wanted to say this, and it's hard to have to be this blunt because I consider the Salon community as friend, but obviously Salon is becoming a career for those who work for your site with many times only all the narrow self interests that implies. Keep in mind please, newspapers in America were polemics first. They were unabashedly pro a point of view and stood in that direction regardless of business success. Now we have journalists and "standards" and a continous play on words!
Don't sell me anything Joan. Just tell what you see and why.
I'll buy if you do, I'm done with you guys if you don't
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They hate us for our burqinis?
How about displaying those smiling butt magic toilet seat ads? Does that take courage too? But seriously, it is amazing that this gentle cartoon strip would be considered potentially inflammatory. What's next, the talking bunnies? Jeez, maybe Christopher Hitchens is right about something after all.