"Draw Mohammed Day"
May. 20th, 2010 08:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drewkittyArticle on Wikipedia
I am not an artist. I write. Therefore my response, my picture of Mohammed in words, is under the cut.
I am in a cell. The chains hang heavy on my wrists and ankles. My captors have thoughtfully provided wrappings so that the chains do not wear sores into my flesh.
The chains are necessary.
I have been visited frequently. A doctor sees that I am healthy. The military commander inspects to see that my cell is in good order, my guards are in good spirits and properly trained and equipped, and there is no possibility whatsoever of my escape.
However my most frequent visitor is a learned man, a mullah, who is quite fluent in English. We spend hours in calm argument. He is trying to bring me to see the ways of Islam. I am arguing for my life.
It's not going to change anything, not really. I will either embrace Islam or they are going to cut my head off in front of a crowd to deter others.
I'm not converting to Islam. I'm not a Christian, I'm just a stubborn SOB and a pagan.
If they knew that last little bit, they'd take these chains off, drag me out in the courtyard, push me down to my knees, and the commander would shoot me in the back of the head. My body would be dumped in the street for the ravens.
"You are here for breaking the laws of shari’a, the law of Allah."
"I am a prisoner of war, war between the Dar al Islam and the free world. I claim the rights and privileges of a prisoner of war under the Geneva Conventions."
"You were caught at night bearing arms. Others with you killed Islamic soldiers, police and government officials and set fires. Those who bring disorder to the world commit a grave crime under Islam."
"This country is not yet the Dar al Islam. This is the Dar al Harb, the House of War, and you are occupiers of lands which are not yours."
"Yet the lesser Jihad commands us to spread the Dar al Islam across all the world. This is not your country, this is the country of Allah and his laws and rules are all that are to be followed here."
"This is the United States of America. I fought in an organized force, wearing a uniform, bearing arms openly and under the command of a U.S. Army commissioned officer. This makes my actions those of a soldier. I am not a criminal."
"All those who do not embrace the Will of God are criminals in the eyes of Allah. The Army of which you speak is apostate, making agreements and breaking them traitorously, not. Your own laws of war recognize reprisal against those who break its laws."
"If you charge me as a criminal, you are in America and even criminals have rights. I claim my Constitutional right to a trial by a jury of my peers and compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in my favor."
"Were these rights given to those Muslims your country perfidiously held at Guantanamo? Did they have a jury of their peers? Were they able to call on witnesses in their favor?"
I remain silent.
"Different laws apply when one is at war. If this is the House of War, your fate lies in the hands of the military commander. You may convert to Islam, pay the jizya and give your parole that you will trouble us no more, or be held captive for the remainder of your life. But even at war there are rules, and those you fought alongside killed women and children and set fires and laid bombs. For these crimes there must be justice."
"Under siyar, the Muslim law of war, it is recognized that soldiers will cause collateral damage. My unit was engaged in a necessary operation of war."
"What operation was that?"
"I am not required to provide information that will aid the enemy. This is still an active zone of operations."
"How then will you answer the charge that your goal was the murder of peaceful Islamic settlers and their protectors and leaders?"
Stage one counterinsurgency operations. Put out the eyes and ears of the enemy in the population. Of course our primary targets were anyone who could spread the virus of Islam: police, soldiers, officials, translators, mullahs and imams, the panoply of Islamic oppression. But what is a legitimate operation of war under say, the Lieber Code is "waging war against the whole world" in Islam.
"Our goal is the restoration of the United States of America and the Constitution."
"A ridiculous concept. That the power rises spontaneously from the people, instead of down through the followers of Mohammed, Peace Be Upon Him, with all things ordered to the obedience of Allah."
"A nation of laws, not of men."
"Exactly. A nation of Islamic laws. Ordered, harmonious, tranquil. Where even the rights of non-Muslims are protected."
"Instead of a nation where the laws protected everyone, even those Islamists who wanted to overthrow it and replace it with shari'a. Where you pay the same taxes whether you are a Christian, a Jew, another of the Peoples of the Book, or even a apostate or pagan or atheist. Where there is freedom of religion, and speech, and press."
"What did you do with that freedom? Obscene pictures. Filth. Portrayals of the Prophet in images, sinful in itself, but worse yet, portraying the Prophet . . ."
"Peace Be Upon Him," I mutter out of habit. Then curse myself inside. The Islamists have been doing this for many centuries, the mullah in front of me is a specialist in turning prisoners to their ways.
I am still just as much on the battlefield as I was a month ago.
". . . as a sodomite, a terrorist, a bomber with a fuse coming out of his turban. How can this be freedom?"
"You find freedom in being a slave of Allah. He does all your thinking for you. Free people think for themselves. Sometimes they make mistakes and often we discuss and argue and debate, but our way is the most protection for everyone."
"We also debate and discuss and argue. There is one hadith that allows commanders to execute prisoners who are a continuing threat to Allah."
"So you pick and choose the laws you follow in Allah's name. How comforting."
"There are many sects of Christianity and they follow all sorts of different rules."
"But Christianity is not our state religion."
"Is it not? Does not your Congress open with prayers? Were not your Founding Fathers all devout Christians? Your Declaration of Independence is full of religious language. Your Pledge is 'Under God,' acknowledging the Divine."
I wish I were Thomas Jefferson. He'd have this Barbary pirate in front of me wrapped up in his own words. I'm not so I'll do the best I can.
"Under God, perhaps, but under WHICH God? The God of Isaac, Moses and Jacob? The God of Mohammed? Or perhaps the God of Joseph Smith? Or Buddha? Or Zoroaster? There are many faiths in America, with many gods, and we are all polytheists, every single one of us, because we have learned something in our stumbling about in freedom that Islamists have not."
He waits for me to continue. They are going to drag me out and kill me -- but politely.
"We do not kill in the name of our religion. We do not fight each other." I remember something and smile. Do I have the words? Yes.
I recite:
"Whether the State can loose and bind
In Heaven as well as on Earth:
If it be wiser to kill mankind
Before or after the birth--
These are matters of high concern
Where State-kept schoolmen are;
But Holy State (we have lived to learn)
Endeth in Holy War.
"Whether The People be led by The Lord,
Or lured by the loudest throat:
If it be quicker to die by the sword
Or cheaper to die by vote--
These are things we have dealt with once,
(And they will not rise from their grave)
For Holy People, however it runs,
Endeth in wholly Slave.
"Whatsoever, for any cause,
Seeketh to take or give
Power above or beyond the Laws,
Suffer it not to live!
Holy State or Holy King--
Or Holy People's Will--
Have no truck with the senseless thing.
Order the guns and kill!
Saying --after--me:--
"Once there was The People--Terror gave it birth;
Once there was The People and it made a Hell of Earth
Earth arose and crushed it. Listen, 0 ye slain!
Once there was The People--it shall never be again!"
He is very puzzled. "What Christian verse is this?"
"Kipling," I state quietly.
He nods. Thinks for several seconds, takes a sip of his tea. Stands.
"You will be executed at dawn tomorrow."
He makes it out of the room before I can go for his throat.
I am not an artist. I write. Therefore my response, my picture of Mohammed in words, is under the cut.
I am in a cell. The chains hang heavy on my wrists and ankles. My captors have thoughtfully provided wrappings so that the chains do not wear sores into my flesh.
The chains are necessary.
I have been visited frequently. A doctor sees that I am healthy. The military commander inspects to see that my cell is in good order, my guards are in good spirits and properly trained and equipped, and there is no possibility whatsoever of my escape.
However my most frequent visitor is a learned man, a mullah, who is quite fluent in English. We spend hours in calm argument. He is trying to bring me to see the ways of Islam. I am arguing for my life.
It's not going to change anything, not really. I will either embrace Islam or they are going to cut my head off in front of a crowd to deter others.
I'm not converting to Islam. I'm not a Christian, I'm just a stubborn SOB and a pagan.
If they knew that last little bit, they'd take these chains off, drag me out in the courtyard, push me down to my knees, and the commander would shoot me in the back of the head. My body would be dumped in the street for the ravens.
"You are here for breaking the laws of shari’a, the law of Allah."
"I am a prisoner of war, war between the Dar al Islam and the free world. I claim the rights and privileges of a prisoner of war under the Geneva Conventions."
"You were caught at night bearing arms. Others with you killed Islamic soldiers, police and government officials and set fires. Those who bring disorder to the world commit a grave crime under Islam."
"This country is not yet the Dar al Islam. This is the Dar al Harb, the House of War, and you are occupiers of lands which are not yours."
"Yet the lesser Jihad commands us to spread the Dar al Islam across all the world. This is not your country, this is the country of Allah and his laws and rules are all that are to be followed here."
"This is the United States of America. I fought in an organized force, wearing a uniform, bearing arms openly and under the command of a U.S. Army commissioned officer. This makes my actions those of a soldier. I am not a criminal."
"All those who do not embrace the Will of God are criminals in the eyes of Allah. The Army of which you speak is apostate, making agreements and breaking them traitorously, not. Your own laws of war recognize reprisal against those who break its laws."
"If you charge me as a criminal, you are in America and even criminals have rights. I claim my Constitutional right to a trial by a jury of my peers and compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in my favor."
"Were these rights given to those Muslims your country perfidiously held at Guantanamo? Did they have a jury of their peers? Were they able to call on witnesses in their favor?"
I remain silent.
"Different laws apply when one is at war. If this is the House of War, your fate lies in the hands of the military commander. You may convert to Islam, pay the jizya and give your parole that you will trouble us no more, or be held captive for the remainder of your life. But even at war there are rules, and those you fought alongside killed women and children and set fires and laid bombs. For these crimes there must be justice."
"Under siyar, the Muslim law of war, it is recognized that soldiers will cause collateral damage. My unit was engaged in a necessary operation of war."
"What operation was that?"
"I am not required to provide information that will aid the enemy. This is still an active zone of operations."
"How then will you answer the charge that your goal was the murder of peaceful Islamic settlers and their protectors and leaders?"
Stage one counterinsurgency operations. Put out the eyes and ears of the enemy in the population. Of course our primary targets were anyone who could spread the virus of Islam: police, soldiers, officials, translators, mullahs and imams, the panoply of Islamic oppression. But what is a legitimate operation of war under say, the Lieber Code is "waging war against the whole world" in Islam.
"Our goal is the restoration of the United States of America and the Constitution."
"A ridiculous concept. That the power rises spontaneously from the people, instead of down through the followers of Mohammed, Peace Be Upon Him, with all things ordered to the obedience of Allah."
"A nation of laws, not of men."
"Exactly. A nation of Islamic laws. Ordered, harmonious, tranquil. Where even the rights of non-Muslims are protected."
"Instead of a nation where the laws protected everyone, even those Islamists who wanted to overthrow it and replace it with shari'a. Where you pay the same taxes whether you are a Christian, a Jew, another of the Peoples of the Book, or even a apostate or pagan or atheist. Where there is freedom of religion, and speech, and press."
"What did you do with that freedom? Obscene pictures. Filth. Portrayals of the Prophet in images, sinful in itself, but worse yet, portraying the Prophet . . ."
"Peace Be Upon Him," I mutter out of habit. Then curse myself inside. The Islamists have been doing this for many centuries, the mullah in front of me is a specialist in turning prisoners to their ways.
I am still just as much on the battlefield as I was a month ago.
". . . as a sodomite, a terrorist, a bomber with a fuse coming out of his turban. How can this be freedom?"
"You find freedom in being a slave of Allah. He does all your thinking for you. Free people think for themselves. Sometimes they make mistakes and often we discuss and argue and debate, but our way is the most protection for everyone."
"We also debate and discuss and argue. There is one hadith that allows commanders to execute prisoners who are a continuing threat to Allah."
"So you pick and choose the laws you follow in Allah's name. How comforting."
"There are many sects of Christianity and they follow all sorts of different rules."
"But Christianity is not our state religion."
"Is it not? Does not your Congress open with prayers? Were not your Founding Fathers all devout Christians? Your Declaration of Independence is full of religious language. Your Pledge is 'Under God,' acknowledging the Divine."
I wish I were Thomas Jefferson. He'd have this Barbary pirate in front of me wrapped up in his own words. I'm not so I'll do the best I can.
"Under God, perhaps, but under WHICH God? The God of Isaac, Moses and Jacob? The God of Mohammed? Or perhaps the God of Joseph Smith? Or Buddha? Or Zoroaster? There are many faiths in America, with many gods, and we are all polytheists, every single one of us, because we have learned something in our stumbling about in freedom that Islamists have not."
He waits for me to continue. They are going to drag me out and kill me -- but politely.
"We do not kill in the name of our religion. We do not fight each other." I remember something and smile. Do I have the words? Yes.
I recite:
"Whether the State can loose and bind
In Heaven as well as on Earth:
If it be wiser to kill mankind
Before or after the birth--
These are matters of high concern
Where State-kept schoolmen are;
But Holy State (we have lived to learn)
Endeth in Holy War.
"Whether The People be led by The Lord,
Or lured by the loudest throat:
If it be quicker to die by the sword
Or cheaper to die by vote--
These are things we have dealt with once,
(And they will not rise from their grave)
For Holy People, however it runs,
Endeth in wholly Slave.
"Whatsoever, for any cause,
Seeketh to take or give
Power above or beyond the Laws,
Suffer it not to live!
Holy State or Holy King--
Or Holy People's Will--
Have no truck with the senseless thing.
Order the guns and kill!
Saying --after--me:--
"Once there was The People--Terror gave it birth;
Once there was The People and it made a Hell of Earth
Earth arose and crushed it. Listen, 0 ye slain!
Once there was The People--it shall never be again!"
He is very puzzled. "What Christian verse is this?"
"Kipling," I state quietly.
He nods. Thinks for several seconds, takes a sip of his tea. Stands.
"You will be executed at dawn tomorrow."
He makes it out of the room before I can go for his throat.
