Islamophobia and Internet
(Sorry! this is the composition work in my English class)
It started in September 2005, when the reckless Danish newspaper “Jyllands-Posten” published twelve editorial cartoons which boldly depicted Prophet Mohammad’s satirical images. The cartoons have been quickly spread over the world via Internet and other media. Subsequently, it has caused turbulent opposition by Muslims, and generated immeasurable negative consequences.
Regardless of Muslim’s traditional sensitiveness, which strictly prohibits anyone from drawing the Prophet Muhamamd’s image, the Danish media broke the taboo. The paper said they aimed to contribute to the debate criticizing Islam and its self-censorship. Despite the Danish Muslims’ large opposition to it, 50 other newspapers in the world reprinted the unflattering cartoons. Angry Muslim protesters reportedly set fire to Danish Embassies in Syria, Lebanon and Iran in 2006. The rioting crowd also stormed several European buildings and burnt their flags, resulting in more than 100 casualties.
The 75-year-old-Danish cartoonist, Kurt Westergaard, who had originally drawn the notorious image of “Mohammad as a suicide bomber (concealing a bomb in his turban,)” had received number of death threats. In Janurary 2010, he was assaulted by a Somali Muslim extremist, who had ties with the Al Qaeda-related terror group, Al-Shabaab, but he barely escaped by hiding in a fortified “panic room” at his home.
The Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders is the one who poured oil on the flames. Wilders, who leads the party called Party for Freedom, created an anti-Islam short film in 2008. In the film“Fitna”, he argues that Islam is particularly “encouraging acts of terrorism, anti-Semitism, violence against women, violence and subjugation of infidels…,” and so on.
Fitna’s release on the Internet was first suspended by an American provider because of perceived controversy, and also, rejected to be shown in many countries. However, it was finally distributed by the public relations agency Ruder Finn, which organized "Facing Jihad" conference in 2008 in Jerusalem. Ruder Finn is also remembered as the “war PR agency”, which masterminded/manipulated the media strategy for the 1st Gulf War and the Bosnian War, hired by American CIA.
Many liberal critics regard Wilders as lunatic xenophobic politician, who is also facing criminal prosecution at home for inciting hatred and discrimination. However, his party actually gained popularity in the election, and formed coalition government with two other parties in October 2010. His policy has appeal to the Dutch people, because the country is a small country particularly wary about increasing influx of Muslim immigrants. Their Parliament passed two anti-Islam laws on his request: It aims to ban Muslims from wearing burga (headscarves), and demands to reduce the number of acceptable Muslim immigrants by half.
Other European countries which host large Muslim immigrant population, such as France, also moved to ban the Muslims from wearing headscarves in public places. People in these countries insist they are scared of seeing a “hooded person” enter the public spots (airports, train stations, convenience stores..), which incites the image of possible terrorist threats. The Swiss government also moved to ban the construction of new Islamic minarets. “Islamophobia” is now spreading as a buzz word in Europe, where people may be somewhat more sensitive about cultural traditions than Americans.. Currently, major European newspapers’ online forums are filled with discussions concerning the issue. British journalist Melanie Phillips also alarmed: Islamist network are already thriving in British soil,. in her book “Londonistan” in 2006.
On the other hand, in America, another unscrupulous cartoonist appeared to further escalate the fuss. Earlier in July 2001, when the time was more permissive, Comedy Central’s animated “South Park” was already presenting Prophet Muhammad as a funny cartoon character. It was in their story about “Super Best Friends” (Namely: Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, Mormonism’s Joseph Smith, Taoism’s Lao-tse, and Prophet Mohammad — Unusual team of superheroes were formed to help the “foul-mouthed urchins..”) However, when “South Park”s creators aimed to parody the Danish cartoon controversy again in 2006, they found they were no longer able to portray Muhammad on the TV show, because of the increased sensitized situation. They dared to repeat the old show, but the prophet’s appearances were all blacked out and replaced by Comedy Central’s announcement message (excusing they could no longer show the image of Prophet), just intentionally.
South Park’s creators tried to caricaturize such odd situation itself, and made a new story in which Prophet Mohammed’ appearance was reduced to be “non-appearance appearance” (invisibly appeared only inside the mascot bear’s costume, or the U-Haul trailer), but the cynical animators again received a death threat from a radical Muslim man in New York. They needed to shut down all the past record of footages available on the Internet. The guy who made threat against them was revealed to be a Brooklyn-born Muslim convert, who used to be an Orthodox Jew. He was running an Islamic cult website “revolutionmuslim.com,” and made a threat on that page.
Since the spring of 2010, New Yorkers saw the situation further escalates. Shortly after South Park’s creators were threatened, more egregious threat was made by a local Muslim resident. The Pakistani immigrant, Feisal Shahzad attempted to detonate a car bomb in Times Square near Comedy Central’s headquarter, though the plot failed. While his motivation seemed to be mostly about personal discontent with his troubled marriage, he also had a record of returning to Pakistan to be “trained” by Al Qaeda extremists, before he came back to make horrifying plot in New York.
While there are a lot of Muslim immigrants in New York, especially in Queens and Brooklyn, the authorities keep tight eyes on their gatherings at local Mosques. The police arrested some of them as potential terror plotters, through some cunning sting operations. Reportedly, there are many Muslim residents in New York who still have ties with extremists in Pakistan or Afghanistan.
In spring 2010, there was an another trouble maker on the Internet. An American cartoonist, Molly Norris of Seattle, announced to hold Muhammad’s “cartoon contest” on Facebook’s page on May 20. She said it was in response to the South Park controversy. The online event, “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day” was actually held on Facebook, with over 100,000 participants. There were also protest pages, including “Against ‘Everybody Draw Mohammed Day'” which also attracted about the equal number of supporters.
Although Norris and other initiators of the event withdrew from the event in late April, for fear of reprisal by Muslims, the event has “taken a life of its own”, and eventually gone wild. A Fox commentator said, "she may have started something she can't stop, because others have taken up the cause.” Although the Pakistani and Indian government blocked the Facebook page, protest movement had sparked demonstrations in the streets of Pakistan.
As a consequence, radical Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki declared to put Norris “on a hitlist” in July 2010. FBI officials gave her warning, and “she has since changed her name and gone into hiding under advice from the FBI.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everybody_Draw_Mohammed_Day)
Currently in New York, another raucous controversy has been arisen concerning the construction plan of so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” in Manhattan. It has drawn nationwide attention, since the Mosque’s plan, made by the group called Cordova Initiative, is about a construction of a real mosque, right next to the Ground Zero site in New York.
Opposition website accused the developer of the Mosque, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf "has a genuine Muslim Brotherhood roots," and now, pursuing his late father’s radical dream of spreading Islam in America.. Although President Obama’s office has already officially announced to withdraw from meddling in religious issues, the controversy appears to have no end. Strangely, other than the Imam Abdul Rauf himself, the local “moderate Muslims”, who are supposed to follow Imam Rauf’s idea to gather at the mosque in future, have not been expressing their views or personal commitment about the planned mosque at all. Do they have their own views or opinions to the plan? I guess it should be the important point for gaining public support from American people.
As the writer Christopher Hitchens recently put, the dispute over the planned Ground Zero Mosque has “now sunk to a level of stupidity that really does shame the memory and the victims of that terrible day in September 2001..”
Religious conflict is a complex issue, and the Internet’s influences are scary. Unless the Western people would respect Islam as world’s No.2 religion, and unless the Muslims would really wish to have harmony and safety living together with other people in other societies, the sleaziness of Islamophobia, and media frenzy on the issue may have no end.
What Is "Sophisticated"? What is “sophisticated,” or what is “sophistication”? If you say this word, there are a lot of meanings. It will become either a compliment or derogation even about the same subject. Though, this might be caused by the word’s Greek etymology itself. I rather see the meaning of this word is always unstably swaying itself back and forth, or oscillating between good and bad meaning—or sometimes it may even suggest both meanings at the same time. When I searched the word on Internet, I came across some of the latest newspaper articles: "..Yemen arrested a woman suspected of sending two packages with sophisticated bombs, further evidence that Al Qaeda is improving its ability to strike on U.S. soil.."(*Mazzetti & Worth) The “sophisticated bombs” sent by the terrorist elements linked to the rogue Yemeni Imam Anwar Al Awlaki last Halloween weekend appeared to have targeted the Jewish synagogues in Chicago. I found one of the destined synagogues was merely 2 blocks away from my apartment in Edgewater, but the plot was foiled by the “sophisticated intelligence operation” before the bombs reached here, and the bombs were caught in the airports in Dubai and Britain. In this case, “sophisticated” must mean the bomb’s technology or mechanism was complex and unduly refined, or maybe it was also very cunning and crafty. Therefore, “The US sees complexity of bombs as link to Al Qaeda.” However, everyone knows there is another meaning in the word “sophisticated.” If you say “sophisticated humor”, “sophisticated satin lingerie”, “sophisticated stuff” or “sophisticated overseas market,” the phrase may have various other, sensitive and delicate meanings. Some people may recall a classic jazz tune “Sophisticated Lady” created by Duke Ellington and others in 1932. The lyrics sing about a decadent woman living in the urban night, surrounded by jewelries and men, but without love. She keeps smoking, drinking, and never thinking of tomorrow. There is even a music album titled “Sophisticated Begger” created by a folk rock singer-songwriter Roy Harper in the UK in 60’s. This title looks complex and witty—maybe because it concocted two opposite images paradoxically? The dictionary defines “sophisticated” as “unduly cultured” “pretentiously or superficially wise.” Now if you describe someone as the most “sophisticated” among today’s people, who would pop up in your mind? Maybe the wise and smart people, such as Barak Obama or Rahm Emanuel among Chicago politicians? Actually Barak Obama was praised as “our sophisticated new leadership” when he made the first foreign visit after his inauguration, by a media person. (*Dickens) Though, facing the recent “bruising outcome of midterm election”, some short-tempered Americans have begun asking a rather hasty question: is he a man of substance, or a man of extremely superficial sophistication, or a vacuous guy? Was his excellent skills of speech in the campaign representing his sophisticated smartness or representing pretentious rhetoric? However, we now see the conservative anti-Obama people, such as Tea Partiers who criticize Obama, are also targeted and called as “not sophisticated” by Karl Rove. As Frank Rich’s column in New York Times reported: "…Karl Rove outed the Republican elites’ contempt for Tea Partiers in the campaign’s final stretch. Much as Barack Obama thought he was safe soliloquizing about angry white Middle Americans clinging to ‘guns or religion’ at a San Francisco fund-raiser in 2008, so Rove now parades his disdain for the same constituency when speaking to the European press. This month he told Der Spiegel that Tea Partiers are ‘not sophisticated,’ and then scoffed, ‘It’s not like these people have read the economist Friedrich August von Hayek...’" (*Rich) The conservatives cannot catch up Obama’s innovation, because they are not “sophisticated” enough, but are somewhat tracing the tradition of “anti-intelligence” in American history? Actually everyone might say, I wish to be a sophisticated person. What do they mean? People may visit foreign countries to see other cultures which are sophisticated. For example, since Chicago was one of the historical centers which created jazz music, it must have been a sophisticated metropolis. Because jazz was something which represents one of the most sophisticated, innovative, stylish urban music, then what is sophisticated, or what is pretentiously wise now in Chicago? Chicago’s Magnificent Mile and beautiful architecture is sophisticated. Its art museums or the old campus of U of Chicago looks sophisticated. For me, the casual, light-hearted conversations often generated between strangers everywhere in America, even with someone sitting next to you at the bus stop is sophisticated. The public transportation in America appears sometimes centuries old and somewhat technologically outdated, but usually abundant with a human touch. CTA’s manual-operated “kneeling bus”, or the “Jackson Park Express” is always filled with humanistic mutual assistance spirits toward the disabled people and out-patients visiting the university hospital..and this looks sophisticated. 
(Chicago Costume) When I see Americans’ way of holding the doors smilingly for others, even if they see the following person is sometimes 7 meters behind themselves, it looks sophisticated. However, if the elevators or escalators are broken in public areas, it is sometimes never repaired for many weeks. It looks unsophisticated, since this never happens in Japan. Compared to how it appears in America, Japanese trains’ precise operation is callously sophisticated. I even read when New York’s ex-mayor Koch’s aide visited Japan with MTA executives some years ago, he described Japanese subway as it looks “too inhuman and sterile.” Maybe because he saw it was clean and mathematically precise, but felt unsatisfied because there was no jovial mariachi musicians or a capella singers on the trains. The other day, I was also impressed by an unapologetic CTA Red Line operator whom I came across, since he was just excessively human touch or badly (un)sophisticated. He didn’t tell passengers when the local train suddenly changed into express when it left Addison station late at night. When he realized the car was already running to Loyola, bypassing other stations, he only broadcasted a deceitful personal excuse, “Hey..I told you? You must have heard what I said!” How it sounds goofy? People felt appalled and laughed. I murmured “It would never happen in my country” to a white woman, and she said, “Yes!” I don't know whether his excessive human touch operation will be called sophisticated or unsophisticated.. The CTA Blue Line railroad construction every weekend was disturbing and unsophisticated. It cannot reach to the Far South Side yet, and the food desert in African American neighborhood is not solved yet. The US governments’ abandoning policy for homeless people is unsophisticated. When people are refraining from calling them outright as “beggars,” but only calling them as “solicitors,” I don’t know if it is sophisticated or unsophisticated, it looks somewhat hypocritical to me. Maybe Chicago has many faces, both sophisticated and unsophisticated. Before the Halloween day, I saw authentic and picturesque Halloween decorations on Fullerton Avenue, which suggests it is an old inland cultural city. I also saw a swarm of people in the crazy “Chicago Costume.” Maybe the people out here know how to enjoy all the parties, but Chicago’s local tv anchor people’s faces (ofABC7)always look too stiffened or edgy to me, maybe because of harsh weather. The city happened to become evil the “Gotham City” in the new Batman film. The city’s white neighborhoods and African American neighborhoods are too segregated. Chicago has lost the bid for 2016 Olympics, and the South Side has lost their future development plan. Although Obama has been elected and taken on social reform, he may have run on a rock now. My sociology teacher, who did a field research about South Side’s poverty pessimistically said about her view, “Obama is not gonna make it within his term.” Apparently, the term “sophisticated” has come from the Greek word “sophism” of “sophist”, and maybe originally derived from “sophia (knowledge)” ..It clearly suggests why its meaning flip-flops to be both “good and bad” (*Wikipedia “sophist”.) Everybody may become either good person or evil person, and all the knowledge is quite easily rotten. If people would utilize their knowledge wisely for the good causes, they are praised as sophisticated. However, if people would only utilize knowledge negatively, or pretentiously to deceive others, they would be deemed badly sophisticated. *Wikipedia’s description about “sophist” or “sophism”: Sophism has two different but related meanings: In the modern definition (from Plato), a sophism is a specious argument used for deceiving someone. In Ancient Greece, the sophists were a category of teachers who specialized in using the tools of philosophy and rhetoric for the purpose of teaching aretê — excellence, or virtue — predominately to young statesmen and nobility. The practice of charging money for education, and providing wisdom only to those who can pay, led to the condemnations made by Plato in regard to their profession itself being 'specious' or 'deceptive', hence the modern usage of the term... *Mazzetti & Worth: “U.S. Sees Complexity of Bombs as Link to Al Qaeda” by By Mark Mazzetti and Robert F. Worth, Oct. 31, The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/world/31terror.html *Dickens: “Matthews 'Immensely Proud' of 'Sophisticated' Obama 'The New Us!” By Geoffrey Dickens http://newsbusters.org/blogs/geoffrey-dickens/2009/03/31/immensely-proud-matthews-shrieks-sophisticated-obama-new-us *Rich: “The Grand Old Plot Against the Tea Party” by Frank Rich, Oct 31, the New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/opinion/31rich.html?scp=12&sq=sophisticated&st=cse *Wikipedia “Sophism”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophism (Sorry, these are my English class essays..) 
Halloween's home decoration.. bristles in the neighborhood of Fullerton Ave.. 
Shop clerks in Halloween costume.. at the "Lush" Shop in Macy's..though they don't like to be taken pictures
