ETCETERA

NIGHTCAP

Outrageous Rage

Newsweek

By Harry Kirsbaum

he names may change, but the
story ...
The story captured headlines in
the Chicago Tribune for a few weeks
during my bartending days in the
mid-1980s. Some college was exhibit-
ing its students' art at the Museum of
Modern Art. One student's "art" exhib-
it had a podium with a sign-in book
for, I believe, some kind of memorial.
There was a hitch, of course. In order
to sign the book, you had to stand on
an American flag placed on the floor.
He was trying to make some kind
of point, but he received all sorts of
threats and warnings from Chicago-
ans including veterans, politicians and
the basic tough guys talking in bars.
The student not only made headlines,
he appeared on local news, too.
On one side was freedom of speech;
the other side was an offensive, un-
American, shameful abuse of the First
Amendment. When the exhibit went
away, so did the outrage.
He's probably an employee at Pixar,
or serving fries somewhere, or maybe
he's a father with a brat of a son who
graduated college and won't move

T

out of the basement.
I thought about this art student
when I heard about the outrage in the
Muslim world a few weeks ago over
the cheesy 14-minute video seen on
YouTube called Innocence of Muslims,
and those offensive Prophet Muham-
mad cartoons published a week later
in a satirical Paris magazine — the
same magazine that was firebombed
last November for the same reason.
Stupid and more stupid.
More than 20 countries have dealt
with violent protests at American, Ger-
man and French embassies over these
events, and some countries were block-
ing access to You Tube so their crazies
wouldn't be able to see the"film:'
Speaking of crazies, according to
the International Herald-Tribune in
Pakistan, Abdullah Ismail died a day
after he joined 10,000 fellow demon-
strators in Lahore burning American
flags protesting the film. It seems he
died from inhaling fumes from the
burning flags. Yikes. If our flags are
poisonous enough to kill their pro-
testers, we must be evil.
On Sept. 18, a day after Abdullah

e stl e hM E

died, Pakistan declared Sept. 21 a na-
tional holiday in honor of the Prophet
Muhammad to appease their angriest
of citizens. And that's saying some-
thing. Here's a country that hid Osama
bin Laden, and the government's still
afraid of being overthrown for being
too genial to the West.
On Pakistan's official day off for
protesting the Great Evil Flag Empire,
the French closed embassies, cultural
institutions and schools in 20 coun-
tries as a safety precaution.
Meanwhile, the general prosecutor
of Egypt has issued arrest warrants, in
absentia, to seven Coptic Christians
and Pastor Terry Jones for insulting and
publicly insulting Islam because of the
film — even though five of them have
nothing to do with the film. They could
face the death penalty if convicted.
There have been no reports that
Pastor Jones — who hails from Florida,
looks like an extra on Sons of Anarchy,
and has a penchant for burning Korans
whenever he sees a video camera — or
the Coptics plan to vacation to seethe
pyramids anytime soon.
When Islamists fail to observe

MUSLIM RAGE

Newton's Third Law reacting to stupid
videos and cartoons, they show the
world that the Arab Spring is turning
into something unspring-like.
However, blame must also fall with
the provocateurs. These movies and
cartoons weren't made to teach a
lesson about freedom of expression
or Western democracy. They were
made to get publicity. And, unlike the
Chicago artist who took his own heat,
they were far away from receiving
the consequences of their actions,
although you have to wonder about
the intelligence of the French maga-
zine publisher, who just redecorated
after the last firebombing. RT

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