I have read more commentary on the whole Falwell “Mohammed was a terrorist” statement and the ensuing riot in India than I probably should have, and I still don’t get it.
Time out here for a second. Over my short adult life I’ve seen “Piss Christ” defended on national television, seen plays that depicted Jesus as gay, and read book as assigned reading material in classes that described Christianity as an oppressive religion concoted by patriarchal forces. Hell, we live in a country where people can and do refer to the president as a dictator, thief, traitor and even worse.
But all of a sudden when Falwell calls Mohammed a terrorist everyone is shocked and amazed like this is something outside the norm of American discourse? We finally find a sacred cow in America and it turns out to be Islam? I don’t think so.
And as far as the riot in India, how hard is that to explain? They were nutty religious extremists. That’s what nutty religious extremists do — they kill other nutty religious extremists over things that make no sense to otherwise sane people.
Emo Philips gets the last word here.