The American Spectator

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Once Abu Hurairah was playing with a cat when Muhammad came along and said, "Abu Hurairah, 'Father of cats.'"

Clearly the yucks got lost in the translation.

According to Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Rage Boy images that so amused me are not only not funny, but another form of Western racism and bigotry. Apparently Rage Boy's offensive image promotes hatred and could ultimately get some young innocent American Muslim student beat up. As usual Mr. Hooper seems more concerned with how satire will cause violence than with how the actions of suicide bombers and their supporters will.

Mr. Hooper then compares the images of Rage Boy to the images and films created by the Nazis in the 1930s in which Jews were likened to rats. One problem: Nazi agitprop was neither satire nor absurdist humor, but racist propaganda. Unsurprisingly, Hooper is unable to see the difference.

Images like Islamic Rage Boy effectively use satire to ridicule the absurdity of Islamofascism. Far from being racist or anti-Islamic satire helps us deal with despotism. It is an all-American form of resistance. Jokes are simply a (mostly) harmless way to let off steam. Perhaps if Muslims joked around a little more there wouldn't be an Islamic Rage Boy.

Christopher Orlet writes the Existential Journalist blog.

topics:
Satire, Islam, Law, Iraq, Russia, Communism, Fascism, Oil