Nope I won't be participating. for a number of reasons.
1. It's kind of dumb and childish.
2. I don't want to take a chance on some seventh century savage hunting me down and killing me and my family.
3. So far as I know, there's no money in it, nor is there likely to be any bragging rights unless you're a big name blogger like Andrew Sullivan or some of the other big-time bloggers who are supporting the idea.
4. I'm reasonably sure it might be considered as being against Blogger's TOS. In fact, I'm reasonably sure Sonia Belle got in trouble at least in part over her support of the Iraq War and her stand against Islamic fascism. The link I provided tells you all you need to know. Don't bother to go there, as there is no longer a there to go to.
Not only has her account been disabled by Blogger, so has her Google account and GMail. Even past comments she has made on other blogs have disappeared. I don't believe this has anything to do with porn. For one thing, aside from her profile picture, Sonia's blog was for the most part pretty boring. (Sorry, Sonia, but that's just the truth). Also, she was behind an adult warning link that you had to click onto before you could proceed to the sight. Finally, none of her porn was against Blogger's TOS. The only porn that might get you in trouble is bestiality, incest, or child porn, something Sonia never engaged in.
There is a slight chance there might have been links to other porn sites on her blog that might have got her in trouble with Google bots who might have automatically flagged her as a promoter of spam, but I kind of doubt that. Had this been the case, she would have probably been banned at the same time she was put under the adult warning flag. Until I find out otherwise, I have to assume someone complained to Blogger about her posts in favor of the Iraq War and against Islamic fundamentalism, and Blogger responded by giving in to them.
Moreover, there has been a strange meme making the rounds lately, involving big-name bloggers such as Anne Althouse discouraging participation in Everybody Draw Mohammed Day, even though Althouse herself was earlier supportive of the South Park writers whose program was censored. Even the person who initially proposed the stunt, set for May 20th, is now disavowing it.
This makes me think they might possibly be doing this under pressure from their providers-Blogger in Althouse's case, but others as well. The cartoonist who originally proposed the idea, and who has now turned against it, might have run afoul of her employer, while others, such as one of the bloggers at the Gay Patriot, might have simply decided he wanted nothing to do with something that might seem a little much like piling on another oppressed minority, something he would understandably be sensitive about.
However, whereas Althouse might have received the courtesy of a heads up from Blogger due to the fact she is one of their better known and widely read bloggers, a chump like me would probably get nothing but the ax, with no explanation. Nor according to Bloggers TOS am I entitled to one.
Then of course, there is reason number five-I can't draw worth a shit, so in my case its a moot point. I guess I could photoshop something, but for all the other reasons I mentioned, I guess I will pass on the opportunity to draw a picture of, say for example, Mohammed getting fucked in the ass by a hog or something.
Do I think this is right? As most of you might suspect, no I do not. All the comparisons Althouse and others have made to "Piss Christ" are wide of the mark. The main objections to Piss Christ were due to government funding of this and other similar projects by the NEA. True, there are Christians who would doubtless love to see such artwork banned, government funding or not. On the other hand, none have ever killed anybody over it, nor to my knowledge have any ever threatened to do so. The whole idea behind EDMD was to make a stand against intimidation by radical Islamists, who will never be satisfied, because everything we do to all intents and purposes is offensive to them. Before long they will be demanding an end to outdoor barbecues involving pork products because the scent is offensive and there's an off-chance they might stumble upon such a picnic of infidels. Sexually clad women of course are offensive to them, so they would probably ban them as well if they could. I'm reasonably sure the time will come when they will insist on all major food chains, grocery stores as well as restaurants, offering Halal food-and perhaps minor mom-and-pop operations as well, if that would seem practical to them, or even if it doesn't.
If the truth were known, they would ban anything that doesn't fit into their religious views. But the violence, and the threat of violence, against those outside their faith is what sets them apart from even the most radical conservative Christian and Jewish groups, most of whom (with the exception of a very small handful of deranged individuals) are violent only in cases of self-defense, or when otherwise provoked. Everybody Draw Mohammed Day would be a good way to let off a little steam as regards people's frustrations over such unbridled arrogance, and dare I say evil. But by the same token, its a little like putting a band-aid over a bullet wound.
Right now, they make up about one percent of the American population. The best way we could go about combating their evil and intolerance is to do whatever is possible and reasonable to keep their numbers at that level or lower. If that makes us as intolerant as them in some people's eye, so be it. I can live with that. I can't live without my head.
I'll end this by stating in no uncertain terms that I also discourage any and all small-time bloggers from participating in Everybody Draw Mohammed Day. But I'm not about to sit here and pretend you should not do so in order to avoid offending Muslims, even the so-called "moderate" ones, assuming there really is such a thing as that. And even if there are, and even if they would be offended, so what? No one has a right to go through life and expect to never be offended, including about their religious beliefs. If I sat here one day and typed out a long, somber-minded piece about my religious devotion to BOB or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Cthulhu, etc., I'm sure somewhere along the way, if someone really took me seriously, I would find myself the object of derision, and rightly so.
A group of Christian archaeologists from China recently announced they have discovered, on a mountain of the Ararat range, yet another in what must have certainly been a fleet of Noah's Arcs. You can be pretty confidant they are going to be the subjects of ridicule over the following days. That just comes with the territory. If Muslims-radicals or otherwise-can't understand that or deal with it, they need to resign themselves to the proposition that maybe they just don't belong in western, and remove themselves to where they can practice their beliefs in the peace they insist they want, but which in reality seems to be definable as the kind of peace that comes with not having to be around anyone that might believe something differently.
