Barry Osborne: Bringing Mo into the glare of publicity

Qatar based production company Alnoor Holdings has brought in big-shot producer Barrie Osborne (The Matrix and Lord of the Rings) to make a biopic of Mohammed. The usual restrictions apply: no depictions of the “prophet” or his immediate family.

Wallace Shawn must be bitterly disappointed.

Osborne has apparently swallowed the myth hook line and sinker:

He was a profound genius who founded a religion whose name in Islam signifies peace and reconciliation. This is what our film will aspire to do.

If that wasn’t enough to guarantee a whitewash, they have brought in the demented Sheik “Throw gays from clifftops” Qaradawi as a technical advisor.

In spite of the obvious deficiencies of this proposed project, the appearance of a major film about the life of Mohammed is unequivocally a Good Thing. People, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, are generally ignorant of this semi-historical figure as he is depicted in the source texts of Islam.

There are two Jesuses: the perfect Son of God whom Christians carry around in their heads as an ideal imaginary friend, and the rather sanctimonious, petulant, bad-tempered character as depicted in the Gospels (he had good points, too – but the bad ones are always overlooked or excused by believers).

Mohammed has the same dual nature, but the discrepancy for Muslims is even greater. In their heads he is the paradigm of perfect humanity. In the source texts, he is revealed, among other things, as a paedophile and a torturer.

Yes, the biopic will be a whitewash. It will be strongly criticised for it. This will lead to the evidence of the source texts being revealed to a much wider audience than ever before, educating both infidel and Muslim alike.

And that can’t be bad.

Jesus Christ!: Jo Clifford plays God in a dress

Jesus, Queen of Heaven portrays the famous semi-mythical Jew worshipped by Christians as a transexual woman. This was too much for the Clydeside god-botherers, who held a candlelit vigil outside the Tron Theatre, and waved banners reading:

JESUS, KING OF KINGS, NOT QUEEN OF HEAVEN

and

GOD: MY SON IS NOT A PERVERT

The paranoid homophobes of the Christian Institute regard the play as

further proof of an agenda to use taxpayers’ money to fund assaults on Christian values.

UPDATE: (11.25) Oh dear. The BBC notes that festival organisers are making dark hints about legal action. They have described the banners as “fairly provocative” and say they could be regarded as “inciting homophobia.”

Shut up. No, you shut up! No – YOU shut up!!

This is the film, made in collaboration with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, which got him killed:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The first from Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm which has got the Catholic League’s wannabe Irishman Bill Donahue in a righteous lather. In this clip, Larry, who is on meds which make him urinate with great force, visits a Catholic friend (watch 1st 2 minutes):

Click here to view the embedded video.

Was Larry David always this crude? Would he think it comedic if someone urinated on a picture of his mother? This might be fun to watch, but since HBO only likes to dump on Catholics (it was just a couple of weeks ago that Sarah Silverman insulted Catholics on “Real Time with Bill Maher”), and David is Jewish, we’ll never know.

The other vid is an ad for the German lingerie producer, Liaison Dangereuse, in which a woman dons a niqab over her sexy underwear:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hanne Nabintu Herland does not realise that the niqab has the effect of reducing a human being to a purely sexual object.

This lot are the funniest – and much more British than the BNP could ever be:

Click here to view the embedded video.

David Coleman Headley (49), originally Daood Gilani, a US citizen and Tahawwur Hussain Rana (48), a Pakistani Canadian, allegedly liaised with Pakistani terror groups to plan an attack on the Jyllands-Posten.

According to the Justice Department Press Release, Headley conducted surveillance in Denmark during two separate trips arranged by Rana and subsequently passed on the information to terrorist groups in Pakistan.

From the press release:

In October 2008, Headley allegedly posted a message to the “abdalians” internet discussion group stating that “I feel disposed towards violence for the offending parties,” referring to the Danish cartoonists and others who he identified “as making fun of Islam.”

Sigh:

(Hat tip: Islam in Europe)

They have called on their members to pray.

Doughty defenders of free speech when it involves their right to denigrate homosexuals or disturb their neighbours with amplified God-rock, CCFON always become concerned by the prospect of allowing anyone to disrespect their imaginary friend with impunity. Really – free speech is all well and good, but there are limits, you know!

It would be completely unacceptable for the House of Lords to make a decision which would affect the religious culture of Northern Ireland without proper discussion and without involving Northern Ireland’s elected representatives.

Please pray that the Northern Ireland representatives would have the opportunity to voice their concerns to the Government and that the clause would be defeated.

Pray away.

The Guardian reports Lord Lester as saying:

There is now a grotesque situation in Ireland[...] In the Republic of Ireland, there has been a rebirth of the offence of blasphemous libel for domestic constitution reasons, and in Northern Ireland we have not yet managed to get rid of it.

God no more needs to be protected by criminal law in Northern Ireland than in Great Britain.

Who's your daddy: The world's most righteous man (according to God) gets pissed and shags his daughters

It is turning the Bible into titillation. It seems wholly inappropriate for what is essentially God’s rescue plan for mankind.

If you are going to publish your own version of the Bible it must be done with a great deal of sensitivity. The Bible is a very important text to many many people and should be treated with the respect it deserves.

Er… it is being treated with the respect it deserves, Mikey.

Representing it in your own way is all very well and good but it must be remembered that it is a matter of people’s faith, their religion.

Faith is such an important part of people’s lives that one must remember to tread very carefully.

What on earth for? If you believe that the Bible is “God’s rescue plan for mankind,” then you have made a mistake. You can’t expect people to tiptoe around your mistake-based sensitivities.

To put it in context, she was voicing her support for MP Julian Brazier, who is urging local councils to ban the film Saw VI. He thinks it is too violent for adults to watch, and Pattison agrees:

Studies link exposure to film violence with violent behaviour.

If there is the slightest chance that media violence can cause harm is it worth the risk?

Ho-hum. Vague mutterings about flawed “studies” and an illogical rhetorical question. Apart from the fact that the two sentences are grammatically flawless, they could have been spoken by the Massah himself.

Why try to validate your opinions with “studies” when you have so little respect for “academics”? Look at this from the Mediawatch-UK website:

Academics, on the other hand, tend to deny any causal link suggesting that those who act violently are predisposed to it and are, or have been, influenced by other environmental factors.

Academics – people who devote their professional lives to finding out the truth about such questions – do not support MediaWatch’s opinions. MediaWatch’s opinions are based on what they call “common sense observation.” Yet they are still keen to cite “studies” (in reality one, flawed study from the 70s) if it gains them a bit of credibility. Indeed, in the paragraph following immediately after their denigration of “academics,” they talk about a “Dr Susan Bailey, a forensic psychologist, interviewed by Panorama in 1994″ who said something they might agree with.

So academics are unreliable unless they agree with MediaWatch’s “common sense” conclusions? The self-belief of these would-be arbiters of taste and decency is as breathtaking as it is unjustified.

And as for her rhetorical question, it works both ways: if there’s the slightest chance that exposure to media violence could have a cathartic effect and prevent an act of violence, isn’t it worth the risk? The logic is identical, and the point equally worthless without the supporting evidence..

A spokesperson for the British Board of Film Classification is quoted in the Express:

We believe adults should be free to choose their own entertainment.

Not if Nanny Pattison has anything to do with it. Because Nanny knows best.

Leda-Verlag plans to present Gabriele Brinkmann’sEhre, wem ehre… (To Whom Honour is Due) at the Frankfurt book fair this week. Publisher Heike Gerdes conceded that the book “might provoke some,” but insisted that it did not single out “the Turks” or Islam for criticism, focusing instead on traditional misogynic attitudes.

We believe that everyone should form their own impression. We have found nothing in the text which would deter us from publication, and will bring out the book in full.

A percentage of the book’s profits will be donated to the charity Solidarity With Women in Need.

As a precaution, the police have been informed.