Bombs or blacklisting
As someone who doesn't read comics, even I'm aware of Frank Miller. If only through his works that made it to the silver screen: 300; Sin City, and it's sequel, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For; and The Spirit. Although the less said about the last one, the better.
I'd never heard of award-winning cartoonist, writer, publisher, and critic
Zainab Akhtar before now, and doubtless will forget her almost as quickly as she came to my attention. She is only newsworthy for getting Miller removed from the attendees of the Thought Bubble comic book festival. As a proud Muslim woman
, Holy Terror, Miller's 2011 graphic novel riling against Islamic fundamentalist terrorism, offends her delicate Muslim sensibilities still a full decade later.
And the mob came out in force to offer their mithering support; not to a major artist, but to a low-level, dinky butthurt grifter. For their part, Thought Bubble supped deep on their soy lattes, before bending over to grab their ankles. All of which just goes to show that Muslims don't need bombs to destroy Western freedom of speech and expression. They can reject any criticism of their religion's hate-fuelled zealots, and still play the victim card. Yet they wonder why they're mistrusted.
Still, at least Miller got out of a late autumnal trip to the north of England. That's gotta count as a win! (thumbup)
Rich Johnston hyperbolically describes Holy Terror as virulently Islamophobic
.
Islamophobia is the fear of, hatred of, or prejudice against the religion of Islam or Muslims in general, especially when seen as a geopolitical force or a source of terrorism.
It's a bit of a misnomer, in my opinion. Islamophobia is almost exclusively used or interpreted derogatorily, to indicate hatred of Islam. But the Greek suffix -phobia commonly denotes an extreme or irrational fear of, or aversion to, something. Think claustrophobia, or hydrophobia.
I don't hate Islam. I do, however, have a fear of being blown to pieces by some arsehole screaming Allahu Akbar
. And I don't think that fear's irrational, given current circumstances. The motivations of Muslims who hide behind rhetoric or butthurt, rather than openly recognising and challenging Islamic terrorism, are worrying.