So a Somali man whose faith is so weak he feels he has to kill someone who parodies the prophet Mohammed tried to kill one of the Danish cartoonists whose cartoons outraged Muslims around the world who never even bothered to look at the cartoons.

Let's face it. If your faith is so weak you feel threatened by cartoons of your religious figures, the problem is with you, not with the people writing the cartoons.

In honor of those Muslims whose faith is so weak, I reprint here the original Danish cartoons. Those who bother to actually look at them will note that in reality most of them are not even critical of Islam or Mohammed and, in fact, some are actually making fun of Western stereotypes of Muslims. So for the Somali idiot who tried to kill the Danish cartoonist, I reprint those cartoons for YOU: (thanks to prophetcartoons.com)

These first two are making fun of the newspaper that commissioned the cartoons and so should in no way be offensive to Muslims.

 more this way»

I recently covered the attack on Leo Igwe, the Culture Kitchen blogger who was attacked by a mob of religious fanatics in Nigeria. Leo is still carrying on the fight on behalf of abused children in Nigeria, despite the attacks. He has sent me his most recent post:

The attack in Calabar and the threat of religious extremism in Nigeria

By Leo Igwe

Around 11.30 am on Wednesday July 29 2009, a mob of about 200 persons from the Liberty Gospel Church invaded the Cultural Center in Calabar Cross River State The Cultural Center was the venue of a public symposium on witchcraft and child rights organised by the Nigerian Humanist Movement and Stepping Stones Nigeria.

Most of them arrived the venue in buses wearing orange Tshirt while others donned plain clothes to hide their identity. As we were about to start, some of them stormed the conference hall stamping their feet on the ground and chanting slogans critical of the event and the organisers.
 more this way»

I only noticed this through an indirect route. His name came up in a discussion on Kiva I came across for other reasons. But it seems on July 30th, Leo Igwe, who sometimes writes articles for Culture Kitchen, was attacked by a mob in Nigeria. This is from a letter written by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (which Leo works for) the Nigerian High Commission in the UK:

According to an eye-witness account, about two hundred members of Liberty Gospel Church stormed the venue of the symposium on Thursday, 30 July. They attacked Mr Igwe, took his bag, his camera and his mobile phone as well as destroying his spectacles. Liberty Gospel Church, led by Helen Akpabio, has been alleged to have held ‘trials’ of children suspected of being witches and many of these children have been killed after having been found guilty by such ‘trials’.

And from an article on AllAfrica.com:

In another development, Stepping Stones, a UK-based NGO has alleged that Helen Ukpabio's campaign of terror against children and those committed to fighting for their rights took a new turn last week when a large group of her supporters raided a child rights conference in Calabar and attacked a number of the delegates. The conference, which was on the theme of "Child Rights and Witchcraft", had been organised by the Nigerian Humanist Movement and the UK charity Stepping Stones Nigeria in response to the widespread abandonment, torture and killing of children in Akwa Ibom and Cross River States due to the

belief in child 'witches'. As the day began, at around 10.30 am, a group of religious extremists dressed in orange raided the venue and began protesting loudly.

The extremists, who are believed to be members of Helen Ukpabio's Church, Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries, were carrying a number of banners with slogans such as, "We give freedom to the witches" and "Stepping Stone is not a registered organisation". Eventually, after an hour and a half, the police turned up and dispersed the mob. One person was arrested.

The conference co-ordinator Leo Igwe, the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Humanist Movement, was viciously beaten during the attack and had his phone and camera stolen by the angry mob. Speaking after the event Leo said: "The conference was a peaceful meeting for people to openly debate what could be done to prevent the abuse of child rights linked to the belief in witchcraft. This attack by Helen Ukpabio's supporters once again highlights the depravity of this so-called "woman of God". Such false prophets should be immediately arrested and prosecuted under the child rights Act".

Leo's most recent posts on Culture Kitchen dealt with this topic. You can read about it in the following articles:

Campaign of Terror unleashed on Nigeria’s ‘Witch Children’

BRINGING EVANGELIST HELEN UKPABIO TO JUSTICE/CAMPAIGN UPDATE

And you can contact the Nigerian embassy on this subject here:

http://www.nigeriaembassyusa.org/contact.shtml

This comes from Presente.org (via Daily Kos)

I guess this is a sign that the right wing is abandoning all hope of attracting the Jewish vote. Their racism has alienated the black and Hispanic vote they have claimed to be wooing. Now, by showing their willingness to exploit anti-Semitic stereotypes, Fox News shows the right wing has given up on Jewish voters.

So recently the New York Times reported that Fox News is seeing its ratings plunge. Of course this is fact based on commonly used data.

Fox News, always unwilling to accept unpleasant facts, decided to vilify the reporters who wrote the story. Cause you see, Fox News can't face the fact that their audience is shrinking fast, so they have to blame someone else. But what is really revealing is how they choose to do it. They altered photos of the journalists who reported on the Fox News ratings plunge. In particular, they altered the image of Jacques Steinberg into a grotesque caricature of Jewish stereotypes. From Media Matters:

 more this way»

This man is running for Congress and he hangs out with Nazis:

From CBS News:

Tony Zirkle, who is seeking the Republican nomination in northern Indiana's 2nd District, stood in front of a painting of Hitler, next to people wearing swastika armbands and with a swastika flag in the background for the speech to the American National Socialist Workers Party in Chicago on Sunday.

The event Zirkle attended was in celebration of Hitler's birthday. These people are real Nazis, losers who still believe in Hitler's ideology more than 60 years after Hitler got his ass kicked.

Of course this is no surprise coming from a Republican who is pro-segregation.

Republicans are not Nazis. But the ties between Republicans and white supremicists and their willingness to accept intolerance is disgusting to me. Also in Indiana, Republican Speaker of the Indiana House Brian Bosma told a group of Jews they didn't matter because only 2% of the population is Jewish. Ann Coulter has attacked Judaism and Islam. Racism is a frequently used and well-documented tactic by the Republican Party in electoral politics. A Republican in Montana has been openly racist towards a Native American politician. Right-wingers in Delaware have even carried out a genuine pogrom against a Jewish and a Muslim family. Prominent Republicans even blame Jewish conspiracies for their problems. Anti-Semitism, racism and intolerance are rampant in the Republican Party these days.
 more this way»