Six best cartoons on BJP's defeat and grand alliance's victory in Bihar: Cartoonists' response to election result

While millions of words have been written on the electoral outcome of the Bihar Assembly poll and the analyses continue, the cartoonists and artists have said it with a few strokes of their pens and brushes.

See these five cartoons that describe the BJP's loss and Nitish Kumar-Lalu Yadav's JDU-RJD-Congress alliance's victory. Clearly, 'Cow and Pakistan' are part of every illustration as BJP had made them a poll issue.

Surendra's cartoon touches the topic of reservation too. Others are by Manjul, Satish Acharya, Shreyas Nevare. The penultimate cartoon was published in Punjab Kesri. All these cartoons are about the results, except the last, which was about the exit polls.

William Kilpatrick: 'How to Alienate Moderate Muslims'

"If the moderate Muslim was inclined to resist the radicals, he will be less likely to do so if he looks around and notices that no one else is resisting... Why should he stick his neck out?"

William Kilpatrick makes a compelling case for resisting encroaching Islamization and the creeping advance of sharia culture in America.

See also my post, Freedom, Provocation and Targets: 'No Cartoons Required'

How to Alienate Moderate Muslims
by William Kilpatrick, Crisis Magazine � May 26, 2015

The winning cartoon of Muhammad. I post this because I still can!

The recent �draw Muhammad� contest in Garland, Texas not only drew fire from two armed jihadists, it also drew fire from Christian leaders and media critics. One of the chief objections was that events of this type will alienate moderate Muslims and possibly drive them into the radical camp.

It can just as easily be argued, however, that caving on the cartoon issue is more likely to result in a defection of moderate Muslims than the drawings themselves. And caving seems to be the order of the day. The Muhammad art exhibit and cartoon contest has been roundly criticized not only by the usual suspects in the liberal media but also by conservative journalists and conservative religious leaders such as Franklin Graham. In general, the critics say that free speech is a wonderful thing, but that it should never be used to insult what is most sacred to others.

When Franklin Graham registers his disapproval, it�s undoubtedly because he genuinely believes that it�s wrong to mock another person�s deeply held faith. On the other hand, when secular opinion-makers voice the same concern, it�s probably because they are genuinely afraid. Any moderately informed moderate Muslim knows that secular pundits have no problem if someone mocks the things held sacred by Catholics or Mormons [or Orthodox!]. He will understand that what�s at issue is not whether religion is insulted, but whether Islam is insulted. And, if the most powerful players in the media are afraid of Islam, why wouldn�t he be?

If the moderate Muslim was inclined to resist the radicals, he will be less likely to do so if he looks around and notices that no one else is resisting, except for a handful of people whom the media has labeled as �haters.� Why should he stick his neck out? If the supposed guardians of free speech who are relatively safe from retaliation nevertheless bow to Islamic law, then prudence suggests that he do the same. The constant kowtowing to Islamic demands has the result of putting increased pressure on the moderate Muslim to do some kowtowing of his own. He won�t necessarily join forces with the jihadists, but neither will he do much to oppose them.

One of the ways that the ever-helpful mainstream media is helping the public come to the �right� conclusion about the Garland event is by neglecting to say much about the context surrounding it. Three months before the cartoon contest, Islamic activist groups staged a �Stand with the Prophet� rally in Garland calling for restrictions on speech that is offensive to Islam. It was held in the same room in the same conference center. So the Muhammad art exhibit didn�t pop up out of nowhere. It was a response to the earlier event.

The cartoon contest is best understood not as a gratuitous provocation of Muslims, but as a wake-up call to non-Muslims. It was meant, in part, to show just how far down the road to capitulation we have gone. If we have to abide by Islam�s rules about drawing Muhammad, we may be further down the road than most realize.

Where�s the line at which Americans will take their stand against encroaching Islamization? Judging by the media reaction to the Garland event, the right to robustly criticize the prophet is a line too far. What then? Will Americans draw the line when Muslims request that the sculpture of Muhammad be removed from the Supreme Court chamber? Probably not. Why make a fuss? How about demands for sharia law courts? I�m guessing that many Americans won�t find it difficult to convince themselves that Muslims should be allowed to settle disputes among themselves in their own courts of law. Burqas on buses? Compulsory courses on Islam? Court imposed fines for critics of Islam? All along the road to complete sharia compliance there will be numerous places where one might draw the line�and numerous reasons why it will be deemed prudent not to.

Islam is a religion that respects strength. As Osama bin Laden famously said, �When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse.� This is not simply the idiosyncratic view of one extremist. As Lee Smith writes in The Strong Horse, it �represents the political and social norm� of the Middle-East. And of much of the rest of the Muslim world, as well. When Muslims view the controversy surrounding the cartoon event, they look upon it not as a contest between the forces of tolerance against the forces of �hateful� provocateurs, but as a contest of Islam against non-Islam. The Muhammad cartoon exhibit was a battle in a campaign to see whether or not Islam will dominate. The event organizers understand that. And so do most Muslims.

Many Americans think that if the contest organizers lose the opinion wars, then pluralism is the winner. Most Muslims will look at the issue in a different way. A defeat for the organizers makes it more likely that there will, indeed, be no future for those who slander the prophet of Islam. And that means not much of a future for those moderate Muslims who have only a lukewarm regard for the prophet.

The craven reaction to the cartoon incident comes on top of a number of other Western capitulations to sharia culture, if not always to sharia law. In view of these numerous victories, the moderate Muslim will reasonably conclude that militant Islam is the strong horse. When he places his bets for a secure future for himself and his family, he will place them on the side that looks to be the winning side.

If the citizens of the West are interested in keeping moderate Muslims moderate, they had better start showing more backbone when it comes to defending their freedoms. Many American Muslims no doubt hope that they can continue to live in a sharia-free society. But if their fellow Americans continue to kick the can down the road, it will become increasingly dangerous for them to express that hope. The surest way to push moderate Muslims into the arms of the radicals is to signal to them that if they resist sharia, they�re on their own�they can expect little sympathy and even less in the way of government protection. The response to the cartoon controversy suggests that no one will cover your back if you stand up to extremists. After all, it will be argued, people who won�t conform to Islamic norms are just asking for trouble.

William Kilpatrick: Insulting Religion

"Because Islam has consistently proven itself to be an enemy of Christianity, 'less Islam' is an idea that Catholics [and Orthodox] need to seriously consider... It�s very much in our interest to sow the seeds of doubt about Islam in the minds of Muslims."

Another excellent article by one of the keenest Christian critics of Islam. I consider Kilpatrick's writings to provide a framework for the Orthodox Church in how to deal with the threat of Islam to the Church.  Not merely "Radical Islam," but Islam itself.

More articles by William Kilpatrick:

• Needed: A New Church Policy Toward Islam
• Taking the Islamic Challenge Seriously
• Has the Church in the US Succumbed to the Charms of Islam?

Insulting Religion
by William Kilpatrick, Crisis Magazine � May 13, 2015
Thanks to Raymond Ibrahim
Cartoons not in original article; compiled by Creeping Sharia.

We often hear it said that it is simply wrong to insult the faith of 1.3 billion Muslims. Why, then, isn�t it wrong to insult the faith of 2.2 billion Christians? It�s done every day, and sometimes the insults are hard to take. Christians are understandably upset when art exhibits feature crucifixes immersed in urine or portraits of Mary covered with dung.

It doesn�t require a Ph.D. to figure out why the secular word condemns insults to Muslims but countenances insults to Christians. It�s because the latter won�t come after you with machetes and assault rifles. If Islam were truly a religion of peace, it�s likely that most secularists wouldn�t give a fig about Muslim sensitivities.

Still, having themselves been the target of religious insults, Christians can sympathize with Muslims when their religious sensibilities are assaulted. It follows that many Christians will have scant sympathy for the organizers of the recent Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest in Garland, Texas. Christians wouldn�t like it if atheists exhibited unflattering cartoons of Christ. To be consistent, they should also protest when the founder of Islam is similarly caricatured. That seems to be the general line of argument advanced by critics of the exhibit.

Looked at in a larger context, however, there are good reasons to argue that the event organizers did the world a service�and that includes the Muslim world. Granted, the cartoons will offend many Muslims. Judging by a sample on the Internet, some are of questionable taste. On the other hand, several of the cartoons are well-executed and make valid points about Muhammad.

The winning cartoon from the Garland, Texas 'Draw Muhammad' contest, by Bosch Fawstin.

But what is the context that could possibly justify subjecting Islam�s prophet to the same kind of treatment that is administered daily by political cartoonists to various political figures? Well, for one thing, Muhammad is also a political figure. More accurately, he is a military political leader. I use the word �is� advisedly. For many Muslims, he is as present now as he was to his seventh-century followers. In Islam, he is considered to be a man for all time�the most perfect man who ever lived. Muslims of every generation are expected to model their behavior on his. And for the last ten years of his life, Muhammad�s main preoccupation was warfare. For many Muslims, he is not just their prophet, he is also their commander-in-chief.

According to Islamic scholars, the world is divided into two spheres: the House of Islam and the House of War (all territory that is not controlled by Islam). Islamic tradition holds that peace will only be achieved when the House of War is brought under the rule of Islam. Thus warfare or the support of warfare is a perpetual obligation�although the obligation can be temporarily suspended when Islam is militarily weak.

The larger context in which the Muhammad art exhibit must be evaluated is that Islam is at war with us. Not every Muslim is, of course. Many Muslims, like many Christians, simply ignore those religious obligations they find inconvenient. However, because a great many Muslims do take the warfare obligation seriously, so should we. The reason we don�t is that we are still locked into the sixties-era belief that war is always optional. Back then, it was considered the height of sophistication to ask, �What if they gave a war and no one came?� But a much more pertinent question is this: �What if they gave a war and only one side showed up?� The answer is that the side that shows up usually becomes the winning side.

The same applies to ideological wars. The side that fails to realize that one is in progress ends up the loser. The event in Garland was essentially a battle in an ideological war�one that we are losing because we are scarcely aware of its existence. In places where Muslims make up only a small minority of the population, the preferred method of warfare is the stealth operation: the gradual and piecemeal acquisition of power and influence. In Europe, the UK, and the U.S., Islamist groups apply steady pressure on local communities to accept first this and then that aspect of Islamic culture and sharia law. The initial requests seem moderate enough: halal menus in schools, Islam-friendly textbooks, hijabs in hospitals, and sharia courts to adjudicate Muslim family matters. And then suddenly, after the softening-up process is well-advanced, it�s �You must comply with our laws about depicting a prophet.�

This is the battle that the organizers of the cartoon event are fighting. Ultimately, it�s a question of whether or not sharia law will be allowed to trump the First Amendment. And �ultimately� is not that far in the future. In Europe and the UK, the courts, the media, the churches, and public officials have already self-censored themselves into a state of semi-dhimmitude.

The keynote speaker at the Garland event was Geert Wilders, a member of the Dutch Parliament. Wilders, who has been under police protection for eleven years, has firsthand knowledge of the culture wars in Europe. His key message is that Islam is winning because Western cultures are cooperating in their own overthrow�particularly by silencing those who dare to speak out about Islamization. He is one of numerous Europeans who have been dragged through the court system (for many years in his case) for the crime of defaming Islam.

Wilders began his talk with the observation that �Islam has declared war on us, on our Judeo-Christian civilization. Islam wants to rob us of our freedoms and liberties.� If you don�t agree with that, then the rest of what he said will seem unnecessarily harsh. Here are some excerpts:

If we fail, we will be enslaved. So the only option is to defend our freedom with all the energy we have. 

Let us de-Islamize our societies! 

Fortunately, there are Muslims who do not live according to Islamic commands. But there is no moderate Islam. 

The less Islam, the better!

You can see why Wilders lives in a safe house and is accompanied by a Dutch security detail wherever he goes. But if he is correct about the current situation�the ideological war against Judeo-Christian civilization�then his recommendations make perfect sense. If it is in the nature of Islam to wage war against non-Muslims, then it stands to reason that if you�re not Islamic, you should want to reverse the Islamization process.

�The less Islam, the better� is one of those unthinkable thoughts that we need to start thinking about. It�s not an expression of animosity toward Muslims (Wilders has been clear on this), but rather a recognition that Muhammad�s law will always be a threat to freedom until, as Churchill put it, �the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.� A world without Islam does not mean a world without Egyptians or Saudis or Iranians. But if we are at war with a dangerous ideology, why wouldn�t we want it to fail�that is, to lose its power as a motivating force?

Because Islam has consistently proven itself to be an enemy of Christianity, �less Islam� is an idea that Catholics need to seriously consider. Catholics have been conditioned to unthinkingly celebrate the world�s �rich� diversity of beliefs. They should also recognize that there are dangerous diversities that ought to be discredited. As I wrote in a previous column, �Church policy toward Islam should be geared toward � undercutting Islam�s faith in itself.� In other words, it�s very much in our interest�and in the best interests of many Muslims�to sow the seeds of doubt about Islam in the minds of Muslims. The place to start is with Muhammad�the man from whom jihadists draw their inspiration.

How do you undercut faith in Muhammad? As I suggested in my series on Church policy toward Islam, the best method is desensitization. Muslims need to get used to the idea that their prophet can be criticized (and Western opinion-makers need to learn the same lesson). Because of who he was and what he did, Muhammad cannot stand up to too much exposure�which may be the underlying reason why it is forbidden to depict him.

That was an essential element of Wilders� talk. �Depicting Muhammad,� he said, �is an act of liberation:�

Let us hold similar exhibitions all over the free world. From Canada, to Australia, to Europe � So let us expose Muhammad. Let us show the world what Islam truly is. And let us support Muslims like Bosch [Bosch Fawstin, the winner of the cartoon contest], who wish to leave Islam and liberate themselves from fear.

I�m not saying that cartoons are the best method of going about the desensitization process. As I said in my previous pieces on the subject, I would prefer approaches that are less confrontational. But the cartoonists have done us a favor. By breaking the ice, they make it easier for others to follow up with more exposure of Muhammad. This could be done with books, articles, documentary films, TV specials, and, yes, pictorial representations of Muhammad. If you want �less Islam,� you want more pictures of Muhammad and more discussion about him. Cartoon contests may not be the ideal way to open the discussion, but if Islam and its prophet are put beyond discussion, we are all put in danger.

We can take some lessons on desensitization from the various media attempts to undermine faith in Christ. They do it, not with cartoons, but with supposedly disinterested investigative reports aimed at raising doubts: How much do we really know about Jesus? What do the Hidden Gospels reveal? Have archaeologists found the tomb of Jesus? And so forth.

I�m not suggesting that we use dishonest and underhanded tactics. Fortunately, it�s not necessary to resort to sly innuendo when asking questions about Muhammad. That�s because all the bad news about him is recorded in detail in the standard Islamic sources�the Koran, the Sira, and the Hadith. Many Muslims have only a scant acquaintance with these sources, but they know that they can�t discount them as unreliable. As Muslims find out more about the life of Muhammad, many will become disenchanted. And, as Islam scholar Raymond Ibrahim has observed, disillusionment about Muhammad is one of the main reasons that Muslims leave Islam.

One of the chief obstacles to initiating a campaign of desensitization is the Church�s semi-official stance on Islam. Church leaders are so committed to the path of genteel dialogue and discussion that they can�t seem to imagine any other approach. And whereas Wilders believes that Islam is an enemy of Judeo-Christian civilization, many Catholics seem to be acting on the assumption that Islam is a part of Judeo-Christian civilization�as though an attack on it is an attack on us.

For example, following the shooting in Garland, Texas, L�Osservatore Romano decried the event as �blasphemous.� Blasphemous? The last time I checked, Muhammad was not one of our prophets. Why is the Vatican newspaper running interference for him? And why did they do the same in 1989 after the publication of Salman Rushdie�s unflattering portrayal of Muhammad in The Satanic Verses?

Do Catholics have a vested interest in protecting Muhammad�s reputation? In shielding Islam from criticism? In Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis said that the right way to respond to �episodes of violent fundamentalism� is to remember that �authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence.� Statements like this are well-intentioned, but they have the effect of letting Islam off the hook whenever violence is committed in its name. Why do Catholics have this habit of taking the side of Islam whenever its honor is called into question?

The answer, I think, is that Church authorities are working under the assumption that religion is on the whole a good thing, and therefore Islam must, on the whole, be a good thing. In line with this assumption, theologians and catechists tend to focus on those aspects of Islam that resemble Christian beliefs and practices. By the same token, beliefs and practices that diverge significantly from Christian ones are dismissed as unrepresentative aberrations. Ever since Vatican II, the Church�s policy has been to emphasize the things it supposedly holds in common with Islam�belief in one God, veneration of Jesus and Mary, a shared moral code, and the like.

This may prove to be a formula for disaster. Consider some of the downside. The more the Church identifies with Islam, the more it will be identified with Islam in the eyes of the world. Does the Church really want to be identified with a religion that assigns an inferior status to women, that kills apostates, and countenances female genital mutilation and honor violence?

Declarations of solidarity with Islam need to be reconsidered. So also should the notion that we must respect other people�s religious beliefs. Up to a point, yes, we should respect other faiths. But there are many aspects of Islam that go beyond that point. Islam was founded by a man who murdered, raped, enslaved, and pillaged. Why should we respect him or refrain from depicting him? If we respect and abide by that Islamic prohibition, then, as radio host Rush Limbaugh asked the other day, �why wouldn�t Americans have to respect and obey Islam�s laws and punishments regarding gays and women?�

As I wrote in a recent piece, the attempt to avoid those things that provoke Islam puts us on a slippery slope. The people killed inside the Lindt Chocolat Caf� in Sydney weren�t drawing cartoons, they were simply unbelievers. The Jews killed inside the kosher market in Paris had done nothing to provoke Islam�except for being Jews. More to the point, numerous Catholic beliefs and practices are provocative to Muslims, and are severely curtailed or forbidden in Muslim countries. Meanwhile, thousands of Christians have been killed simply for the provocation of being Christian.

The Church needs to reexamine its relationship with Islam. Instead of looking for opportunities to express esteem and respect for Islam, it may be time for the Church to look for opportunities to distance itself from Islam. Instead of looking for ways to be less provocative, the Church needs to be more proactive in proclaiming the message of Christ and doing what it can to undermine the destructive message of Muhammad. Catholics should strive to do this in a non-confrontational manner, but this will not always be possible.

_____

William Kilpatrick taught for many years at Boston College. He is the author of several books about cultural and religious issues, including Psychological Seduction; Why Johnny Can�t Tell Right From Wrong; and Christianity, Islam and Atheism: The Struggle for the Soul of the West. He is also the author of a new book entitled Insecurity. His articles have appeared in numerous publications, including Catholic World Report, National Catholic Register, Aleteia, Saint Austin Review, Investor�s Business Daily, and FrontPage Magazine. His work is supported in part by the Shillman Foundation.

Freedom, Provocation and Targets

The Muslim predisposition towards jihad means �no cartoons required.�

by Ralph H. Sidway

The ultimate provocation:

A Coptic Orthodox monk makes the Sign of the Cross.

The recent Muslim jihad attack at a Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest in Garland Texas has generated strong reactions across the political spectrum. Four of us in my church recently had a fairly rigorous discussion of some of the issues involved, with two believing the cartoon contest needlessly provoked Muslim anger, and myself and one other siding with a strong commitment to freedom of speech/expression. You can�t escape this debate. It is literally everywhere, and will likely grow in significance in the days ahead.

Although there are many expected responses along partisan lines, there have been some surprises on both the conservative and liberal ends of the teeter-totter. For example, some Fox News personalities have openly blamed Pamela Geller, the �Draw Muhammad� event coordinator, for provoking the jihad attack. (Ms. Geller has written an articulate defense, which has been published as an op-ed by TIME, Inc.)

On the flip side, MSNBC�s �All In� host Chris Hayes, in a somewhat torturous apologetic, advocated for being provocative when it flushes out extremist would-be murderers:

My feeling, though, in the wake of this, is that there�s some part of me that feels that if the thing you�re worried about is doing an event that will provoke two people rolling up in body armor and automatic weapons trying to murder people, then it actually weirdly is important that you do that� I don�t care if it was a provocation, if what it�s provoking is attempted murder, because I want to live in a society that that is essentially not okay and not tolerated.

Ryan Mauro of The Clarion Project ably cuts through the fog of words surrounding the Garland Texas jihad attack:

The media's focus on the Mohammed drawings contest misses the mark. Whether or not one agrees with holding the event is irrelevant as to why this attack happened. It happened because of the desire to find a target; not because of the target itself.

Mauro is absolutely correct: when you�re a Muslim striving to follow as perfectly as possible the Koran and the example of Muhammad, the dar-al-Harb is filled with targets. With ISIS commanding Muslims in America to wage jihad against non-Muslims, there will be some takers who will do just that.

For Americans and Western Europeans, cartoons of Muhammad seem to have become the flashpoint of the �clash of civilizations.� But for Christians living in the Islamic world, their very being is all the provocation Muslims need. Witness:

• �Arab Spring� Muslim gangs go through buses in Cairo, Egypt checking the wrists of the passengers. Those with the cross tattooed on their wrists � a Coptic tradition � are summarily killed;

• 21 Coptic Christians in Libya are beheaded because they refuse to deny Jesus Christ and convert to Islam, or to pay the jizya;

• 30 Ethiopian Christians are shot or beheaded for refusing to deny Jesus Christ;

• The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia declares that all Christians must be expelled from the Arabian peninsula and all churches destroyed;

• 100 years after the Armenian Genocide (which taken in the larger context of Ottoman persecution saw 4 million Christians killed by their Muslim overlords and neighbors between 1894 and 1922) we are witnessing yet another Muslim genocide against Christians.

Christians themselves in the Islamic world are � by their very being, by their very presence � all the provocation Muslims need to slaughter them. No cartoons required.

Christians in the Islamic world cannot openly wear or make the Sign of the Cross without it provoking Muslims.  They don�t even have to do that much, they just have to be breathing. And now with Muslim desecration of Christian grave sites, they don�t even have to be doing that. 

When one has studied the phenomenon of Muslim attacks against non-Muslims for a while, one gets the sense that the term �provocation� is completely inaccurate and inappropriate. There is a better word which describes the Muslim pathology: �predisposition.�

The extent to which a Muslim grows in devout observance of Islam is the extent to which he/she is likely to follow more and more literally the commands in the Koran and the example of Muhammad. Devout observance leads to the predisposition to take action against non-Muslim targets which the Muslim believes offends his religion. 

In Muslim majority nations, this predisposition becomes so intense that the mere presence of Christians or other non-Muslims cannot be tolerated at all. This very principle is clearly expressed in the Koran:

And fight them until there is no more fitnah (disbelief and polytheism: i.e. worshipping others besides Allah) and the religion (worship) will all be for Allah Alone. � Sura 8.39

Spirituality is often mixed with paradox. Most Westerners cannot understand that, and therefore cannot accept that the more devout a Muslim becomes, the more likely he is to become a jihadi. 

It would seem that God is not without a sense of irony, for in the Islamic world, as we have seen this tsunami of Muslim genocidal persecution of Christians, we have also seen immensely powerful examples of heightened Christian faith. 

Rather than leading Christians to fear, hatred and retaliation (though one can find some examples of those humanly understandable reactions also), the Muslim slaughter of Christians has provoked (there�s that word again) responses of absolutely divine, Christ-like behavior, with Coptic, Iraqi, Nigerian and Niger Christians forgiving and praying for the Muslims who are killing their families. These examples are the very definition of true freedom: freedom from hatred, fear, and even death itself. 

Whereas the Muslim jihadis are slaves. Slaves of rage, bloodlust, and the example of their warlord prophet. Slaves of Allah, who commands them to kill.

For those who can slow down their own reactive thought processes and ponder this dichotomy between the evil, murderous behavior of devout Muslims, and the prayerful, sacrificial and forgiving response of the Christians they are persecuting, it should be clear that one of these two paths is patently false, and the other is amazingly, shiningly true.

With this in mind, it then becomes sadly clear that the future will only bring more proofs of the falsehood of Islam, in the form of more murderous Muslim jihad attacks against all manner of �provocations.�  (May the future also bring more proofs of true Christian witness as well.)

For the devout jihadi, the entire world is filled with targets. As with the Muslim persecution of Christians, no cartoons are needed.