South Park Muhammad Cartoon

The makers of South Park have recently received death threat from radical Islamists on www.radicalislamists.com. The Comedy Central show “South Park” has been one of controversy for a long time, and has been criticized on several occasions for its mocking of social problems, celebrates, religions, and world issues. But, it is unusual for the show to receive deaths that state "they will die like Theo Van Gogh" (Danish director brutal murdered for making a movie critical of Islam). The members and makers of the website claim that they were not sending a death threat but, a warning of would happen to the makers of South Park in the future. The Prophet Muhammad, who appears in South Parks 200th episode, was in fact censored due to the fact that it is blasphemy to portal any images of the prophet. But the only problem was that the makers of South Park censored Muhammad’s image by having him wear a bear suit. Muslim director Aryaan Hirsi Ali, who had worked with Van Gogh, believes that even though the bear costume may seem like a minor issue it is a serious offense to radical Islamists. Ali on CNN stated, “This is clearly a threat considering that the South Park maker’s addresses were posted on the website for any Jihadist to see”. She even went on to say, “Most Muslims don’t follow the scriptures that justify killing those that disgrace Allah or the Prophet Muhammad but, Van Goghs murder proves that even small extremists groups will take drastic measures for their beliefs”. Ali also, believes that Islam is not above criticism and that Radical Islamists are morally wrong in their Jihadists beliefs that disgrace the religion and its followers.

Greencorp Project

The Greencorp Project was hard at some points but, overall it was worth it. For our group just meeting was hard at times especially in the beginning. Our first member was hard to get a hold of and eventually he had to drop out and we got Jarred. Jarred was able to help us give a theme, name, and lyrics for our song “Go Green”. He also already had some beats for us to choose from which, made things easier because at that point in time we were behind on the project. When it came time to record the song unfortunately Jarred was not able to meet us due to some unfortunate turn of events. This left Francis and I with a problem in that none of us could rap to our own song or knew how to record it. Luckily, we were finally able to find some people on campus that could help us produce something adequate for our trip to the Greencorp base. Overall I feel that this project has helped me personally learn about the problems in New Orleans that our Greencorp members have to go through daily. Jarred’s situation for example was very unfortunate, however, we are meeting him Monday so we can record a song with him in it, which was our original plan and this will surely end our project on a better note.

A Soldiers Sacrifice

I thought the Soldiers Sacrifice video was superb and informing with many good points. The people that worked on it did a spectacular job interviewing and acquiring videos of what is going on in Iraq. I especially liked how they focused on lieutenant Watada and his fight to get an honorable discharge. He is the first soldier in United States to refuse to go into a war he does not support. I in fact, did not know about Watada’s case until I saw the video, which showed how intense this case has been. Only recently did Obama pardon Watada, but he still has not gotten an honorable discharge from the US Army.
Don’t get me wrong I totally enjoyed the movie but, I do wish they talked a little more about some of the reasons why it sticks to be a US soldier in Iraq right now. My Cousin was in Iraq not too long ago and he said “it did not feel right to go into Iraq as liberators and come back as so called persecutors.” He talked about how the people had wanted the US military out a long time ago and that the tensions between the Iraqis and the US have grown. He said the worst part about being in Iraq was trying to tell friend from foe, which the film did show in one scenes. Overall I think the film was important in its message of “why we are waging this war” and I feel this is something our generation should take notice for the future.

Protest and politics before the Modern Era

I have recently been reading a book that I find very interesting called The Saint and the Sultan by Paul Moses. It is about St. Francis and his visit with Sultan al-Kamil during the Fifth Crusade. What I find most interesting about the book is that it portrays the untold story of how St. Francis was an influential counter-cultural antiwar advocate of his time. We usually don’t think about there being counter-cultural protesters during the Middle Ages and especially Saints. But, St. Francis was major opponent towards the main ideology of the time. He condoned war and all acts violence during a time when war was highly supported by the main ideology. He even went against the call for the Fifth Crusade, in 1217, to invade Egypt. Francis did not agree with the popular crusades propaganda that it was okay to treat the Muslims as less than human. Francis believed that all peoples were equal in Gods eye, including Muslims, and he was heavily criticized for his belief. In 1219 he met with Sultan al-Kamil of the Saracen Empire and tried to convert him, when the Fifth crusades were still active. He failed but, al-Kamil was impressed by Francis bold attempt, while the European Kings and even some Church leaders found his attempt repulsive.

Amerville

The Amerville play was fantastic a truly will put together performance and fun to watch. It had a very talented cast that could set the mood of a scene from funny to startlingly serious. Even thought the play was full of hilarious scenes, such as the drunken Jean Lafitte and the Fire Arms Salesman, the play had a message that was very grave. A message that stated that even in the United States (the country of freedom) there are still many freedoms of the people that have been spoiled and we the people can make the country a better place. The play referred several times to the post Katrina situations that have been ignored for so long. People are still living in recovery mobile homes and the levies still have not been fixed. The play also sung songs about the hate and violence in the world and how blatantly stupid it is in actuality. For instance, the play described how the Jews (Israelis) and Arabs hate each other when in actuality they are very similar to each other (Like cousins as the actor said in the play). The play’s message in the end was magnetic in that the lyrics stated that these grave situations are not all FEMA’s or the government’s problem to solve they are our responsibility. It is us the normal citizens of the United States who should not be ignoring the real world as we sit in our homes watching survivor (a show that does not teach you how to survive) . We should be the ones making an effort to help make this country and the world a better place.

Zapatista

I mentioned last week that rapper Zack de la Rocha of RATM had been and even still is supporting the Zapatista movement in Chiapas, Mexico. He even in the 1990’s took trips all the way down to the southern most jungles of Mexico to visit the EZLN’s or Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion National. The EZLN want equal opportunities and access to necessities for the native farming minorities of southern Mexico. Why this is such a radical move for an artist to be supporting a movement like this is because the Zapatista movement is a very drastic one.
It got started because the native minorities for a long time in Mexico have been neglected and left at the bottom of the social ladder for many years. The people believe that the neo-liberal government (who RATM believed was backed by USA) has done nothing to help them and has intentionally left them at the bottom as a cheap labor force. The native people in 1994 made non-violent but emotional marches of protest against the government in Chiapas. The protestors were pushed back by the federal authorities who used brute force on the civilians. Later in the jungle the natives got together and created the well armed Zapatista National Liberation Army which is named after Emilio Zapatista who was a famous Mexican revolutionary in the early 20th century and supposedly fought for the native farmers. When the government saw how much of an organized force the Zapatistas had become they began to come to terms with the EZLN’s who still even now are asking for more radical changes. RATM also made a song supporting the movement called the "People of the Sun".

Rage Against the Machine

“Rage Against the Machine” is the perfect example of a rock protest group. They are major advocates in social activist movements in the United States and elsewhere. Their albums like Renegade, The Battle of Los Angeles, and Evil Empire contain songs that stress deep feelings of protest and are magnetic in their message to get people to join their counter-cultural views. The majority of their political views involves making known the wage slavery that is going on in America (Wage slavery is when workers are paid low wage for hard laboring jobs that require long shifts). They too in there songs complain about the corruption in Americas capitalist system that Tom Morello and De la Rocha believe makes this country a still a not free country.

But to me what makes “Rage Against the Machine” a truly perfect protest group is that they are practically anarchists and go against every political system out there. Even though they seem to be leftists they claim they hate the two party systems and don’t associate to either political party. The reason I think most people see them more as leftists is because the band has had a strong hatred for the Fox News network who has criticized the band on several occasions. In their concerts the band has too referred to the Network as bunch of “Fascist *#8*%*@*$#$@^”. Also band member De La Rocha has been active in supporting the Zapatista Army of National Liberation in Mexico which is a very radical move for anyone who is part of the mainstream music world.