I am always finding wonderful subtlety in the author’s work. In this case, Aretha Franklin’s hit song came to be a response against sexual discrimination even more than against racial discrimination.
One of the most misogynist religions in the world is portrayed as demanding respect for itself by borrowing a feminist anthem.
“Turkey is preparing to publish a document that represents a revolutionary reinterpretation of Islam – and a controversial and radical modernization of the religion.”
DrClown: well, gee, good – we’ll see, but “Recapitulation recapitulates recapitulation,” as Poor Richard says. Wlll the new document contain anything about excommunicating terrorists?
What the world needs now is an Almanac of Common Sense.
This current strip is a gem. I tried to get Michigan to put Aretha Franklin on its statehood coin (maybe along with Madonna and Gordon Lightfoot), but no imagination flickered on in Lansing.
DrClown, I predict the schism will cause fathers to fight with sons and brothers will kill brothers. Religion is forever about power for the leaders. The religious hierarchy of Islam is not exactly like that we see in Christian denominations. Still, if you are an ambitious ladder climber stuck on a rung, the best way to get to the top is to separate your group from the rest.
Science works to find the single best explanation. Religion constantly generates differences, each claiming that all the others are wrong in some way.
Interesting to think that for any given set of beliefs and interpretations put forth by one denomination, all of the remaining 99.9…% agree that there is at least one aspect in which they are wrong. They just won’t be able to agree on which particular nuance is the error.
Author, you are getting better and better. Thanks.
Islam isn’t violent. FundaMENTALIST loonies using Islam as an excuse to tear some shit up are violent. FundaMENTALIST loonies using Islam as a method of control are violent.
A hammer’s just a hammer. When someone uses it right, it becomes a tool. When someone uses it wrong it becomes a weapon. But no matter how it’s used, you can’t blame the hammer.
We don’t blame Islam, or the Qur’an, the Bible or whatever other religion.
We blame the people that follow those stupid ideas.
The idea is just that, an idea. It may be true or it might be false (i have my little idea on the matter but that’s not relevant), but an idea can’t be good or evil in by itself.
The only way that religion forms a benign and useful “tool”, IMHO, is as an anaesthetic for the fear of death (death’s a scary thing, so I don’t blame anybody for trying to wish it away).
But to take your tool analogy further, what use is a ploughshare likely to be put to if it’s shaped more like a sword? Religion may be morally inert, as you say, but its nasty aspects are inevitably attractive to nasty minds, far more than its benign elements appeal to the good in people.
/apologies for the gravity; cartoon is the funniest one yet
“Ayashi Says: but an idea can’t be good or evil in by itself.”
some pearls of wisdom in the coran.
2:216 Fighting is enjoined on you, and is an object of dislike to you; and it may be that you dislike a thing while it is good for you, and it may be that you love a thing while it is evil for you, and Allah knows, while you do not know.
3:118 O you who believe! do not take for intimate friends from among others than your own people; they do not fall short of inflicting loss upon you; they love what distresses you; vehement hatred has already appeared from out of their mouths, and what their breasts conceal is greater still; indeed, We have made the communications clear to you, if you will understand.
2:191 And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from whence they drove you out, and persecution is severer than slaughter, and do not fight with them at the Sacred Mosque until they fight with you in it, but if they do fight you, then slay them; such is the recompense of the unbelievers.
4:101 And when you journey in the earth, there is no blame on you if you shorten the prayer, if you fear that those who disbelieve will cause you distress, surely the unbelievers are your open enemy.
A set of ideas (religion) that tells you to not make friends and despise someone who doesn’t believe the same unprovable ideas that you have, and then gives a name those that differ from you calling them unbelievers, then tells you that those unbelievers are the worst creatures on earth, and to fight them even if you don’t feel like it because god knows better, and to kill unbelievers… seriously, some ideas are just evil. And denying it is just nonsense.
what kind of person will spend his youth learning this book by heart and come out as an understanding and capable of fact based logic and rationality human being?
You’re being somewhat selective in what you choose to “understand” in what you wrote. I see something totally different and I’m looking at the same passage with the same logical, non-religious eyes as you.
Religion does not poison everything. A closed mind does. If religion was as evil as everyone thinks we would all be wading around waste deep in blood. Those of us lucky enough to be still standing anyway. If religion was as evil as everyone thinks we’d probably already be living through the nuclear winter. Call it what it is; fucking headcases who, if they didn’t have religion would use race. If they didn’t have race they’d use power…or greed….or boredom…or meanness….or just ‘coz.
McGronk,
Then it would just be a sword and no good would ever come of it. Since we know that not to be true (see “waste deep in blood” point above) we have to assume that it’s a ploughshare that’s shaped as a ploughshare that was originally intended to be used as a ploughshare and the fault still, and always will, lay in the user.
not sure roodbooy, I think religion is praty bad… just because it’s tamed now, I do not feel like thinking better of it, it’s like a caged tiger.
anyway, I think this quote works well:
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
Steven Weinberg Quote
so, the bad people will do the greed thing, but the good people would not have a divine warrant to hang gays. Everyone wins.
Gosh, rOOdbOOy, what does it take? We have waded in the blood spilled by religions for all of history. South American native peoples sacrificed thousands of virgins to bring on the crops. The Bull of 1484 put out by Pope Innocent VIII led to the torture and murder of perhaps millions of innocent victims–men, old ladies, babies, children, teenagers (well, they sort of ask for it, huh?) and most especially beautiful young women, who were obviously witches because they stirred up the priests’darker thoughts (compare a certain local T-shirt). Puritans and Pilgrims, as we call them, were persecuted in England for a damn good set of reasons, and so they came over here to poke it to the demonic peoples of the forest. Whole nations were wiped out by guns, smallpox, and the Holy Imperative from god. If you want a quick look at the reality of the Salem witch incident, please read or reread Athur Miller’s “The Crucible.” –It’s right out of the history books. I needn’t mention the whole history of Islam, need I? Don’t forget the crusades, which pissed ’em off in the first place. Are you aware of what happened to most of the children who set out on the childrens’ crusade? In all fairness, the church sometimess stuck it their own: St. Joan was dissected as she burned, as were most of the young women witches. We’re kindlier over here: we just hanged ’em. Or crushed ’em under rocks. The Irish “troubles,” the wars in the American West, the genocide committed by Europeans in Africa and Australia and South America — all in God’s name. And just what is this flood of bloody conflict in the old testament about? Believe or die.
I do think that is enough for now. I have to close the front door; the blood is seeping in. True believers are out there killling the planet because the Bible tells them so.
Goddess (a kindlier, gentler imaginary Being) gave us Jesus and Mo to help keep our heads on straight.
Poor Poor Richard’s frustration with the clueless makes me think of the U.S.’s gun defenders’ slogan re: guns don’t kill people: people kill people.
Could all these wars and burnings and juked prosecutions and hatred for certain groups have been enacted without holy books to incite these acts?
If thou shalt not suffer a witch to live was never preached to you, would you kill women in a systematic holocaust because a 2-headed calf was born, just for shits ‘n’ giggles?
Jesus & Mo (the characters) are absurd, blinkered, and oddly very sweet. J&M (the cartoon) is brilliant: sharp, delicious, irresistible. Salman Rushdie
Jesus and Mo cartoons are wonderfully funny and true. Richard Dawkins
Jesus and Mo make the world a better place, bless their little hearts. Ophelia Benson
In a world defined by outrage and offence and liberal spinelessness, Jesus and Mo is a treasure, whose value we should never fail to recognize. Read them. Laugh. And think. Kenan Malik
The brilliant, celebrated, freaking hilarious atheist comic strip ... Greta Christina
...rays of sanity in a befuddled world. Keri Hulme
The liveliest depictions of Muhammad currently available... Malise Ruthven
J & Mo is the funniest and most consistently thought-provoking cartoon strip on the Net. In a saner world, it would run in a major newspaper. Nelson Jones, Heresy Corner
Consistently amusing, frequently thought-provoking and often heart-warming. New Humanist
Jesus & Mo is one of the most wonderful things on the internet.. JT Eberhard
Wittily captures much of the absurdity of religious apologetics. Mano Singham
I love jesusandmo.net cartoons - witty and sharp! Katha Pollitt
Often hilarious, frequently wry, these cartoons do what all the best cartoons do: they tell the truth through humour. Terry Sanderson, NSS President
...a wonderfully acid British cartoonist... Nick Cohen
I love the scrappy mockery of Jesus and Mo. Freedom of speech
includes the freedom to mock any person, any thing, any activity, and
any belief -- and J&M stands up for this unflinchingly Richard Stallman
...empowering, important and deeply progressive, not to mention hilarious... Council of Ex-Muslims
June 29, 2011
I always loved that, essentially “Don’t call me violent or I’ll stab you!”.
Magic …
Behead those who say Islam is violent!
:p
I think this might be my new favourite…
That’s going to be stuck in my head for days now.
really funny, I literaly lol’ed, specially the I’ll burn down your embassy line
absolutely wonderful 🙂
He puts so much emotion into every line, all without moving his lips.
SOUL!
Woohoo! Sing it out, girlfriend!
I am always finding wonderful subtlety in the author’s work. In this case, Aretha Franklin’s hit song came to be a response against sexual discrimination even more than against racial discrimination.
One of the most misogynist religions in the world is portrayed as demanding respect for itself by borrowing a feminist anthem.
Nice.
And for those that aren’t afraid of ear worms, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xALiBgzPzE
Please tell me they’re going to form a band!1!
They could come and play at Wembley! What a crowd they’d pull! What a chance for some violence against the West…
A positive note? :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7264903.stm
“Turkey is preparing to publish a document that represents a revolutionary reinterpretation of Islam – and a controversial and radical modernization of the religion.”
DrClown: well, gee, good – we’ll see, but “Recapitulation recapitulates recapitulation,” as Poor Richard says. Wlll the new document contain anything about excommunicating terrorists?
What the world needs now is an Almanac of Common Sense.
This current strip is a gem. I tried to get Michigan to put Aretha Franklin on its statehood coin (maybe along with Madonna and Gordon Lightfoot), but no imagination flickered on in Lansing.
“Yeah, Islam is a religion of peace
And if you say it ain’t you’re gonna end up deceased”
Oh God – I’ve just shat myself.
lols.
Brilliant!!!
DrClown, I predict the schism will cause fathers to fight with sons and brothers will kill brothers. Religion is forever about power for the leaders. The religious hierarchy of Islam is not exactly like that we see in Christian denominations. Still, if you are an ambitious ladder climber stuck on a rung, the best way to get to the top is to separate your group from the rest.
Science works to find the single best explanation. Religion constantly generates differences, each claiming that all the others are wrong in some way.
Interesting to think that for any given set of beliefs and interpretations put forth by one denomination, all of the remaining 99.9…% agree that there is at least one aspect in which they are wrong. They just won’t be able to agree on which particular nuance is the error.
Author, you are getting better and better. Thanks.
Oi, that’s disrespectful!
haha! this is so stupid..
Oi, that’s disrespectful!
Yes, to Aretha Franklin. Somebody, stone me. Please.
Total enlightenment!!!
At last it’s in the open….
Now we know where the “Mo” in MoTown came from.
Iraq, South of 8 Mile, is called Irok.
http://boskolives.wordpress.com/
Also:
Dear Poor Richard,
I believe Gordon Lightfoot is Canadian by birth, and not interested on
being placed on a falling in value U.S. Coin.
http://boskolives.wordpress.com/
jerryw: you’re right; I actually wanted all three singers sitting on the rail of the
Edmund Fitzgerald while catching salmon in the Straits.
Just amazing… Rock on, author, rock on.
I died lol’ing.
Islam isn’t violent. FundaMENTALIST loonies using Islam as an excuse to tear some shit up are violent. FundaMENTALIST loonies using Islam as a method of control are violent.
A hammer’s just a hammer. When someone uses it right, it becomes a tool. When someone uses it wrong it becomes a weapon. But no matter how it’s used, you can’t blame the hammer.
r00bd00y, precisely!
We don’t blame Islam, or the Qur’an, the Bible or whatever other religion.
We blame the people that follow those stupid ideas.
The idea is just that, an idea. It may be true or it might be false (i have my little idea on the matter but that’s not relevant), but an idea can’t be good or evil in by itself.
Hahaha! I’ll be singing that in my head for a couple weeks….
R00db0y, yes – with reservations.
The only way that religion forms a benign and useful “tool”, IMHO, is as an anaesthetic for the fear of death (death’s a scary thing, so I don’t blame anybody for trying to wish it away).
But to take your tool analogy further, what use is a ploughshare likely to be put to if it’s shaped more like a sword? Religion may be morally inert, as you say, but its nasty aspects are inevitably attractive to nasty minds, far more than its benign elements appeal to the good in people.
/apologies for the gravity; cartoon is the funniest one yet
“Ayashi Says: but an idea can’t be good or evil in by itself.”
some pearls of wisdom in the coran.
2:216 Fighting is enjoined on you, and is an object of dislike to you; and it may be that you dislike a thing while it is good for you, and it may be that you love a thing while it is evil for you, and Allah knows, while you do not know.
3:118 O you who believe! do not take for intimate friends from among others than your own people; they do not fall short of inflicting loss upon you; they love what distresses you; vehement hatred has already appeared from out of their mouths, and what their breasts conceal is greater still; indeed, We have made the communications clear to you, if you will understand.
2:191 And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from whence they drove you out, and persecution is severer than slaughter, and do not fight with them at the Sacred Mosque until they fight with you in it, but if they do fight you, then slay them; such is the recompense of the unbelievers.
4:101 And when you journey in the earth, there is no blame on you if you shorten the prayer, if you fear that those who disbelieve will cause you distress, surely the unbelievers are your open enemy.
A set of ideas (religion) that tells you to not make friends and despise someone who doesn’t believe the same unprovable ideas that you have, and then gives a name those that differ from you calling them unbelievers, then tells you that those unbelievers are the worst creatures on earth, and to fight them even if you don’t feel like it because god knows better, and to kill unbelievers… seriously, some ideas are just evil. And denying it is just nonsense.
what kind of person will spend his youth learning this book by heart and come out as an understanding and capable of fact based logic and rationality human being?
religion poisons everything
Lordy, lordy, I loves this strip.
tie,
You’re being somewhat selective in what you choose to “understand” in what you wrote. I see something totally different and I’m looking at the same passage with the same logical, non-religious eyes as you.
Religion does not poison everything. A closed mind does. If religion was as evil as everyone thinks we would all be wading around waste deep in blood. Those of us lucky enough to be still standing anyway. If religion was as evil as everyone thinks we’d probably already be living through the nuclear winter. Call it what it is; fucking headcases who, if they didn’t have religion would use race. If they didn’t have race they’d use power…or greed….or boredom…or meanness….or just ‘coz.
McGronk,
Then it would just be a sword and no good would ever come of it. Since we know that not to be true (see “waste deep in blood” point above) we have to assume that it’s a ploughshare that’s shaped as a ploughshare that was originally intended to be used as a ploughshare and the fault still, and always will, lay in the user.
not sure roodbooy, I think religion is praty bad… just because it’s tamed now, I do not feel like thinking better of it, it’s like a caged tiger.
anyway, I think this quote works well:
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
Steven Weinberg Quote
so, the bad people will do the greed thing, but the good people would not have a divine warrant to hang gays. Everyone wins.
Gosh, rOOdbOOy, what does it take? We have waded in the blood spilled by religions for all of history. South American native peoples sacrificed thousands of virgins to bring on the crops. The Bull of 1484 put out by Pope Innocent VIII led to the torture and murder of perhaps millions of innocent victims–men, old ladies, babies, children, teenagers (well, they sort of ask for it, huh?) and most especially beautiful young women, who were obviously witches because they stirred up the priests’darker thoughts (compare a certain local T-shirt). Puritans and Pilgrims, as we call them, were persecuted in England for a damn good set of reasons, and so they came over here to poke it to the demonic peoples of the forest. Whole nations were wiped out by guns, smallpox, and the Holy Imperative from god. If you want a quick look at the reality of the Salem witch incident, please read or reread Athur Miller’s “The Crucible.” –It’s right out of the history books. I needn’t mention the whole history of Islam, need I? Don’t forget the crusades, which pissed ’em off in the first place. Are you aware of what happened to most of the children who set out on the childrens’ crusade? In all fairness, the church sometimess stuck it their own: St. Joan was dissected as she burned, as were most of the young women witches. We’re kindlier over here: we just hanged ’em. Or crushed ’em under rocks. The Irish “troubles,” the wars in the American West, the genocide committed by Europeans in Africa and Australia and South America — all in God’s name. And just what is this flood of bloody conflict in the old testament about? Believe or die.
I do think that is enough for now. I have to close the front door; the blood is seeping in. True believers are out there killling the planet because the Bible tells them so.
Goddess (a kindlier, gentler imaginary Being) gave us Jesus and Mo to help keep our heads on straight.
Thanks for all the magic.
Damn, I’ll never hear this song quite the same way again! XD
Poor Poor Richard’s frustration with the clueless makes me think of the U.S.’s gun defenders’ slogan re: guns don’t kill people: people kill people.
Could all these wars and burnings and juked prosecutions and hatred for certain groups have been enacted without holy books to incite these acts?
If thou shalt not suffer a witch to live was never preached to you, would you kill women in a systematic holocaust because a 2-headed calf was born, just for shits ‘n’ giggles?
Seems a little more relevant with the recent attack on the US embassy in Libya