Mahomet in Hell

"Mahomet," a vision of Hell painted by Salvador Dali.

What are Mecca-nized muslims---outraged and "provoked"  by Danish cartoons, and now by Pope Benedict XVI--- going to do about depictions of Mahomet rotting in Hell? And how will today's touchy-feely Western man react to how the muslims react?

 

Imams and other operatives, in a sequel to Cartoon War, have gone to work. Fire. Effigies. Placards in English for CNN .  Curses and cries of doom for the Christian dogs. War against the Cross. It's getting medeival again. Even the moderate King of  Morocco recalled his Ambassador to the Vatican, where security has been increased. In Somalia assailants attacked a Catholic nun working in a hospital,  putting  four bullets in her back.

 

If the Holy Pontiff gets reactions like this from the holy warriors, just by quoting a 14th century Byzantine Christian Emperor on evil, violence and Mahomet, what to expect from depictions of Mahomet in hell with his son Ali, disemboweled by the devil's sword, torso sliced open and guts hanging out?

 

 

That's the image of Mahomet  by one of the icons of Western civilization, the Italian Dante Alighieri,  in his immortal   narrative poem,"The Inferno." Dante, it seems clear, did not wear politically correct panties. His  tremendously uncompromising picture has also been illustrated by famous Western artists, including Salvadore Dali, William Blake and the sculptor Auguste Rodin. What to do about their works and dissemination thereof? Apologies? From whom? Simple destruction and confiscation? By whom?

 

Copies of Dante's "Inferno" have been distributed world-wide, in dozens of languages. Can they somehow be confiscated and burned? Can the Penguin edition somehow be withdrawn? And does this in effect raise a sensitive question about  human anatomy?  That is, while being  defensive and apologetic to religious fanatics,  is today's version of Western man also anatomically  correct: does he still have two functioning testicles? Are they fully intact, and not semi-detached? For example, would  Secular Sammy (or Mainstream Max) who shows his courage and fortitude by glibly mocking Christians, ever face down Islamics?   As with the Mahomet cartoons, the secularista  New York Times et al can be expected to self-censor.  They call it, of course, "sensitivity to muslim religious beliefs."   Western Resistance raises similar questions, with a plethora of fine illustrations.

 

And from Dante himself,  Canto XXVIII of  "The Inferno" where, guided by the Roman poet Virgil, he encounters  and describes Mahomet and son Ali.

 

Between his legs were hanging down his entrails;
His heart was visible, and the dismal sack
That maketh shit of what is eaten.

While I was all absorbed in seeing him,
He looked at me, and opened with his hands
His bosom, saying: "See now how I rend me;

How mutilated, see, is Mahomet;
In front of me doth Ali weeping go,
Face split from forelock unto chin;

And all the others whom thou here beholdest,
Disseminators of scandal and of schism
While living were, and therefore are ripped open.

BlogWorld: Alexandra at Allthingsbeautiful, continuing to examine the legacy of Mahomet, looks at Hezbollah in today's context of Lebanon, the Middle East, the Sunni-Shia conflicts etc in "Hope in Fear." ........Sept. 27 At Captain's Quarter's, news of the Berlin Opera, in fear of Islam, sacrificing a musical icon of Western civilization, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ......See Michelle Malkin's "Opera Rage."

Technorati Tags: Pope, Islam, Mahomet, Cartoons

Comments

[scott edwards]

Just last spring Gringoman had lectured on this board that Dante Aligheri's Inferno was "about Ulysses". One can now see that he has been catching up on his reading; but alas, not his analysis. For gringoman instructs those republicans of the oral tradition now huddled around his campfire (for most have never heard of Aligheri let alone read him) that this work is the original "Satanic Verses"; when in sober fact the Inferno is a critique of the Western Tradition (and I don't mean Texas, pardner!)
Oh Gringoman, fair is foul, and foul is fair... but hang in there and keep reading; and while at Starbucks hold that book high; let 'em see the title.
E-r-u-d-i-t-i-o-n. By george he's got it!

[gringoman]

Professor Eduardos:

Speaking of the intellectually under-nourished, can you tell us what school or (sic) 'institution" you (sic) "teach" in today? Who are the students you share your befuddlement with? What school hires someone who can slander gringovision while confusing Dante's Inferno and bolloxing "Satanic Verses?" Did you get the gig as visiting Professor at Kookmore? Suggestion: Down-sizing your brain as an experiment in the new nanotechnology is not a good idea. The techies are making progress. Be patient. Don't try to get ahead of them.