KennethMoe u r right dude quran teaches us to bomb airplains, besides islamophobes became what they are just becouse of a simple fact that people like you will belive in anything they say and even support them with donations and by buying their books, im apologizing for saing that but you are nothing more than just a money source, you are nothing more than just a sheep that thinks that it is able of critical thinking and there for you gonna read every nonsense they wright and you gonna belive it meeeeeehhhh sheep meeeehhh

@Ilisha says, “@Just Stopping By I agree with what you wrote,…”

And I agree with everything in your comment.

“I can’t help but wonder if it would have been framed a little differently had this been Muslims. Admittedly, I haven’t done a detailed analysis to provide evidence of that, but that’s my feel having surveyed the coverage.”

I agree that the framing would likely have been different in that case. I’m just wondering how to examine that. Maybe compare the number of references to religious concepts the authors like to use as smears, like jihad or taqiyyah in similar stories involving Muslims versus the use of similar terms for others? Or perhaps look at how often each was described using words like violent?

Finally, just so that you guys know that I don’t only fact-check Loonwatch, did it bother anyone else that the article from Gawker says, “Putin, currently the prime minister, stepped down from the presidency in 2008 due to limits on serving consecutive terms; the current president, Dmitri Medvedev, is a Putin ally”? The article links to an August 1, 2012 news story, so it is recent. However, Putin’s term as prime minister ended months ago, and he is the current president. Sigh.

@Haddock says, “The point of the ‘What If They Were Muslim?’ articles [is] to demonstrate that when the person or group is not a Muslim, the Islamophobes most often ignore the story altogether, even though that person or group did the same thing that they decried Muslims doing.”

That’s a very good point, and one that may take a while to grasp. I remember at first thinking that the point of that series was to show that similar actions by Muslims and non-Muslims elicit different amounts of attention generally. And I think that is in fact part of the point of the series. However, in this case, as the article notes, Pussy Riot “attract[ed] worldwide attention.” But, I doubt any of it is from the standard Islamophobes. (The article also notes that Amnesty International and various famous musicians have argued in defense of the band.)

So, by treating the actions of members of one religion differently than members of other religions, and trying to make Muslims appear more violent or intolerant than others who do the same things, the Islamophobes are engaging in a form of bias and prejudice.

‘The point of the “What If They Were Muslim?” articles are to demonstrate that when the person or group is not a Muslim, the Islamophobes most often ignore the story altogether, even though that person or group did the same thing that they decried Muslims doing.’

But they aren’t really equivalent, are they? There are no “Putinists” getting on planes with plastic explosives in their shoes. Don’t get me wrong, I agree that islamophobia is way scarier than Islam, but focus on exposing islamophobes, not on making lame comparisons.

“Very true indeed. LW’s approach generally seems to be: uhmmm, some people do X, hence jihad, oppressive Sharia, and all those inhumane things that the Islamic world exports are “OK”.”

Nice try, but not at all. The point of the “What If They Were Muslim?” articles are to demonstrate that when the person or group is not a Muslim, the Islamophobes most often ignore the story altogether, even though that person or group did the same thing that they decried Muslims doing. If anything, the LW “agenda” is to say, “it’s wrong when *anybody* does it.”

Thanks for playing. Better luck next time.

Further to this, in case it hasn’t been mentioned, the Russian Orthodox Church has accused the band of ‘Blasphemy’ and that is the reason it is asking for a tough sentence; nothing really to do with trespass. Kirill I of Moscow (the Church’s Primate) stated;

“We have no future if we allow mocking in front of great shrines, and if some see such mocking as some sort of valour, as an expression of political protest, as an acceptable action or a harmless joke,”

Again, the hypocrisy rings loudly; what would the usual suspects be saying if a Muslim said the above and called for a harsh sentence on grounds of ‘blasphemy’?

While LW might not grasp property rights and all those principles, the fact remains that they trespassed and violated the property rights of others. Admittedly, I have zero knowledge of Russian law and cannot comment further on what the appropriate sanction should be.

@ KennethMoe

“But how exactly does Putin being oppressive and posing a major threat to our freedom, disprove the loons’ claim that Islam is?”

Very true indeed. LW’s approach generally seems to be: uhmmm, some people do X, hence jihad, oppressive Sharia, and all those inhumane things that the Islamic world exports are “OK”.

“No, Most likely they would talk about how this proves how Islam is so oppressive and it poses such a major threat to our freedom, and how Islam must be opposed at all cost.”

But how exactly does Putin being oppressive and posing a major threat to our freedom, disprove the loons’ claim that Islam is?

@Critical, I assume they would say it isn’t the brightest way to protest and would condemn the over reaction of the authorities – so, similar to this article.

Are there are any articles on those sites where they have mentioned similar protests in a mosque?

@Ilisha

I heard a little bit about this, but not much. Only little snippets here and there. I only read a couple headlines and none of them mentioned the church, or what they did to upset the authorities in Russia. I had no idea what exactly this group did to upset the authorities in Russia until now.

No doubt Islamophobes would be fuming if these people were arrested anywhere in the world for doing something like this at a Mosque, even if it wasn’t in a Muslim country.

I agree, what ‘Pussy Riot,” did was stupid, however, like you said, they shouldn’t be punished by the state for it.

I may disagree with their tactics, but they should have the right to protest-I really hope that they do not get 7 years jail time that would be wrong.