An “anonymous” tipster [Thanks, gf.] passed on a link to the Cornell American, which seems to be a free newspaper available on campus up there in gorge-us Ithaca. Apparently, it is a publication so desirable, you are limited to one copy per person, but I’m keeping you from the relevant background info so I’ll give you a sec to peep the following blockquote about the awesomeness which is The Cornell American:
Founded in January 1992, its mission is to “raise a traditional American perspective, so as to balance debate on campus and to further conservative ideals.” The opinions presented in the Cornell American are solely those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the advertisers or persons listed as staff.[link]
The alert mutineer who blew up our hotline asked this salient question:
Satire or “Ivy Twerps [being] Ivy Twerps” to quote Siddhartha?
She posed that query regarding a mock schedule of events for “Islam Awareness Week 2007!”, a piece so significant, it didn’t have a byline more specific than “staff”. How thoughtful! How helpful.
Here’s what I have to say to that— and by responding thusly, I have now officially turned in to my parents, but I think their take on such things is appropriate in this case, especially– if you have to hide something, doesn’t that tell you you’re doing something wrong? Eh, edi?
Highlights of the agenda after the jump.
This past week, The Muslim Educational and Cultural Association held its annual Islam Awareness Week 2007. As if Islam wasn’t made painfully aware to Americans already, we at The Cornell American decided to co-sponsor some events of our own. The following schedule of events this past week were both enlightening and entertaining…
Tuesday, 4/10
3:30 — Campus-wide militant riot. Meet at CJL. B.Y.O. AK-47.
5:00 — Flag-burning on Ho Plaza Denounce the imperialist agressors.
8:00 — Sunni-Shia Hockey Showdown at Lynah Rink Losers beheaded according to the will of Allah.
Wednesday, 4/11
4:30 — IED Construction Dos and Don’ts with the Chemistry Department (Baker 101 E) What has some bang? What fizzles? Don’t embarrass yourself—come to this instructional seminar!
7:30 — Make your own kidnapping video with the Film Department (Schwartz SB23) Ropes, victims, masks, and large blades provided.
10:00 — CUTV presents Jimmy Carter’s self-detonation for Palestinian rights Broadcast live from Haifa.
Thursday, 4/12…
8:30 — Burqa Beauty Pageant @ Schwartz Auditorium in Rockefeller Hall Grand Prize: Be stoned to death for being a shameless harlot. Runner-up gets a goat.
Friday, 4/13
Noon — Jihad on Day Hall Occupy Day Hall until the Campus Code of Conduct is changed to reflect sharia law…
* Camel Parking provided.
** Security at all events provided by CUPD and Hezbollah.
Well, kittens? Whatcha think? Offensive? Ignorant? Intolerant? Stupid? Not worth our time? SO worth our time? Less interesting than whether or not Abhi’s outfit was lame, at the BollyVedding of the century?
Oh, and are any of our readers current students who can give us mutineer-on-the-scene commentary?
Al_Mujahid_for_debauchery – I’m new here to SM but I don’t think Clueless’s argument is trolling – it just appears to be his view.
As for defending the South – I’m from the South (NC) and yeah, sometimes it’s annoying to see overgeneralizations of the South – ; I think Clueless has a point here when someone pointed out that “South has nurtured hatred, racism and bigotry, and been quite vocal about it, for quite some time is not “ignorance” or “intolerance”. It’s fact stating.” ” – Isn’t this commenter (HMF) doing the exact same thing that she/he is accusing Clueless of.
Parts of Southern culture and interpretations of southern culture has nurtured bigotry, but so has interpretations of Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, etc. Coming from the South I’m annoyed with HMF’s statement and the irony of it as she/he tries to protest generalized views of Islam.
Seriously, you are so wrong on every level. This site gets abuse from right wing Hindus for being anti-Hindu, and now you come along claiming it is some kind of incubator for Hindu nationalism. Your comment about them needing to rename themselves Bharat Mutiny or Hindu Mutiny is really snide and obnoxious for so many reasons. They work overtime to make this site welcoming to all, so they certainly don’t need to ‘check themselves’.
Maybe. Or maybe we need to check our expectations? This is an entertaining, ad-free site with a small community of regulars who seem intelligent and positive. I like other blogs, but they have ads or comment threads which are dirtier than cesspools or…etc. I’m grateful and happy for a good thing when I see it.
My roots are in a minority group which is far less powerful than Muslims are in India, but I don’t feel oppressed here. I get what you are trying to say about how they set the bar so high, but I don’t feel like punishing people when they give something their best shot, especially when they don’t need to put aside their lives and do it in the first place.
My drink is 80% full and I got it from an open bar, but that’s just my take.
Not least of all that most of the bloggers here are not even Hindu!
Word, Red Snapper…especially since this post wasn’t about “getting on” Cornell’s anything…it was just asking what we thought and giving us a chance to air our take.
Bang Gally — just to point out how snide your comment about ‘Hindu-Bharat Mutiny’ is I’d like to point out that the permanent bloggers here consist of:
Two Christians
Two Sikhs
One Hindu Astronaut
One Siddhartha
Therefore Hindus are an oppressed minority at Sepia Mutiny even though the one Hindu has powers of space travel, that does not recompense for the Christian-Sikh alliance that overwhelms. Plus they have Muslim bloggers on guest spot, including one gay one. So there.
While I deplore your pointing out that it’s actually a Sikh/big-kundi’d cabal which runs this joint (I was hoping no one would notice!), that is one of the funniest comments I’ve read in weeks. Very nice. I’d inappropriately hug you if you were near. 😉
Oh, holy shit.
Look, that’s a RELIGION. It spans the entire globe. It’s generalization of the worst sort. If you want to do a comparison, then you talk about Christianity and Islam, or Hinduism and Islam. But really…you can’t even do that, because they’re all so distinct and different. You lose a lot of information when you generalize, and I find that a lot of the generalization on this particular thread is of the worst sort: “make this easy to swallow for me, please.”
But you people are adults, not baby birds. The world is infinitely complex. Go out and try and understand, for the love of pete!
I grew up in the South, in rural Mississippi, to be exact. Do bad things happen there? Sure. But it has its own story, and once you understand it and how it works, it’s not the horrible demon everyone else seems to think it is. Likewise, I live on the East Coast. Are “Yankees” the evil robber-barons the South thinks they are? Nope.
And so here we go again with Muslims. The sheer idiocy of saying “so-and-so has done wrong, so I can say whatever about this other group here” is pretty indefensible if you’re not six years old. The article was about how a Muslim student group is being targeted by a campus newspaper. You think that steering the conversation towards racism in the South does anything other than prevent dialogue?
You’re off-base, and off-target, and off-track, and you know it, too.
And in defense of the Mutiny…please, feel free to start up a blog that is about whatever it is you think a blog should be about. Go on, do it. But STOP WHINING HERE. I got sick of those idiotic comments three years ago; it’s sad that in this way nothing’s changed. You think this site is anti-Muslim? Great. Bully for you. Likewise if you think it’s anti-Christian, anti-Hindu, anti-electric-car, anti-pasta, anti-matter, anti-bellum (yes, I know it’s with an “e,” god rot your soul), or anti-whatever-the-hell-it-is-you-think-is-so-goddamn-important.
The truth is usually more complicated than you care to understand, so go live your simple, premasticated, short-bus-riding, ideology-driven life and be happy, but god! Stop talking about it!
I hate electric cars. They suck.
Salil, may I offer you some porn to cheer you? 😀
What about me? I made you laugh and everything.
Red Snapper, may I make you some porn, to cheer you? 😀
Can I star in it?
OK. my guess is that the waiter kept pronouncing “prawn” as “porn” at the meetup. Is this your little inside joke?
………OK, if you insist ANNA, although stick a Smiths soundtrack on it and it should be good.
Call it ‘Meat is Murder’ or something.
Not even close, but that is one outstanding guess. I’d inappropriately hug you for its excellence, if I could. 😉
OK. my guess is that the waiter kept pronouncing “prawn” as “porn” at the meetup
I’m guessing “pr0n”.
Damn it. I had already started writing, “Meat Beat Manifesto”…ah, curses. Foiled again.
Watch out Al Mujahid, Bang Gully already thinks this place need to ‘check themselves’, last thing we need is evidence that it also is a plot to degrade Muslims into doing naked things on camera too.
While Spoor Lam may accuse us of anti-Saffron bias and hiss that we are a pseudo-secular mutiny secretly propped up by Wendy Something-ger, we at the Mutiny agree with several trolls who like to rant about how Muslims always get to act (those bloody Khans!) and thus steal the virtue of good Indian (Hindu) girls. Because of this, we will discriminate and NOT cast Muslim men in our porn. Because I am a good Indian girl. Oh, shit. I’m not Hindu. DAMN IT. Fine. Muslims, Buddhists, Atheists, FSM fans, smurfs. You are all invited to audition for Mutineers Gone Wild.
If Spoor Lam deigns to grace us with his saffron balls, it will be quite the shoot.
there is some money to be made there. Opportunistic gujji hat on.
Well, actually, doesn’t Sid Uncle refer to himself as the “ill Hindu”? And might that not even the score a bit?
Just sayin’.
No, Uncle is being the “Hin-Jew/Jhindu”. Please be noting so here:
…in Copa Cabana, naturally.
I’m volunteering to host it at my place, AJM.
PORN!
This still reduces me to giggles. Ok, I’m going to summarize for the benefit of the poor people who were unable to share in the joy that was Sunday’s DC Meetup. Be warned, the following description is NSFW or children.
At a certain point in the conversation, our beloved ANNA decides to STAND UP and wax eloquent about this great new reality show she’s discovered…”Debbie Does Dallas Again.” She relates this great moment wherein our favorite brown porn star, Sunny Leone, is seeking career advice FROM HER BROTHER, and actually begins to mimic a certain act. “Should I start doing boy-girl?” our Anna yells, “because if I do, it’ll mean I have to do double-penetration,” and here she pantomimes with her hands…um…well…fellatio and spelunking the small hole, if you will. One hand forward, one hand back, so to speak.
Now, this wouldn’t be so bad if we’d had the restaurant to ourselves, which we did right up until roughly that moment. But fortuitously, a largish gaggle of desis wandered in at JUST THAT POINT, children in tow. While the parents were discussing whether to park themselves at a table, two or three 8-to-10-year old boys walked to the door, then froze there, utterly stunned, mouth agape, transfixed by Anna’s enthusiastic rendering of her new favorite TV show.
This led some of us to comment that Anna had more-or-less kick-started puberty in a few kids that day, and that there would be some interesting Q&A sessions with the parents in the Accord / Camry on the way home that night. “Mommy, I feel funny…in my pants.”
I still get the giggles when I think of the total expressionless intent stare on the faces of those kids while watching you, AJM. Pure gold!
That…just…WOW. Totally not what I was expecting. A N N A, let’s go drinkin’ sometime.
Saffron balls are not made for shooting.
Because they shoot back.
Saffron Balls are not for playing with.
You cannot play with my balls.
They are to be taken seriously.
Because Saffron Balls are for fighting.
If you feel strong enough, you can fight with them.
But be warned. They fight back.
Saffron balls are not for joking.
So do not try to joke with my balls, or make them laugh.
Because they only cry for the Vedic Nation under threat from anti-nationals.
You cannot argue with them or hope to lick them (in an argument)
Saffron balls are for one thing only. For firing missiles.
At Pakistan, and Richard Gere.
So don’t touch my balls you Khalistan-Abrahamic-Progressive Fascist Cabal!
Death to Sepia Mutiny!!
Hail Mogambo!
The agenda reads like a work script for a South Park episode before the Comedy Central execs wimp out and censor it…
Who said Sunny Leone was a bad example? What a good little Indian girl, asking her family if she can do douple pen.
No. this commenter isn’t.
And allow me to explain why. It has to do with behavior vs. essence of being. The people who lambast Islam, believe that it is Islam’s very essence to be violent, that the religion itself is geared towards violence. Sure, they’ll induct that principle based on a set of observed instances (train bombings, wtc, etc…) The Ann coulterish solution (which I’m sure the Cornell American would not dispute) is to eliminate them. completely.
However, I am making no such induction. I am not saying, based on these observables in the South, the south is forever doomed to this behavior. But, I will say, after spending some time in the south and the midwest (more in the midwest) you can observe a perpetuation of certain unchallenged ideas. A perpetuation that comes out of pure lazyness if you ask me. Just look at the article quoted in #76. They don’t say, “we hate black people, we wake up every morning wishing that black people died a horrible death!”, they simply say, “It’s the way we’ve done things all the time” It’s this lazyness to challenge past practices that were indeed rooted in systematic, government sanctioned segregation that I think is more evident, and more socially accepted in the South. Because, as racism was prolific historically, all over the US, I don’t think anyone would deny the South has historicaly been the most vocal, and unapologetic about it.
So please, the next time you or anyone else wants to say, “Aren’t you doing the same thing that bla bla bla”.. Don’t.
Oh, we ran with this particular thread for quite a while, let me tell you. I think the entire last half of the meetup was pretty much porntastic.
I’m just worried about how low you guys have gone down in Bang Gully’s estimation, after reading this thread.
HMF, didn’t you last week say that the south should be made illegal.
After Salil’s rendition, this doesn’t seem so absurd.
Hahahahaha! nice, Manju…
I have a philosophical interest in the mystical aspects of Islam, and Sufism, which is considered by some as something of an offshoot of Islam, by others as the very essence of Islam itself.
However, I don’t think that all people who believe Islam’s very essence to be violent base such belief on modern day acts of “terrorism”.
An objective reading of the Quran and supplementary hadiths, as well as a study of the development and history of the religion can also hint toward such an understanding – taken out of context, or sometimes read within the context of the religion itself.
The Prophet Muhammed did indeed seek to unite Arabia under one umbrella, so the argument is that Islam is as much a political movement as it is a religious/cultural one.
Many practicing Muslims concur with this concept as well, so it’s not just non-Muslims or outsiders who hold such a view.
All hail Spoorlam!
Stop oppression of our foreskins!
Death to Mohels!
The people who create such Coulter-esque masterpieces as the one you’ve read above, most certainly do. They’d be lucky to even spell the word Quran, let alone make any kind of objective readings.
I can’t speak for Saudi Arabia, and most people are aware of our history in Iran, but in Pakistan, where some of my peeps still live, they’re all doing just fine (other than the general Pakistani problems of crumbling infrastructure and unstable politics). They’re never harassed, women wear whatever they want and go where they want and are left alone. They’re highly identifiable because of their gudrati and typical Parsi features, yet for some reason, the angry Muslim hordes don’t immediately chop their heads off.
The 2 Christian cathedals I saw in Karachi were stunningly beautiful and extremely well kept, as were the surrounding Christian neighborhoods and schools. They too seemed to be doing quite well, despite their “oppression”
The nutjob burkha loving extremists are deeply unpopular in Pakistan and even Mushie, who was popular for his alleged moderation is coming under attack for un-democratic actions. The protests against these 2 entities are large and powerful. Before you start spitting out the names of the first muslim countries that pop into your head, think about how it will illuminate the fact that you really don’t know what you’re talking about.
Linkaya?! I love it. 🙂
From my brief readings of the history of the three major Abrahamic faiths, violence was indeed big part of their origins.
Minorities ??? WTF, where did that come from? I have been investing even before I went to college. I love the market(stock) more than most things.
Like I said before I have been investing for a long time and have seen bull and bear markets, I have to Thank my God (and my family) to not need “advise” from somone on a chat board.
There are many people in this world who dont even know when they are getting screwed. Well ignorance is, it has been said, bliss!!
I don’t support broad-brush generalizations about any culture, nation or religion, so I agree it can’t be “all bad” for “all minorities” in “all Islamic countries”, still, I’m not sure what can really be concluded from your anecdote. There are estimated to be only about 5,000 (five thousand) Parsis in all of Pakistan, almost all of whom live in Karachi itself, in a total country population of 150 million.
Link
Their supposed positive experiences say virtually nothing about the actual state of play in religious minority-majority relations in Pakistan. (By comparison, India is supposed to have some 70,000 Parsis, not that even that would say anything significant about the Indian or Hindu ethos regarding minorities).
There are many documented cases of the oppression of Christians in Pakistan, though again, that does not mean all of Pakistan (or all Pakistanis) is hostile to X’ianity. But think about Sikhs, Ahmadiyyas and Shias when you want a more valid sense of the state of play. And the Cathedrals you saw are more likely to have been the ones that run schools where the Pakistani elite schools their children – like this and this.
The overall tone at Cornell is VERY liberal. As another Alum (grad school), I remember some calling it the Berkley of the east.
The Cornell American is not The Onion. When one reads The Onion, despite what editors may or may not believe, the content’s goal is to make people laugh. Not use passive-aggressive satire to support whatever political view you subscribe to.
Jokes are always about context, situation, timing, etc. This one, just like that Princeton thing, suffers from poor content, timing, and execution if the goal was really comedy.
And then what about the Hindus in Pakistan whose share of the population has dwindled from ~25% at Partition to <1% today? A very large number of them in rural Sindh serve as bonded labour. And have you forgotten the plight of Hindus in Malaysia – a night without end – that was written up on this very blog thanks to a guest blogger invited by Amardeep?
… about 1.6% of the population of Pakistan today. Yes, I should have mentioned Hindus along with Sikhs, Ahmadiyyas and Shias. Thanks Shiva. Link
Personally, this cracked me up. Sure, it’s general form is of crass stereotypes, but I actually manages to pull off some glib humour which works.
And then what about the Hindus in Pakistan whose share of the population has dwindled from ~25% at Partition to
… about 1.6% of the population of Pakistan today. Yes, I should have mentioned Hindus along with Sikhs, Ahmadiyyas and Shias. Thanks Shiva. Link
This nonsense on SM comments will never end, period. I have commented on these numbers atleast 5-6 times. Ikram has and other people have as well. However it has become an article of faith for some people and no evidence to the contrary can change their minds.
Also Shias are doing better in Pakistan than most Indian minorities. They have no state sponsored massacres of Shias in Pakistan unlike India (Delhi-Sikh, Gujarat-Muslim).
I think one can reasonably argue that other smaller minorities like the Christians etc. are doing much better in Indian than Pakistan. Also Pakistan needs to get rid of state sanctioned discrimination where certain high offices can only go to Muslims and the treatment of Ahmadiyas in general.
PGW #70: >>(*) Spoor Lam parodies Moor Nam mercilessly.
Yes. It is well known that SL is a one-trick pony.
M. Nam