Here’s what I came up with:
I have a larger resolution (642 x 446 pixels), if anybody needs it.
That was the fun part. Now comes the less pleasant task: reading the entire speech in close detail.
[Post ends here]
At the siege of Vienna in 1683 Islam seemed poised to overrun Christian Europe.
We are in a new phase of a very old war.
Friday, June 05, 2009
Oh Say Can You See
I was asked by somebody (can’t remember who) to make a graphic of an Islamized American flag to go with President Obama’s speech yesterday in Cairo.
Here’s what I came up with:
I have a larger resolution (642 x 446 pixels), if anybody needs it.
That was the fun part. Now comes the less pleasant task: reading the entire speech in close detail.
[Post ends here]
Here’s what I came up with:
I have a larger resolution (642 x 446 pixels), if anybody needs it.
That was the fun part. Now comes the less pleasant task: reading the entire speech in close detail.
[Post ends here]
8 comments:
For some reason, I started thinking of the Terminator Salvation movie I just saw when I looked at this illustration. Must be something about the end of the world and stuff....
Now there's a flag I'd burn.
Nice job!
You could also shrink it and put it on Obama's lapel for the duration of his presidency.
Bad! You have 50 crescents on the blue field. Two mistakes. The field should be green and you should have 57 crescents laid out in the form of a crescent and a scimitar.
Regarding Obama's speech, it's so bad that it's almost fascinating. Take this paragraph, for instance:
"As a student of history, I also know civilization's debt to Islam. It was Islam – at places like Al-Azhar University – that carried the light of learning through so many centuries, paving the way for Europe's Renaissance and Enlightenment. It was innovation in Muslim communities that developed the order of algebra; our magnetic compass and tools of navigation; our mastery of pens and printing; our understanding of how disease spreads and how it can be healed. Islamic culture has given us majestic arches and soaring spires; timeless poetry and cherished music; elegant calligraphy and places of peaceful contemplation. And throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality."
Is there even a single truthful statement in this entire paragraph? Perhaps they had some nice calligraphy, and a few Muslim scholars, especially al-Khwarizmi and Omar Khayyam, made contributions to algebra, but apart from that it's almost total nonsense. The magnetic compass was invented by the Chinese, and possibly by Europeans independently. Printing of books was invented by the Chinese and stubbornly and persistently rejected by Muslims for a thousand years or more due to Islamic religious resistance. Al-Azhar focused on Islamic religious learning, sharia law, not on natural philosophy or science, as did European universities. This is why arguably the greatest original scientific work ever written in the Arabic language, Alhazen's Book of Optics, was written in Cairo but almost totally ignored in the Arabic-speaking world afterward, including at al-Azhar in Cairo. It was studied in Europe.
Modern algebra, too, was made in Europe. Muslim scholars did not understand how disease spread or how it could be cured. This was proved in late nineteenth century Europe with scholars such as the great Frenchman Louis Pasteur and the German Robert Koch. The germ theory of disease could only be proven after the creation of sufficiently powerful microscopes. The microscope was an exclusively European invention with no known equivalent anywhere else in the world.
The President went on to say: "It was the prophet Muhammad who opened the way for space exploration on his magic flying horse. Mozart wouldn't have composed the now-ubiquitous Rondo alla Turca had it not been for the fine music of the Janissaries. Many a poem by Lord Byron were inspired during the time he fought the Ottomans to liberate Greece. The same Ottomans renovated Hagia Sofia by turning it into a mosque. The Moors discovered America by retreating from Spain and allowing Ferdinand and Isabella to shift resources to Columbus' expedition. And I could go on and on if nobody stops me."
"The President went on to say: "It was the prophet Muhammad who opened the way for space exploration on his magic flying horse."
Aaahhh, so it was how it got up there when he split the moon in two halves. But still must have taken a lot of rounds to bring up all that glue though...
The two halfs of the moon is where the muslims are supposed to kiss the brown spot of the prophet.... I think Obama forgot to tell that.
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