Call it the tale of Chris Cuomo and sharia creep.
CNN anchor Cuomo, who is such a vociferous defender of gay marriage - a decided insult to the Islamic faith where, as pointed out earlier in this space not only is homosexuality forbidden by Islamic law it is punishable by death - sat on a CNN set with Pamela Geller and actually compared drawing the Prophet to use of the “n-word.”
Curiously, in his “I’m for freedom but…” interview (and after making the case that Geller shouldn’t do what she did Cuomo denied that he was making a “freedom but” argument) he zeroed in the idea that what Geller was doing was “offensive to a group of people.” That would be Muslims. Ergo, if free speech is offensive to Muslims it should not be given any kind of platform.
Hmm. On the CNN site -- right here, large as life -- is the large and in-color view of the infamous "Piss Christ" work of “art” by Andres Serrano. The CNN caption reads as follows;
“Historically, repurposing religious iconography has been a surefire way to scandalize due to enduring cultural taboos. When Andres Serrano displayed ‘Piss Christ,’ a photograph of a crucifix submerged in the artist’s urine, it was widely seen as disrespectful to Christians. It eventually earned the condemnation of conservative U.S.Senators and sparked debates around the issue of public arts funding. Twenty four years later French Catholic fundamentalists destroyed a print of the photo on display in Avignon.
Though Serrano - a Christian - originally said that the piece had no specific political motivation, he has since suggested that it was meant to highlight the continued cheapening of the image of Christ, and the hypocrisy of those who twist the words of Christ to fit their own ends.”
Now lets use this interesting CNN display and change a few things. Let’s suppose that instead of the image of "Piss Christ" CNN displayed the winning cartoon from Ms. Geller’s Draw the Prophet cartoon contest . And the first part of the caption above were re-written as follows:
Historically, repurposing religious iconography has been a surefire way to scandalize due to enduring cultural taboos. When Pamela Geller held a ‘Draw the Prophet” contest, a contest that violates the Islamic prohibition on any image of The Prophet, it was widely seen as disrespectful to Muslims. It eventually earned the condemnation of both liberals and some conservatives and sparked debates around the issue of private funding of religious blasphemy. As the contest was ending two Islamic fundamentalists attempted to kill Geller and as many in her Garland, Texas.
Also on the CNN website? This Cassie Spodak review of the Broadway show The Book of Mormon back in March of 2011. It reads, in part, this way:
New York (CNN) - A new Broadway musical looks at religious faith and doubt with a healthy dose of imagination: the audience meets Jesus, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints founder Joseph Smith, Satan, and an African warlord as well as Darth Vader, Yoda and two hobbits.
The production, called "The Book of Mormon," was written by "South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, along with Robert Lopez, who wrote the Broadway hit "Avenue Q.”
The creators have used music, irreverent comedy, and obscenity to tackle controversial subjects before, but they say their approach is new to Broadway musicals. The play opened to strong reviews Thursday night.
….It was a subject they had explored in an episode of "South Park" - an animated adult show on Comedy Central that follows four elementary school kids and is known for crude language and satirical humor - and Mormonism held a special fascination for them.
…The musical weaves back and forth from reality to fantasy, as the two protagonists encounter AIDS, rape, war and dysentery as well as musical numbers with Darth Vader, Yoda, Hitler, Genghis Khan, Frodo Baggins of "Lord of the Rings" and human-sized cups of coffee (which Mormons are not supposed to drink).
The sometimes incomprehensible nature of reality forces the young Mormons to question their faith and their purpose in life.”
Again. Let’s make a few changes to this story. Let’s make the play “The Koran.” A laugh-riot play taking Broadway by storm, with CNN’s reviewer writing that the play had the Prophet mixing into “musical numbers with Darth Vader, Yoda, Hitler, Genghis Khan, Frodo Baggins of "Lord of the Rings" and human-sized cups of coffee (which Muslims are not supposed to drink).” With the CNN reviewer concluding her glowing review by saying:
“The sometimes incomprehensible nature of reality forces the young Muslims to question their faith and their purpose in life.”
One can only imagine the result of that kind of play had been produced. Not to mention if an already verboten image of The Prophet were plunged into a jar of urine and the resulting photo was prominently displayed on the CNN website. Safe to say one can expect the Broadway theater would need the National Guard to protect it and so too would CNN.
Somehow, Chris Cuomo is quiet as a church mouse on all of this. There is no Cuomo campaign to get his own network to remove the "Piss Christ" image. Nor is he furious that CNN has a favorable review of the Book of Mormon on the site. And, it is important to add, as insulting as both may be free speech is - free speech. Yet there is Cuomo badgering Pamela Geller about being “offensive to a group of people” - meaning Muslims.
The utter CNN hypocrisy is no surprise. This has long become a standard in the country’s way-too-long course in Liberalism 101. But the question in this case - with the answer obvious - is: why? Why do Chris Cuomo and his network never blink when it comes to offending Christians and, in this specific case, Mormons?
Answer? Because Christians in general and Mormons specifically don’t threaten artists and writers who mock their faith. In doing what they do both Cuomo and CNN are, irony of ironies, illustrating Pam Geller’s point specifically. CNN and Cuomo are Grade A exhibits of what has become known as “Sharia-creep” or, as Roger Kimball once noted over at the New Criterion back in 2008, “soft jihad.” Kimball described “soft jihad” this way:
“Traditional jihad is waged with scimitars and their contemporary equivalents, e.g., stolen Boeing 767s, which make handy instruments of mass homicide. Soft jihad is a quieter affair: it uses and abuses the language and the principles of democratic liberalism not to secure the institutions and attitudes that make freedom possible but, on the contrary, to undermine that freedom and pave the way for self-righteous, theocratic intolerance.”
What Chris Cuomo displayed in that interview with Pam Geller was the liberal buy-in to sharia creep. To “soft-jihad.” He refuses to give offense to Muslims, and attacks Geller for doing so. But Cuomo shows not the least problem with his own network giving offense to Christians. A better example of Kimball’s point that the way is being paved in America “for self-righteous, theocratic intolerance” could not be found. It’s OK to insult Christians but never Muslims. The one faith can be targeted with ridicule, the other faith never targeted.
The troubling problem? Chris Cuomo is far from alone in trying to move the American right of free speech down the slippery path to more and more restrictions. The problem goes well beyond the issue of dealing with Islam in America.
The other day Ann Coulter was in the news for an interview with Jorge Ramos of Fusion. The news concerned a young illegal immigrant who asked Coulter for a hug. Missed entirely in the ensuing media dustup over Coulter’s refusal was what, in fact was said by the young woman after the hug business was done. Here’s Coulter herself telling Sean Hannity on his radio show:
“She proceeded to inform that there are two kinds of speech, one is ‘free speech’ and one is ‘hate speech. And I explained to her the long Anglo-Saxon tradition of free speech and the idea that in the whirlwind and competition of ideas, the truth will emerge and how we’re going to be losing this the more cultures we bring in [to America] who think there are two different categories here.”
In other words, Coulter’s young questioner is effectively under the same impression as Chris Cuomo. To wit: there is free speech - and there is “hate speech.” To the young illegal the definition of “hate speech”was apparently Ann Coulter’s expressed sentiments on illegal immigration. To which offense was taken. To Chris Cuomo it was Pam Geller’s Draw the Prophet contest. But not CNN’s Christian-offending Piss Christ photo or its review of The Book of Mormon.
Whatever the topic - make no mistake. “Sharia creep” is here in America. And inevitably it is all in the eye of the beholder, completely and totally subjective. It may appear as Chris Cuomo hypocritically going after Pam Geller for her Draw the Prophet contest, it may be Ann Coulter’s critics demanding she shut up about illegal immigration. It may be one of a thousand more topics that have ruffled (“triggered” ) the sensitivities of some liberals - although never conservatives or Christians - somewhere.
But whatever the topic, the goal is always the same. To silence free speech. Pam Geller gets it. Ann Coulter gets it. One can only hope they aren’t left out there alone.
