Mickey Mouse Must Die

By George Conger
Religious Intelligence | 9/15/2008


Mickey Mouse must die for the good of Islam, a leading Saudi cleric said last month in a broadcast on al-Majd TV.

On Aug 27 Sheikh Muhammad Al-Munajid told viewers of a religious affairs programme that mice were agents of Satan and that Sharia law called for the extermination of all mice: from the common house mouse (Mus musculus) to cartoon mouse (Mickey Mouse).

A former diplomat attached to the Islamic Affairs Department at the Saudi embassy Washington, al-Munajid appears regularly on Saudi television to discuss religious and ethical topics.

On Aug 10 he denounced the Beijing Olympics as the “bikini Olympics,” saying the immodest dress of women athletes was “satanic” and earlier issued a fatwa, or religious edict, against women’s participation in the Olympics as the games were also “satanic”.

Al-Munajid’s aversion to sports is not new. In 2005 he denounced soccer, saying the short pants worn by players “reveal nakedness.” He called for a ban on women’s sports and public exercise as to do so would require them to don “tight fitting, short” tunics that were offensive to Muslim decorum.

According to a translation of the broadcast prepared by the Middle East Media Research Institute, al-Munajid was asked to state the Islamic legal teaching on mice. He responded that mice were called “little corrupters” in Sharia and it was permissible to kill them at all times.

“The mouse is one of Satan's soldiers and is steered by him,” he explained, adding that should a mouse come in contact with food, the food must be disposed of as the mouse is an impure creature.

“According to Islamic law, the mouse is a repulsive, corrupting creature,” al-Munajid said, adding that he was concerned that popular culture had given mice an undeserved positive image.

“How do you think children view mice today – after Tom and Jerry?” he asked.

“Even creatures that are repulsive by nature, by logic, and according to Islamic law have become wonderful and are loved by children. Even mice. Mickey Mouse has become an awesome character, even though according to Islamic law, Mickey Mouse should be killed in all cases.”

I heard about this elsewhere.

I will offer a very small defense by pointing out that in Middle East allowing mice and other vermin to be unmolested could lead to reductions in the food supply.

I don't think anyone should arrange a showing of Ratoullie for the cleric.

I think we should go along with his fatwa and carpet bomb where ever we find rodents near him to keep him completely clean and safe.

I am just being a true altruist, sacrificing something of real value to me, for his needs to be clean.

Adam

For those that are visually inclined...

Mickey Mouse Must Die!

~ Shane

These guys need to get laid. They're always going on and on about nakedness, and such--it takes up a lot of their bandwidth. I suspect closet masturbating; repression does that to a man.

The mouse thing, well, that's just more misanthropic goofiness. If it's biological, it's dirty. Bunch of freaks.

Wouldn't it be great to have it on the menu at some diplomatic affair? (Of course, it would be spelled differently.)

= Mindy

Dialectical materialism can explain their beliefs: They live in a hot land, where there are no cold showers. Hot-cold, see?

= Mindy

I believe the bubonic plague which wiped out about 1/3 of Europe was spread by rats. If this is the case, one can understand why people will still have an aversion to rats and mice. It is irrational now, but there was a time when such a fear was rational.

You are actually onto something, Rich. When guys like Osama bin Laden are taking on multiple wives, it means that some guys definitely are not getting laid. That energy has to go somewhere.

The same thing happened with Cho at Virginia Tech. It was obvious that sexual frustration was one thing that motivated him. Incidentally, he put three bullets into one of my distant cousins--she survived. If this guy had simply gotten laid a few times, 33 people might still be alive today.

It's always been the same old dealio with fundamentalist religions (and the Catholic church too)--they lay down some kind of line (sex is evil, sex is only for babies, whatever) to stop everyone from having fun. It creates all kinds of weird sociological sicknesses, and various forms of abberance arising from the repression.

It's not just limited to various organized religions, it works in politics and elsewhere, too. Sex is one of the more powerful forces on the planet, so of course the evil-doers have always wanted to gain control of it via taboo, and try to port that energy into their, well, evil-doing stuff.

Next thing you know, Rashim Malcom X Bin Ladin comes home from a bad day, he's all bottled up, he kicks the dog, the dog beats the snot out of the cat, and the cat wonders why the eff he can't even kill a mouse to let off some steam because Rashim has already killed it.

There are some Christian fundamentalists who view Walt Disney as an agent of Satan. Here. I will find one as I type this.

NARNIA and Satanism

They are all over the Internet. Type the following into Google and you will see what I mean.

"walt disney" satan

These kooks have been around for years. The Islamists are now catching up. Meet Farfur, the Palestinian Mickey Mouse:



That was last year. Now a Fatwa about the mouse being an agent of Satan.

Lot's of nonsense coming. The depths of human folly is a thing to behold.

Michael

The same thing has been going on with Harry Potter.

Well, Harry Potter I can understand.

Yeah, yeah, I know..."Hey, there's all these kids reading now an, an an..."

More likely reading that stuff and thinking they can act like British aristocracy or something....Ptui!

I want the next movie to be where he gets laid. The man has to have some kung fu in the sack with all that wizard power and stuff.

I believe recent thinking posits that the Great Plague of 14th century Europe was more likely caused by the Ebola virus, or something like it. Apparently, the reported pattern of the spread of the disease does not accord with that of bubonic plague. In any case, the earlier theory wasn't about rats, it was about an infection carried by the fleas which infested the rats: 'Big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em, and little fleas have lesser fleas and so on, ad infinitum'. That's a ditty I've know since my teens. Nicholas

I refuse to listen to a word against Mickey! Next, you'll be insulting Snoopy!

Barbara

Barbara; Mickey Mouse is a fictional character. A mouse eating the wheat to feed your family in a cold winter is real.

That's coming from a rational perspective that anyone would take. To kill them because of their association to Satan...laughable. They never once mention the mice eating their wheat (solid food and soup not included).

~ Shane

Forever let us hold our banner high!
heil! heil! heil!

Disney is an easy target, of course. Myself, I always liked the Mickey Mouse Club intro that started.
This program is dedicated to you, the leaders of the 21st century!

And then there was the Jiminy Cricket presentation of "I'm No Fool."
(I'm no fool, no sirree, I'm goin' to live to a hundred and three.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJx0f0EwPr8
(The industrial revolution created leisure... and the problems associated with it...)

Jiminy Cricket singing, "You are the human animal."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNvqud0vIYg
Dogs and horses are smarrt, that's true,
but you are the only one who can add up two and two

Michael; The Mickey Mouse Club did stand for many good things during the years they were first on.

Everyone else; I think the cleric is a nut too. I'm just trying to suggest that originally the attack on mice and other vermin had a rational bias.

Chris, I agree 100%, I had many sets of ears growing up and a couple of different coonskin hats, as well. Even today, I have a biography of Mike Fink (Half Man, Half Alligator, Half Horse). Along with a full set of academic videos on algebra and trigonometry, I have Donald Duck in Mathemagic Land.

The "raise the banner high" problem was one of several that came up over the years. That one was from the 50s. In the 60s, we discovered what motivated Fantasia. Walt Disney was a complicated person, as geniuses so often are... or perhaps are by necessity or nature.

This was always one of my favorite:

Man in Space, part 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBi69V8oNuw
Man in Space, part 7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy0fafgajWI

... but, of course, von Braun was a man "whose allegiance / is ruled by expedience" and that brings us back to those unreseolved problems with whatever it was that motivated Walt Disney.

Also, I agree that there is a distinction between dealing with mice as vermin and dealing with them as agents of satan. I went to a Chinese buffet with some colleagues and one guy added shrimp and the other asked, "What? Kosher only for Passover?" and I chimed in, "I'm kosher for Lent." So, I dunno...
The thing is that you can do this in Israel

and yet...
"No alcohol, pork products or religious books and artefacts not related to Islam are permitted in the country. There are no bars in Saudi Arabia, and alcohol is served nowhere to anyone of any religious persuasion. Dress should be conservative at all times, and women should take particular care not to offend. Visitors are advised to familiarise themselves with behaviour and dress codes before entering the country. Homosexual behaviour and adultery are illegal and can carry the death penalty. Photography of local people, government buildings, military installations and palaces is not allowed, and women are not permitted to drive. " (http://www.wordtravels.com/Cities/Saudi+Arabia/Riyadh/Basics)

So, it is not so much having silly ideas as it is making eveyone else obey them by law.

As easy as it is to pick on Islam, let us give some equal time:

I like Barbara's new picture. Is that the result of collagen or estrogen or did you sell your soul to the devil?

I'm asking because I'm looking to take off a few years, myself, but long ago having spent a semester translating Goethe's Faust line by line, I am looking for other solutions to the problem of aging.

These people are too silly for words. They should be laughed out of human existence.

Good comrade, I have already done the same for you.

Adam

Selene: Where is all the hostility coming from? I never even heard of you until a few days ago.

Comrade:

That is your loss.

My hostility is your argument that you and your state are going to define what mental cruelty means when it comes to a parent and a child.

Our Constitution specifically enunciates a freedom of association between parent and child.

So let me make this clear, your entire premise that a government could ever appoint an individual that could make that type of decision in anything but a biased manner is proof of severe mental illness,

This is not hostility. This is a cold evaluation of a deadly threat to my family. There is a section of the Talmud that states, if you suspect that someone is coming to kill you, get up earlier and kill them first.

Even a goyem like me can understand the absolute beauty of that statement.

I am a very early riser and will wait patiently for you and never give you a chance.

Adam

Adam,

FYI "goy" is the singular and "goyim" is plural.

Zantonavitch is a looney, (and, I guess, a homophobe,) he literally advocates mass murder and gang rape, and calls Iranians "s-nd n-gg-rs" for which see here:

http://rebirthofreason.com/Forum/GeneralForum/1291.shtml

Ted:

Thanks.

I am listening to the Ralph Peters C-Span interview from yur topic which I just stumbled onto today.

Adam

Oh, yes, Peters is quite excellent. You can also listen to Hitchens and Paglia and quite a few others in the same series, search the archive.

"Severe mental illness"? Interesting way to argue. Some quasi-pornographic magazine left-intellectual elite guy did that to Barry Goldwater in 1964. Barry sued and won in spite of being a public figure.

--Brant

(EDIT) PS: I do despise Kyrel. I'd throw him off any list I owned because I don't have Michael's cast iron stomach.

I believe Kyrel is a good man with a good heart and bad, horrible words that trash the good in us all (and taint the reputation of his own good).

I know I would like him as a neighbor, but I would not entrust any government power to him.

Michael

Brant:

I remember that case, but I do not think it was Al Goldstein....hmm

Before the 1964 election, the muckraking magazine Fact, published by Ralph Ginzburg, ran a special issue entitled ‘The Unconscious of a Conservative: A Special Issue on the Mind of Barry Goldwater.’ The two main articles contended that Goldwater was mentally unfit to be president. The magazine attempted to support this claim with the results of an unscientific poll of psychiatrists it had conducted. Fact had mailed questionnaires to 12,356 psychiatrists, and published a ‘sampling’ of the comments made by the 2,417 psychiatrists who responded, of which 1,189 said Goldwater was unfit to be president.[22] After the election, Goldwater sued the publisher, the editor and the magazine for libel. "Although the jury awarded Goldwater only $1.00 in compensatory damages against all three defendants, it went on to [396 U.S. 1049, 1050] award him punitive damages of $25,000 against Ginzburg and $50,000 against Fact magazine, Inc."[23] According to Warren Boroson, then-managing editor of Fact and now a financial columnist, the main biography of Goldwater in the magazine was written by David Bar-Illan, the Israeli pianist. He went on to say "Goldwater sued me for $2 million. (He collected 33 cents.)"[24]

Adam

There is a very good discussion of the libel case in the book "Pure Goldwater". Senator Goldwater was very much a public figure. That he won anything was a big victory.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/c...icle5183045.ece

Defend Disney from his Mickey Mouse critics
As the cartoon rodent reaches 80, we should celebrate his creator - a genius and one of the best arguments for capitalism

...

The critics disliked Disney not because they hated his flaws, but because they despised his achievements. He created modern mass entertainment. And that is what his opponents don't like. They think it is plastic, naive, a sin against nature, an insult to creativity.

Walt saw it differently. He was bringing high quality entertainment to people who had little in their lives, good quality merchandise in place of tat, brilliantly made films in place of amateur ones, artistic imagination to those who almost never encountered it. He provided capitalism with its best defence - that it can nourish creativity and inspiration.

The brilliance of Snow White, the wit of Mickey Mouse, the overwhelming, stunning commercial vision that produced the theme parks. Walt Disney was a genius.