With Crappy Photoshopping, The Church of Scientology Risks A Fatwa

[DeSwiss]

With Crappy Photoshopping, The Church of Scientology Risks A Fatwa

The Pitch (Kansas City)
By Alan Scherstuhl in http://blogs.pitch.com/plog/studies_in_crap/">Studies in Crap
Friday, Aug. 14 2009 @ 12:27PM



Nobody ever accused the Cult of L. Ron of PR expertise.

As we pointed out in yesterday's Studies in Crap post, the hilariously titled promotional pamphlet "Scientology: Something CAN Be Done About It" features a doozy of a photo-illustration guaranteed to offend, say, three-fourths of the world's religious believers. It presents the great leaders of religious history, from Buddha to Christ, all lined up evolution-chart style beneath a dinner-jacketed Scientologist wielding his oversized official handbook. The implication: All of religious history has been building to this schmo measuring your thetans.



What truly startles, though, is the inclusion of Mohammad just to the left of that bored looking bed-sheet Jesus. Yes, only the prophet's eyes and hands are visible, but that's not likely to comfort followers of the Hadith rules that strictly forbid any such depiction. Remember those Danish cartoons a couple years back? Here's Mohammed and a friend.



http://blogs.pitch.com/plog/2009/08/with_crappy_photoshopping_the_church_of_scientology_risks_a_fatwa.php">MORE

- Not only do these Church of Scientology folks have a depiction of Mohamed in their brochures, but its of Mohamed in a veil!

_____________________________(insert own punchline here)_____________________________.
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DeSwiss


http://www.atheisttoolbox.com/">The Atheist Toolbox


http://www.newint.org/issue244/curious.htm">Pope Test: The Testicle Chair
http://www.newint.org/issue244/curious.htm">
"Testiculos habet et bene pendentes."



"From our present knowledge, the most complex things we know about our ourselves. In particular our brains.
What's remarkable is that atoms have assembled into entities that are somehow able to ponder their origins."
Sir Martin Rees, Cosmologist (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7044753105944203252&ei=ItKMSrGjLaWaqAK93aHBBg&q=what+we+don%27t+know&hl=en&client=firefox-a">What We Still Don't Know)

on edit: spelling

[Drunken Irishman]

1. Forget that. What about Jesus not having a right arm!?!

[DeSwiss]

3. Forget his arm!!!

He's wearing Birkenstocks!!! Definitely a hippie!!!

:rofl:

[ZombieHorde]

2. Hmmm, I guess we will see what happens. nt

[DeSwiss]

4. I'm sure with a few prime-time....

...couch jumping explanations, Tom will have it cleared-up in no time.

[TlalocW]

5. Actually this could turn into a triple-threat match

Not only is the pamphlet implying that Jesus is down the religious-evolutionary ladder from Scientology, he's two rungs down, with Mohammad in front of him. Scientology versus Fundamentalist Muslims versus Fundamentalist Christians.

Where's my popcorn?

TlalocW

[Silver Gaia]

6. Well, I assume they're supposed to be in chronological order?

Not that the fundamentalists would get that. They do show it in "evolution-style," though, with everyone 'rising' up the hill. I was curious who they chose to include as representing world religions. I see someone perhaps representing Hinduism at the bottom, then Abraham, Moses, maybe King Solomon (? guy in red), then Lao-Tzu, the Buddha, Confucius, and finally Jesus (at the highest point below the Scientology guy), and then Muhammad (who is actually shown not 'rising' like the rest, but a step down). Oh dear. This will just confuse and piss off everyone! LOL If they ever even see it, that is.

[DCKit]

7. If chronological, you would think the older religions would be more advanced...

than the zygote that is "Cruiseology".

At least nobody ever accused Jesus of developing his ideals and teachings around binges of drugs, boys and booze. Oh, that crazy Buddha. All three.

[ZombieHorde]

12. "nobody ever accused Jesus of developing his ideals and teachings...binges of drugs, boys and booze"

Jesus hung out with 12 boys while turning water into wine.

[DCKit]

13. Shhhhhhh. They might be watching. n/t

[Strong Atheist]

8. Good. Hope the scientologists and islamic radicals go after each other. It is like the Iran/Iraq

war in the eighties: hope they both lose...

[onager]

9. Reminds me of the movie epic about Mohammed...

What's that, you say? How do you make a movie about a religious leader who absolutely, positively cannot be depicted as a mundane "graven image?"

Well, you have the actors talk directly to the camera. Or to Mohammed's camel-stick. Or occasionally, to his camel.

Yes, I give you the cinema classic... Mohammed, Messenger of God. A/k/a The Message.

Along with its awesome...technical challenges, the flick featured Hollywood's All-Purpose Ethnic, Anthony Quinn.

And financing from a somewhat unusual source...

Director Akkad faced resistance from Hollywood to making a film about the origins of Islam and had to go outside the United States to raise the production money for the film. Lack of financing nearly shut down the film as the initial backers pulled out, financing was finally provided by Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi.

But the critical response was explosive!

The New York Times reported, "Finally, when the film was scheduled to premier in the U.S., another Muslim extremist group staged a siege against the Washington D.C. chapter of the B'nai B'rith under the mistaken belief that Anthony Quinn played Mohammed in the film, threatening to blow up the building and its inhabitants unless the film's opening was cancelled."

...On March 9, 1977, a group of Black Muslims, led by Hamas Abdul Khaalis, seized several buildings and took 134 hostages in the Washington, D.C. The takeover led to the fatal shootings of a journalist and a police officer, and the non-fatal shooting of Marion Barry, who would become mayor of Washington, D.C. two years later.

One of their demands was to prevent the release of the film. One of the hostage-takers specifically said, according to an on-site reporter, that "he wanted a guarantee from the whole world it will never be shown or they would execute some of the hostages".

You'd think people would learn their lesson. But n-o-o-o...

In October 2008, producer Oscar Zoghbi revealed plans to "revamp the 1976 movie and give it a modern twist...He hopes to shoot the remake, tentatively titled The Messenger of Peace, in the cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad,_Messenger_of_God

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074896/

[charlie]

11. Cripes, I remember that

That ridiculous hostage situation in a theater. The near unquashable rumor that Mohammed was being played by Charlton Heston. The bewilderment of the excitable producer with too much money, who genuinely thought he was doing a pious thing -- he finally got blown up at his daughter's wedding years later, the poor sap.

[onager]

15. Ever read the novel about that goat-rope?

I haven't, but heard it described long ago. I know the title was The Marrakesh Two-Step, but can't remember the author. Amazon and Google failed, so I guess it's out of print.

IIRC, the plot assumed that the producers were a bunch of Muslim con men who expected to get millions of dollars in financing. Then discovered they had to actually make the movie.

[charlie]

10. That's a veil?

Looks more like a feedbag.

It would be funny as hell if Miscavage had to do a Rushdie over this. Everyone will express due outrage, but nobody will really give a shit if that oily bastard spent the rest of his life in hidey holes.

What's with that title? It reads like Scientology is a problem that needs curing, like one of those self-help missives:

The Heartbreak of Premature Baldness: Something CAN Be Done About It

[DCKit]

14. Are you comparing Scientology to a toupee? Hmm, hadn't thought of it that way before. n/t