Arabeyes: Mickey Mouse Must Die..or Maybe Not
Mickey Mouse must die, declared a Saudi cleric in a television interview. Or perhaps that is not exactly what he said. Regardless, the interview found its way to television screens and newspaper headlines around the world and bloggers are at loggerheads with the issue. Did the cleric literally mean that Mickey Mouse must die or was it just another ploy to sensationalise and poke fun of anything an Arab and a Muslim utters?
Here's the video:
And here's a parody of reactions from international media:
On the first video, Palestinian Pundit comments:
A Saudi cleric has condemned Disney's lovable cartoon mouse. What could the big-eared rodent possibly have done to offend?
And from Morocco, Myrtus is lost for words and exclaims:
Gasp!
Stupidity beyond belief!
And on the outcry from Western media, Sultan Al Jumeri, from Saudi Arabia, writes:
Jordanian Mohammed Badi has another take on the issue and writes:
Still in Jordan, The Black Iris notes:
Anyways, the western media has had a field day (week) with this bit of news…
Egyptian Amr Gharbeia makes an interesting footnote on his comment on the video, saying:
Global Voices Online Morocco author Jillian York gives us her take on the issue here. She notes:
Some Saudi cleric is answering a question about mice; namely, whether or not they should be killed in the house. It’s a valid religious question that anyone might consider (including PETA), but the cleric goes perhaps a little too far and claims that the presence Tom & Jerry has softened kids to the evils of mice.
After watching the video, she explains:
It’s pretty clear to me that when he says “according to Islamic Sharia, Mickey Mouse should be killed,” he’s saying it with a smirk on his face and a tongue in his cheek. And yet the American media got ahold of the video (which was put out by MEMRI) and all hell breaks loose.
And after linking to the media outlash, she observes:
Suddenly the cleric’s words are being twisted to say that Mickey should die, that there’s a fatwa on Mickey, that Tom & Jerry are evil. Dude didn’t say that at all. What he said is that, according to Islam, mice are dirty and when found indoors should be killed. He only brought up Mickey to explain how children have become immune to mice because they see them as cute little cartoons rather than dirty, infected rodents.
Give me a break, FOX and accomplices.
* Photo above of Mickey Mouses at Orlando International Airport by Joe Shlabotnik on Flickr.
13 comments
MEMRI are horrible and even evil, but it does not mean this particular video was a wrong translation. They are experts at picking up and amplifying incidents.
I’m totally with Mohammed Badi! Who the f*ck cares for mice? I mean, there’re really a lot more serious problems facing the Islamic world and Islam itself… and he’s talking about mice. Yeah, he was making a joke (though he was really bad at explaining that in the follow up video). But it is joke enough to talk about religious dogmas towards mice.
I believe this material is not newsworthy at all, it is merely an individual pointing out the differences in people’s perspectives from the time his religious doctrine was created to the present time. What was once viewed as infestious disease filled creatures are now deemed as cute adorable animals because of cartoons like Tom and Jerry and Mickey Mouse have desensitized children worldwide. It is sad to find that things of greater magnitude to the people of the world continue to go unnoticed while things of this nature get blown out of proportion.
Fun Fact: MEMRI was co-founded by the wife (Meyrav Wurmser) of the Middle East Advisor to Dick Cheney (David Wurmser).