If you have read the news at all lately, you know there’s a furor going on in the Muslim world due to the Pope quoting a 14th-century emperor about Islam’s converting people by the sword. (The full text of the Pope’s speech is at that link; I read it, and it’s quite a speech. The quote is a tiny portion of it and by no means the most important part.)

The Muslim world is busy protesting that there is no such thing as forced conversions. Muslims simply don’t do that, you understand.

Funny how short the world’s memory is. Or did you already forget the two kidnapped Fox reporters who were forced by their captors to convert to Islam?

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Two FOX News journalists were released by their kidnappers Sunday, nearly two weeks after they were taken hostage in the Gaza Strip.

[...] Both of the men were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint, Centanni said.

“We were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint,” Centanni told FOX News. “Don’t get me wrong here. I have the highest respect for Islam, and I learned a lot of good things about it, but it was something we felt we had to do because they had the guns, and we didn’t know what the hell was going on.”

The New York Times covered it.

CNN covered it.

Forbes covered it.

USA Today covered it.

The AP covered it.

Time covered it.

The Christian Science Monitor covered it.

Reuters covered it. They even quote the “conversion” video.

The two men were shown separately sitting cross-legged, reading statements announcing that they had converted to Islam. At times in the video they were wearing long Muslim robes.

“I changed my name to Khaled. I have embraced Islam and say the word Allah,” Centanni said.

Funny how people seem to forget the details of this case, which ended a little more than two weeks ago.

At the same time, before the journalists’ release, a new video was released, showing Wiig and Centanni dressed in beige Arab-style robes. Wiig, of New Zealand, delivered an anti-Western speech, his face expressionless and his tone halting. The kidnappers claimed both men had converted to Islam.

The journalists had been seized in Gaza City on Aug. 14 by a previously unknown group calling itself the Holy Jihad Brigades. However, senior Palestinian security officials said Sunday the name was a front for local militants, and that Palestinian authorities had known the identity of the kidnappers from the start.

The Muslim world, which is now loudly proclaiming that there is no coercion in Islam, stayed silent when the two Fox reporters were freed. They stayed silent when the reporters told the world that they were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint.

The Muslim world also seems unable to notice things like Al Qaeda telling Americans to convert to Islam or die. Oh, true, Adam Goddam, or whatever his last name is, didn’t exactly say we’d die, but the implication was clear:

“Instead of killing yourself for Bush … why not surrender to the truth (of Islam), escape from the unbedlieving army and join the winning side. Time is running out so make the right choice before it’s too late,” he said.

[...] “You know that if you die as an unbeliever in battle against the Muslims you’re going straight to Hell without passing ‘Go,”‘ Gadahn said, addressing American soldiers. “You know you’re considered by Bush and his bunch of warmongers as nothing more than expendible cannon fodder … You know they couldn’t care less about your safety and well-being.”

“We send a special invitation (to convert to Islam) to all of you fighting Bush’s crusader pipedream in Afghanistan, Iraq and wherever else ‘W’ has sent you to die. You know the war can’t be won,” he said, using Bush’s nickname.

And again, the Muslim world proves it is impervious to irony, as it protests—violently—that Islam is not a violent religion. In the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, five churches have come under attack. These are the people the PC(USA) and other churches support, insisting these palestinians would be the most peaceful of people, if it weren’t for the “occupation.” Yes, we see how peaceful and tolerant they are to their Christian neighbors when push comes to shove.

Palestinians wielding guns and firebombs attacked five churches in the West Bank and Gaza on Saturday, following remarks by Pope Benedict XVI that angered many Muslims.

Firebombings left black scorch marks on the walls and windows of Nablus’ Anglican and Greek Orthodox churches. At least five firebombs hit the Anglican church and its door was later set ablaze. Smoke billowed from the church as firefighters put out the flames.

For a religion of peace, it sure has a lot of violent demonstrations. Or maybe that’s just my Western blindness to other cultures kicking in.

Some of you may remember that last May, I went on a riff against ABC for screwing around with Grey’s Anatomy by taking the last two episodes and moving them from Sunday to, uh, whatever day they moved them to, causing me to miss them, because I came home that Sunday night from a trip to NJ exhausted, and simply taped the show and did not watch it. Nor did I watch it on Monday after work. Sometime Monday night, I became aware that Grey’s Anatomy was on, and that I missed it, and that I had totally screwed things up, but that I was confident I’d be able to, say, download the missing episodes from ABC.com.

Nope.

So I’ve been waiting all summer to watch the reruns, and last Thursday, I settled in waiting for them to start, figuring that since next Thursday is the season opener, they’d finally run them. After all, they’ve been running two a night for some time now. So I turned on the tube at 8 p.m., and said, “I saw this one.” It was not the second-to-last episode. And the next one was not, either. Frustrated and annoyed, I realized that ABC had released the second season DVDs this week, so I called my local Blockbuster, made sure they had the last disc, and got in the car and rented the last two episodes of the season and wound up staying up far too late watching them.

Only to realize now that they’re rerunning the last two episodes next week.

On Wednesday.

Because ABC sucks.

Bite me, ABC. Again.

You know, this has been available for months, but I forgot to mention it when I first got the email.

Hey, it’s better than Rip van Winkle time. That’d be twenty years.

SmashPhone, a mobile phone comic strip network, today announced it’s bringing Amy DeZeller’s Dating Amy and Chris Muir’s Day by Day comic strips to mobile phones everywhere. Viewers can access the SmashPhone Comic Strip Network through Verizon, Cingular, Sprint, T-Mobile and many other carriers. The comics are served by SmashPhone for free (although phone company data charges may apply).

This may be the first and last press release ever quoted on my blog.

Chris Muir’s Day by Day comic strip is based on each day’s political events. How’s that for topical? This shoot-from-the-hip toon follows four characters and their reactions to news and thoughts of the day. Day by Day garnered 12,000 loyal daily readers by encouraging websites to embed the daily comic strip freely. “Comic strips have to be on mobile,” says Muir. “It’s adapt or die! All the market growth is on phones, especially with kids and comic strips.” Muir said he chose SmashPhone because they can reach more phones than anyone else (over 1.2B phones).

I have worked in P.R. before, and I have to smile as I read the release. You know, people like to write pretend press releases, and they always—always—get the style wrong.

Well, except for me, but that’s because I’m that good. (And because I worked in the industry. But mostly because I’m THAT good.)

Sorry for the delay, Chris. Good thing I was cleaning out my emailbox, hm?

The unfortunate statement made by Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus angers the Muslims all over the world.

Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.

(THE TEXT ABOVE IS A QUOTE ONLY!!!)

The provocative statement caused a widespread outrage.

Byzantine embassies in Damascus, Jakarta, Tripoli were set on fire, in other areas were set on fire Byzantine-looking foreigners that had been caught in the streets.

Effigies of the emperor Manuel II were burned (28 cases), stomped (43 cases) and served as spittoons (175 cases). Starbucks franchise was reported burning in Riad, but it may be just the smell of burned beans, and all the bets are off regarding this case.

Ambassador of Saudi Arabia in Constantinople was urgently called home “for consultations”. His request for half an hour delay to allow him to finish the delicious seafood dinner with homegrown couscous was refused.

President Ahmadinejad was reported to blame the Zionists for the outrageous statement. “First they set up shop in the middle of Muslim land. Then they provoke us by these blasphemous cartoons, and now this. Is there a limit to Zionist chutzpa? Millions shahids will march on Constantinople.”

Professors Petras, Mearsheimer and Walt published an article that conclusively proves that the latest outrage was caused by a Mossad mole close to the emperor Manuel’s chambermaid. The degree of closeness will be a subject for the follow-on article. There was no response neither from Jerusalem or from AIPAC whose sinister role in this Mossad operation is covered in the article.

There are unconfirmed reports that the Turkish army is brought to the state of highest alert and even rumors of fires over Constantinople, however the only black and white picture comes from Reuters:

There are some doubts about the authenticity of the trees in the background.

The rumors about some Germanic tribes offering support to the emperor’s position are also unconfirmed and may be blamed on translation issues. However, the papal Swiss guard was beefed up by some elite units from Zurich, trained in fierce facial expression.

More to follow…

Cross-posted on SimplyJews