Rightwords... Prudent Conservatism

The New Life of Ali


When last seen, our reluctant hero was running down the street waving a green flag in one hand and firing a rifle with his other hand, in traditional Muslim demonstration mode. The Caliph told him he had been insulted by the Danes. Ali didn't know what a Dane was, but if one could insult him or Allah, then woe to him. It was street time again. Besides, the Caliph paid well for a few hours of yelling, firing, waving, and jumping up and down. Perhaps one of the others surounding him would know what a Dane was, and give his gyrations more meaning.

Kalief knew. A Dane was a man from a country called Denmark. A newspaper there ran a set of cartoons blaspheming Allah. So it was our duty to demo. After the demo there would be a big party behind the Mosque, and someone said there would be a whole bunch of vestal virgins there--well, maybe not vestal, and come to think of it not virgins either-- but they would be a grand substitute till the real thing happened.

No one had actually seen these cartoons, since they couldn't be published by law, but the Caliph never lied; well, not often anyway. Kalief said that more papers in Europe had printed them, and all the Muslims there were out in the streets too. This meant days of demos and parties, and a very large sum of money out of the pocket of the Caliph, so it was with considerable enthusiasm that Ali shouted the usual slogans he didn't understand, such as "Down with the Americans!" with his fellow Arabs, all the while thinking about vestal virgins (light).

Life was good, demos made the day, and the night.

# posted by Mannning @ 5:13 AM