Laugh, and the world laughs with you

Illustration from a contemporary English version of "Mouse and Cat" by Ubaid Zakani (died circa 1372 A.D.), "one of the most remarkable poets, satirists and social critics of Iran" -- from the Iranian Ketab Web Store.

"Those familiar with Islam's literature know of Ubaid Zakani's 'Mush va Gorbeh' (Mouse and Cat), a match for Rabelais when it comes to mocking religion," writes Amir Taheri in his "Bonfire of the Pieties: Islam prohibits neither images of Muhammad nor jokes about religion" in Opinion Journal this morning. How refreshing to hear from someone who knows something about his subject for a change, beyond the lazy mantra abroad of late that "Images are forbidden in the Koran":

"There is no Quranic injunction against images, whether of Muhammad or anyone else . . . When it spread into the Levant, Islam came into contact with a version of Christianity that was militantly iconoclastic. As a result some Muslim theologians, at a time when Islam still had an organic theology, issued "fatwas" against any depiction of the Godhead. That position was further buttressed by the fact that Islam acknowledges the Jewish Ten Commandments--which include a ban on depicting God--as part of its heritage. The issue has never been decided one way or another, and the claim that a ban on images is "an absolute principle of Islam" is purely political. Islam has only one absolute principle: the Oneness of God. Trying to invent other absolutes is, from the point of view of Islamic theology, nothing but sherk, i.e., the bestowal on the Many of the attributes of the One.

The truth is that Islam has always had a sense of humor and has never called for chopping heads as the answer to satirists.

Not being familiar with Islam's literature, we went googling for that 14th-century Persian's "Mouse and Cat" -- a perennial theme of this blog. The closest we came was a summary in English of another of Ubaid Zakani's tales:

A gypsy scolded his son and said, "You do no work and waste your life in idleness. How often must I tell you to practice and learn how to dance on a rope and make a dog jump through a hoop so that you can achieve something in your life. If you don't listen to me, I swear by God, I will send you to the school to learn their good-for-nothing sciences and become a scholar so as to live in misery and adversity and never be able to earn a penny wherever you go."

Forget about multiculturalism. Humor is the language we all understand. Take this bit of Jewish humor from Lucianne's boy, Jonah, at NRO's The Corner:

April 1, 2006. New York -- In response to a series of offensive cartoons published in an Iranian newspaper and subsequently printed in every newspaper around the globe, including many which had refused to publish the now-forgotten "anti-Muslim" cartoons last winter, the "Jewish street" erupted. At Brandeis University, a course on Lesbian motifs in Yiddish literature was briefly interrupted as students asked their professor what he thought about the controversy. In Washington D.C. a flurry of letters to the editor and press releases poured out of Jewish organizations. In New York, Commentary magazine -- a leading organ of the "neoconservative" Jewish Right -- announced it would run three articles on Iran in its next issue as well as an extensive letters section.

"This is outrageous but expected," thundered a furious Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League on a longer-than-normal appearance on MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews."

Elsewhere Jewish tempers weren't running so hot. At Artie's Delicatessen on the Upper West Side of New York, Josh Greenberg ate a pastrami sandwich with a friend, Abe Kolman, hoping to avoid all the furor in the Jewish street. "Zabar's is a mad house today," Greenberg observed. When asked about the Iranian newspaper controversy, Greenberg said "What are you going to do?"

Kolman, an orthodontist, added "I'd stop eating Iranian pistachios, I guess."

The White House continued to plead with Jews across America to stay calm.

Another fab bit of irony, as reported by The Brussels Journal:

Tonight the BBC admitted that it has misinformed the international community by telling the world that one of the Danish Muhammad cartoons was a depiction of a pigsnouted Muhammad.

It used to be the press that spoke truth to power, but now it's the bloggers -- specifically Dennis Nixon at NeanderNews [via Michelle Malkin] -- that are holding the Fourth Estate's feet to the fire. Dr. Sanity explains why good humor works:

The healthiest kind of humor is the kind that allows an outlet for pain and at the same time gives pleasure. It deflates without destroying; and exposes our pretensions before they are taken too seriously.

The painful feelings that often underlie humor if expressed another way would be destructive or eat away at the soul. In this way, humor can be as redemptive as the most creative artistic endeavor.

Note: If any of our readers is familiar with Ubaid Zakani's "Mouse and Cat" story, please drop a line in our comments, and we'll add it here as an update.

Comments

[patd95]

Fantastic piece...should be sent to and read by all!

[Sissy Willis]

I sent it to InstaPundit and Pajamas Pundits, but no takers. :(

[goomp]

I agree with patd95. Superb.

[Aloysius Katz]

Fascinating argument.

Apparently the book is available from certain UK booksellers. Try googling Obaid-e Zakani.