Islamophobia

Fox News’ Tuck And Roll

cjones03152019

How bigoted does one have to be to be for Fox News to distance itself from you? Let’s ask Jeanine Pirro.

President Barack Obama once said that if he watched Fox News all day, then he’d probably be an Obama hater too. If you want to know what he’s talking about, just watch one of their star commentators, Pirro.

Pirro is angry. She delivers her commentary like a constipated conservative who just found out a bunch of gay, black Muslim flag burners had just moved into her neighborhood. On Saturday night, she was pissed at Muslim representative Ilhan Omar and questioned if her religious beliefs undermined her loyalty to the United States.

Pirro barked, “Think about it: Omar wears a hijab. Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Shariah law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution?” Islam isn’t any more antithetical to the United States Constitution than Christianity. Yeah, I said it.

Fox News producer, Hufsa Kamal tweeted at Pirro, “can you stop spreading this false narrative that somehow Muslims hate America or women who wear a hijab aren’t American enough? You have Muslims working at the same network you do, including myself.” I’m not too sure how effective the please-stop-being-a-bigot technique is going to work on Pirro or any other Fox News talking head.

Fox News issued a statement 24 hours after her remarks, saying, “We strongly condemn Jeanine Pirro’s comments about Representative Ilhan Omar. They do not reflect those of the network and we have addressed the matter with her directly.”

But, as much as Fox News may insist they don’t support her comments, they were not off the cuff or spontaneous banter. They were scripted and loaded into a teleprompter.

Since narcissism is a trait shared among conservatives, Pirro didn’t apologize or admit a mistake, much like Trump can’t admit he said “Tim Apple” instead of “Tim Cook.” Pirro said, “I’ve seen a lot of comments about my opening statement from Saturday night’s show and I did not call Representative Omar un-American. My intention was to ask a question and start a debate, but of course because one is Muslim does not mean you don’t support the Constitution.” That’s true. She didn’t call her un-American. She just questioned her loyalty to the country because of her religion and her wearing of a hijab. How can anyone find bigotry in that?

Tucker Carlson hasn’t apologized or admitted a mistake either regarding comments he made between 2006 and 2011. Media Matters published posts and recordings of Carlson that were sexist and racist. Carlson issued a statement saying, “Media Matters caught me saying something naughty on a radio show more than a decade ago. Rather than express the usual ritual contrition, how about this: I’m on television every weeknight live for an hour. If you want to know what I think, you can watch. Anyone who disagrees with my views is welcome to come on and explain why.”

Carlson needs someone to explain to him why it’s wrong to defend rapists? He also complained about the “liberal mob” trying to “kill his show.”

Some of Carlson’s “naughty” comments were about Alexis Stewart, Martha Stewart’s daughter who he described as “cunty” and said, “I just wanted to give her the spanking she so desperately needs.” He also said Britney Spears and Paris Hilton were, “two of the biggest white whores in America.”

In 2006, Tucker called into the Bubba the Love Sponge show (yeah, that’s a real thing) and said, “arranging a marriage between a 16-year-old and a 27-year-old is not the same as pulling a stranger off the street and raping her.” He said of one individual who married a child, “The rapist, in this case, has made a lifelong commitment to live and take care of the person.” He also called for the elimination of rape shield laws.

He once said that a female teacher who had sex with a 13-year-old male student was, “doing a service to all 13-year-old girls by taking the pressure off.” Basically, he came off as being a really big fan of rape or at least protecting rapists.

In 2006, he said of Barack Obama, then an Illinois senator, “How is he black, for one thing? He has one white parent, one black parent.” In 2008, he called in again and described Iraq as, “a crappy place filled with a bunch of, you know, semiliterate primitive monkeys — that’s why it wasn’t worth invading,” and also claimed Iraqis didn’t use toilet paper.

There’s a lot more he said, but I don’t want it to take you all day to read this blog. If you’re that interested to see them all, scroll up and click the Media Matters link. Warning; after reading the comments you’ll feel like you just watched an hour of Jeanine Pirro and you may need to shower with a Brillo pad.

I took a little creative license with this cartoon because, according to Tucker, he stopped wearing the bow tie around 2006 because, in New York City, people were screaming and cursing at him on the subways about it. Sure, New York City is a place that doesn’t do unconventional or weird, and they’ll scream at you for wearing a bow tie.

You look at Tucker’s track record with his racist and misogynistic comments and what kind of guy he truly is, and I don’t think it’s the bow tie they were screaming and cursing about on the subway.

Creative note: Thanks to my friends Hilary and Quannah who provided the words “shrill” and “harpy.”

The Herblock

I’ve been meaning to post about this, but each day gave me a new article to share on social media and I was kinda getting sick of myself.

I am the Finalist for the Herblock Prize, coming in second to winner Matt Davies. If you told me I was your second-favorite cartoonist behind Matt, I’d be flattered. Being honored by the Herblock Foundation in this way is truly amazing. It hasn’t sunk in yet.

This is the first time I’ve placed in one of the big national contests. I started my career in 1990, so I’ve been waiting nearly 30 years to hear my name mentioned. To everyone who’s offered congratulations and positive comments on my Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, thank you.

To all those other cartoonists out there, let this be a lesson to you. Sleep and having a social life is overrated.

Be Complicit

What kind of person would want to be part of something that disparages, slanders, and disrespects Dear Leader and his sycophantic followers? Hopefully, you.

Making a contribution supports my work and keeps the cartoons, columns, and videos coming. My income is from newspapers that subscribe to my work and small contributors. George Soros hasn’t sent me a million dollar check in weeks. Making a contribution of any amount, or buying a print for $40.00, makes you part of this specific resistance, and a member of Team Claytoonz (we’re still working on the name). You are complicit, an accomplice, and in cahoots (and whatever gangster terms we can think of) with this political satire pointing out that the stupid emperor has no clothes. Contributions can be made through PayPal, checks, and wads of cash exchanged in back alleys.

Whether you can help support, can’t, or just choose not to, please continue to enjoy and keep reading my work. Thank you!!!

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Watch the video.

Sharia Republicans

cjones01172019

The Republican Party has been struggling to attract members and voters who aren’t white or Christian. Well, they’re not actually struggling because they’re not really trying to attract people who aren’t white Christians. Or if they are, they’re doing a very bad job with it.

Iowa Republican congressman Steve King has a history of racism. Last Thursday, King defended white supremacy in an interview with The New York Times.

In that interview, he said, “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive? Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”

In the past, King has compared immigrants to dogs, endorsed a neo-Nazi for office, and has openly flirted with fascism. While Republicans admonish his comments, they don’t do anything to punish him. Instead, Republicans attempted to punish one of their own for his religion.

The vice-chairman of the Tarrant County Republican Party in Texas is a Muslim immigrant. Dr. Shahid Shafi came to the U.S. in 1990 and became a naturalized citizen in 2009. After he was appointed to his post, a small faction attempted to oust him. They held a vote to remove him merely because he is a Muslim. The vote failed 49-139.

Republicans may point at the failure to remove Dr. Shafi as proof they’ve come a long way with tolerance. Because they are Republicans, they don’t understand their failure is that they even held the vote.

While Democrats are electing Muslims, Republicans are trying to kick them out of their party. Those who were in favor of Shafi’s removal said he’s unequipped to be vice-chairman because he doesn’t represent all Tarrant County Republicans due to his religion. They’ve also said Islamic ideologies run counter to the U.S. Constitution.

No. Persecuting someone because of their religion runs counter to the U.S. Constitution. While a party isn’t required to ban religious tests, the Constitution clearly does so for public office. A clause in Article Six states, “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”

Maybe they should have said his beliefs run counter to the Texas Constitution, except that’s unconstitutional and only requires officeholders to “Acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being.” I don’t know why “supreme being” is capitalized in their state constitution.

Republicans are so afraid of the myth of Sharia Law in the United States; they’ll enact their own Sharia Law to protect us from Sharia Law.

For context, Muslim Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib’s “MF’er” comment got five times more media coverage than Congressman Steve King’s support of white supremacy. We are literally more outraged at a public official saying “motherfucker” than “white power.” We have a president who defends Nazis and then states that Tlaib “shamed her family.” Personally, I’d rather people in my family say “motherfucker” than defend Nazis.

For example; if they said “We need to get rid of these motherfuckers who endorse and defend Nazis,” I’d be OK with that.

Be Complicit

What kind of person would want to be part of something that disparages, slanders, and disrespects Dear Leader and his sycophantic followers? Hopefully, you.

Whether you can help support, can’t, or just choose not to, please continue to enjoy and keep reading my work. Thank you!!!

You can purchase a signed print of this cartoon.

Watch me draw.

Flexing Muscles For Brussels

It didn’t take Republicans long to politicize the Tuesday’s terrorist bombings in Brussels, Belgium. About 12 seconds after locating Belgium on the globe Trump and Cruz took off.

Trump brought back his torture argument (we could make them listen to his speeches and attempt to articulate one of his “best words” sentences). Cruz went farther and said we should patrol Muslim neighborhoods. Why didn’t they just propose shooting every brown person in the head?

They have already proposed making Muslims wear special IDs and prohibiting them entering the country if they’re from a nation or region where ISIS operates. We could just invade the wrong country again and see if it works this time.

It’s crazy they go into these nationalistic proposals regarding terrorism, such as sending storm troopers into the suburbs, but they don’t really want to do anything about gun violence in our nation. Well, other than the proposal of more guns.

With that argument maybe more terrorists will defeat terrorism.

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Mooslem Patrol

I think I ranted enough yesterday on this topic that I can spare you a political rant today.

While writing yesterday’s column I inserted a part about getting a tan. Then I thought, hey that’s my next cartoon. So I took it out and saved it for this. I went to bed and then I got back up because I wanted to rough it out at least. I had a fear I’d forget the idea even though I don’t forget ideas I like.

I sat on it all day because there’s only one cartoonist out there I think is crazy and weird enough to think like me. I wanted to see if he came up with the same idea. Yeah, I could have drawn it and beaten him to the punch but even if I’m first with the idea, I don’t want to publish the same idea. Thankfully he wasn’t as weird as me on Tuesday.

Freedom, Fear And Hummus

I’m exhausted. I’m tired of the militant gun crowd screaming for more guns. I’m tired of Republicans who believe it’s OK to sell guns to people they put on the no-fly list. Mostly I’m tired of bigotry and the support it’s gaining.

Obama issued a rare Oval Office address Sunday night in attempt to beef up confidence in his handling of ISIS. He also appealed for the public to be rational toward those of the Islamic faith.

While the public has very little faith in the president’s handling of terrorism, the Republican candidates are scaring the Hell out of those who are more pragmatic.

The GOP candidates aren’t just selling fear. They’re selling hate, bigotry and outright racism. Most of them are calling for the rejection of Syrian refugees entering the country (though there hasn’t been any acts of terrorism by anyone who entered the country through the refugee process). Trump says we should kill the terrorists’ families and put mosques under surveillance. Ted Cruz wants to strip citizenship of suspected terrorists and responded to the latest mass shooting by holding a rally at a gun range. Even the most mainstream of the candidates, Jeb Bush, says we should only accept Christian refugees. Worst of all, they’re selling the fear that you’re not safe unless you own a semi-automatic weapon and carry it with you at all times.

The candidates bigotry wouldn’t be so alarming if it wasn’t gaining so much support. That’s what I’m tired of. I’m tired of people blaming Muslims and trying to smear the entire faith as violent. I’m tired of people who are only concerned with Muslim killers, but not white killers, or Christian killers.

In other news, many of the Republican candidates spoke to the Jewish Coalition. Of course they pandered. Every candidate, Republican and Democrat pander to whatever group they’re speaking to at the time. But some of these guys really got into the stereotypes. Jim Gilmore (yes, he’s still in the race) said he’s seen Schindler’s List. Jeb Bush informed the crowd that he knows what Hannukah is. Ted Cruz said a vote for Hillary is a vote for the Ayatollah to nuke Israel. John Kasich said if you want a good friend, find one who’s Jewish. Rick Santorum mentioned he worked with a Jew in the Senate. Donald Trump told them he knows how much they like their money and how good of negotiators they are. I’m shocked none of the candidates referred to Obama as a schlemiel.

The funniest part was Ben Carson who seemed to be reading directly from a Wikipedia entry. In referencing Hamas, Ben Carson pronounced it “hummus.” Apparently the good doctor has never had a conversation in his life about the Middle East and heard the proper pronunciation. Let’s just hope he never orders an appetizer of Hamas with flat bread.

Paging Doctor Bigot

Dr. Ben Carson made some statements Sunday that he would never vote for a Muslim president. He went on to say that the religion is not consistent with the U.S. Constitution. He’s right.

The Muslim religion is not consistent with our Constitution. Either is Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism or Voodoo. Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1821 that Virginia’s religious freedom law was meant to apply to “the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mahometan,” a term then used to mean Muslim, “the Hindoo and infidel of every denomination.” I think I’ll take Jefferson’s idea of the separation of church and state over Dr. Carson’s.

Once upon a time there were laws in this country that barred Catholics from holding office. Let’s not forget that women and blacks were also prevented from voting.

A candidate’s religion doesn’t determine if he’s fit for the office of president. It’s how he or she understands it applies to our laws, which is it doesn’t. Carson spends a lot of time talking about Christianity and exhibiting a lot of ignorance on basic civics. Of course we’re talking about a doctor who doesn’t believe in Climate Change, says people turn gay in prison, wants to use drones to bomb our border with Mexico and says we should eliminate the Veterans Administration.

Not surprising Democrats pounced on his comments. Very surprising a few Republicans jumped on it. Lindsey Graham, and John Kasich (in case you forgot they’re still running) both criticized Carson. Most surprising is Ted Cruz criticized Carson for his remarks. Ted Cruz! You have to be an extreme bigot to make Ted Cruz disagree with you. Bobby Jindal kinda sorta disagreed with Carson.

Carson was defended by Rush Limbaugh. Donald Trump, who’s still dealing with his public display of Islamophobia, said some people think we already have a Muslim president.

It’s very telling of a political party when your top three candidates consists of a racist egomaniac, a pathological lying failed business leader and a guy who wants to enact some sort of Christianity Sharia Law.

At the very least their hatred of Muslims might overshadow their hatred of Mexicans.

No wonder Scott Walker went home.

Tick Tock In Texas

I’m going to be honest. I’ve used this idea before. About 20 years ago actually and it’s even in my book (yes, I have a book. A very outdated book). I might have used it again since then but I can’t remember.

Ahmed Mohamed is a very creative and inventive 14-year-old freshman in Irving, Texas. Ahmed made a clock. Ahmed took his clock to school. Ahmed was arrested for taking a clock to school. Did I mention his name is “Ahmed” and this happened in Texas? You know Texas, that place where white guys walk around with AR-15s strapped to their backs as they shop at Walmart, but a clock looks scary. A clock in the hands of a Muslim.

So Ahmed takes his homemade clock to school. A teacher asks him if it’s a bomb. Ahmed says no. Case closed, right? No. Later he’s taken to a room with the principal and several police officers who question him for a couple of hours. Though the clock is not a bomb, and he says it’s a clock and not a hoax, Ahmed is arrested. He’s handcuffed, taken to jail, finger printed and has his mugshot taken. At some point they inform his parents.

Ahmed was suspended from school for three days. The police eventually dropped the charges (whatever they were. Brown with a clock in Texas?) but Ahmed is still suspended from school.

The Irving police chief stated the officers were justified in detaining the teenager based on the information they had at the time, when initially it was “not immediately evident that” Ahmed’s clock was a class experiment. He added, however, that the police had “no evidence to support that there was an intention to create an alarm.” Asked whether the police would have reacted differently if Ahmed had been white, Chief Boyd said they would have followed the same procedures. Yeah I’m sure. A lot of white kids have made clocks and brought them to school but I can’t recall one ever being arrested for it.

The school’s principal sent a letter to parents stating police had responded to a “suspicious-looking item on campus.”

The city’s mayor, Beth Van Duyne, has a history of Islamophobia. In the past she’s accused a Muslim group in the city of trying to create an anti-American court of Sharia Law in the city. Regarding this situation with Ahmed and his clock she wrote on Facebook that she did not fault the school or the police “for looking into what they saw as a potential threat.”

Some positives have come of this. Hillary Clinton voiced support as did Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Twitter has offered him an internship (hey, come work for free). Best of all, President Obama tweeted support and invited him to visit the White House with his clock, which is still in police possession.

He’s accepted the president’s invitation and he will visit the White House for Astronomy Night on Oct. 19, which is an event bringing together scientists, engineers, astronauts, teachers and students to spend a night stargazing from the South Lawn.

Ahmed has a very bright future. Of course he’s still Muslim with a Muslim name in Texas.

Good luck, Ahmed!

Hate-Mongering Religious Extremists…And Then Some Update

This is America. Land of the free. Home of the brave…and a lot of whack jobs.

A hate-mongering Islamophobic group decided to have a “free speech” event in Garland, Texas. It wasn’t so much as a free speech event as much as it was an event designed to insult and bait Muslims. It worked.

You’d have to be an idiot not to think this event would attract nut jobs, even the violent type. There was a ton of security. So much that when Islamic terrorist showed up the shooting only lasted about 15 seconds. One security guard, who was unarmed, was injured. That security guard is probably the only unarmed person in Texas. The two attackers were killed.

This group’s attempt to exercise “free speech” in the form of a “draw Muhammad” contest was a giant bulls eye in the easiest place in the world to buy a gun.

I support everyone’s right to freedom of speech. I exercise it everyday. But that doesn’t mean I can’t say “maybe you shouldn’t say that.” This is America where we have freedom of speech. Every American has a free speech event everyday in this country. You don’t need to rent out a civic center display your hatred stupidity for all the world to see. You have Facebook and Twitter for your covert racist comments.

We have a right to free speech but maybe we should choose how to exercise it more wisely. I’d state that even if there wasn’t a terrorist attack. Maybe we could choose to be less rude and stop provoking people. That doesn’t mean I think anyone should shoot at you because you’re saying some stupid stuff. I don’t think you should be shot at for drawing Muhammad but I also think maybe you should stop trolling people by drawing Muhammad.

And yes. If you draw Muhammad with the intention to anger Muslims then you are being a bigot. In the future you may be a bigot for whom large groups hold candle lit vigils.

*Update*

My friend, Mike Csotd Peterson, wrote an excellent article on this subject and he shared my cartoon with it on his website, Comic Strip Of The Day.

Mike starts his column off with “Clay Jones comes out of the blocks fast with this response.” Yeah, there’s a reason for that.

I am probably the first cartoonist in this country to cover the subject. Yeah I’m bragging but it’s just because I was probably the only cartoonist awake when the news broke. I wasn’t just awake, I was just starting to draw. I work very late. I had a lame idea on another subject that I was putting off, hoping for better inspiration. Even after I had this subject I sketched out an idea and put that off for over an hour as I felt I could do something better. I probably sketched out three ideas. I can’t share them here because I drew them in pencil which does not scan well. I also erased two of them. I started drawing around 1:00 AM and I know I finished up at 3:00. I know this because that was the time on the microwave as I made celebratory popcorn to eat while lying in bed with the Beagle Chubbs as we watch TV.

Another note on the creativity: I turned the volume down on the TV while I drew and the soundtrack was Foo Fighters. None of their lame latest crap. I was listening to the obscure B-sides from their earlier days. Stuff you’re not cool enough to have ever heard.

claytoonz

Nationally Syndicated Editorial Cartoonist