But this time, the ADL is only calling them “counterproductive.”
Two young Israeli boys, Tom and Or, decided to their part in furthering the Palestinian and Israeli tug-o-war for peace by creating their own online cartoon known simply as Ahmed and Salim.
They’re young Arabs who spend their afternoons trying to bomb Israeli buses, gun down Jewish girls and incinerate crowded cafes, and in the three months since their debut, their caricature of Islamic extremism has attracted a growing cult following in Israel.
Rather than providing thoughtful and humourous satire (see: South Park) the show does nothing but monger hate towards Muslims and Arabs. In the above-linked article, the young cartoonists smugly admit that they are drawn to be more “passionately aggressive towards the Muslim faith” because it is the only faith which would call for the death of someone over ‘silly cartoons’ mocking it. They also welcome death threats.
Tom and Or also wash their hands clean of their work feeding racists; for them viewers watch the show with their own pre-existing conceptions and stereotypes and the show has no interest in changing already bigoted minds.
But that is precisely where the problem is. They may not be trying to ‘change’ anyone’s bigotry but they are fueling it. They are not neutral and they do have a very real agenda. Their representation of Muslims and Arabs is more telling of their own personal opinions than any real, substantive political and social commentary. 
What pisses me off the most is that the show itself is actually not even entertaining. I mean, if you’re going to spread hate with a cartoon at least make it humourous, na3m?
It consists of nothing but the same joke over and over again with the same characters. And for each character there is a racist mould ready – not a single Muslim Arab in the seven episodes thus far has represented a rational-minded individual, someone outside the rampant stereotypes. In South Park, for instance, when idiotic and stereotypical characters are shown there is always another character or few who speaks against the crowd and is sometimes able to make the crowd re-think its mentality. But the show doesn’t even try to attempt this. Each one of its Muslim character fulfils the greater image of the Muslim Arab as foul, dirty, hateful, dumb and sex-hungry.
I write this well aware of the racist shows and cartoons which have been broadcasted at some point in time in certain areas of the Muslim world. Without a doubt they have existed and some perhaps still do; access to such cartoons is not as easy as it is with the Ahmed and Salim show. But hate is not about comparison. When a wrong is apparent it is necessary to point at it and call it for what it is rather than resort to the an-eye-for-an-eye mentality.
At the end of the day, what makes the Ahmed and Salim show different is its level of popularity throughout the internet. It’s following is constantly growing and this is more frightening than the show itself. There’s a market it’s filling, a market which is murderous to any improvement in relations between Arabs and Jews, especially those living within Israel and especially for those who wish for a one-state solution.
But seriously, I hate it when offensive shit is not funny. Waste of my freaking time.
[tarboush tip: Richard]
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Yeah, I love South Park. They make fun of everyone and everything (no rule, no exceptions, no limits) and they are very funny at doing so.
This cartoon, sorry to say, just is not funny. I chuckled once or twice . . . it's a waste of time indeed.
Posted by Los | July 18, 2009, 6:46 amThat's how you DEMONIZE, result you can kill over 300 children (re:Gaza) and not a single freakin' peep outta' no one.(MOST) Organized American "Jews" and their surrogates from Hollywood to Thinktank heaven have done this in a very deliberate, disgusting way. On the one hand a Jewish cartoonist (Danish crap guy) can make a true "incitement to Hate" by denigrating an entire faith and it's okay, come on, be a sport, it's freedom of speech. On the other hand calling people that shoot children in the head Nazis, is an anti-semitic remark.
Posted by Chauncey | July 18, 2009, 5:37 pmI thought this was going to be subtly racist….
However this is beyond being openly racist, its borderline nazi, if this happened to any other ethnic group there would be an uproar.
Posted by Arayus | July 18, 2009, 6:58 pmYou've just given it a bit more publicity. Will have to have a look now to see what it's about as will many others who had never heard of it. I don't think these things really influence people much, rather people seek out what they already agree with.
Anyone who likes South Park has to be ok.
Posted by xoggoth | July 18, 2009, 11:19 pmThis is nothing like South Park.
Just because these retards decided to copy South Parks style doesent mean the humor or the content is anything like South Parks.
This is racism at its finest.
Posted by Super Sayyin | July 23, 2009, 10:43 pmI love South Park because it's actually brilliant satire. This isn't. Did you watch any of the episodes, Xoggoth? I was actually shocked ..and it takes a lot to shock me.
And yeah, I have given it some publicity, but I don't mind spreading awareness at the expense that some bigots would be all "omg yesssss" Like you said – bigots will find what fuels them. We're just pointing out how popular one source of the hate fuel has become.
Posted by SanaKF | July 23, 2009, 11:26 pmIs it racist for the Palestinians and their governments to call for the death of all Jews and the elimination of Israel? They are cartoon characters, but their seems no intention of humor, only representation of the news, and TV from the Arab media.
When the Arab and Muslim media make the Jews and Israel the focus of hatred there is little or no outcry from the media. Anti-Jew seems quite acceptable.
Posted by cynic8 | July 19, 2009, 5:02 pmWhich Arab country actively calls for the elimination of the Jews today?
Remember, repeating a lie does not make it true.
Posted by Super Sayyin | July 23, 2009, 10:44 pmHow much proverbial airplay are these clowns (the creators) actually getting? I watched about an episode-and-a-half's worth, and it was completely unfunny and totally lacking in creativity and cleverness. Also, you can tell they're Israeli because, in addition to all the obvious identifiers in content, they Anglicize "Ahmed" (I think they're going for an "Akhmed/A5med" sound) as "Achmed"
Unrelated: is anyone else having trouble seeing comments on KF posted by people without IntenseDebate accounts? For some reason some of the blog posts show up with 0 comments, or only a few comments as posted by people with ID accounts until I post something, and then I see a flood of non-ID comments that were posted hours prior.
EDIT: Even as of right now, the only two comments I see are mine and Arayus'; has anyone else commented?
Posted by Nth Republic | July 19, 2009, 11:06 pmYeah that might be part of it, too, but I experienced the thing about the "flood of non-IntenseDebate [account] comments" first when I commented on the Tamer vs. Amr post, and then on Will's Viva Palestina/"sickened" post.
Posted by Nth Republic | July 20, 2009, 3:44 amYeah that might be part of it too, but I experienced the thing about the "flood of non-IntenseDebate [account] comments" first when I commented on the Tamer vs. Amr post, and then on Will's Viva Palestina/"sickened" post.
Posted by Nth Republic | July 20, 2009, 3:44 am"decided to their part in furthering the Palestinian and Israeli tug-o-war for peace"
Unintentional irony alert.
Gotta love kabobfest.
Posted by whoops | July 23, 2009, 9:26 amThe makers of the show claim they are only targeting "terrorists." However, most people who commit terrorism are not Arabs, so why did they choose Arabs to play their starring role in a show that is supposedly supposed to make fun of terrorists?
After all, the shoe is called Ahmed wa Salim, all the "bad" characters are Arab, it promotes incorrect stereotypes of Arabs, and it portrays Arabs as wanting nothing better to do than kill Jews.
To top it all off, none of the characters speak Arabic, rather they speak gibberish with randomly inserted Spanish (because all brown people are the same right!), and random English swear words (like pussy, faget, and gaylord).
Posted by Super Sayyin | July 23, 2009, 10:53 pmMost people who commit terrorism are not Arabs? What's the matter with you?
Posted by eagle007blogger | August 2, 2009, 5:29 amComplaining about media in the Middle East: the pot calling the kettle black?
(The bombing the wrong bus part was a *little* funny)
From the page on YouTube: "This video does not make fun of Muslims, it makes fun of terrorists.
Which as we all know, Are a bunch of assholes."
Posted by eagle007blogger | July 23, 2009, 8:15 pm