Meryl Yourish has taken on Allah, explaining why she feels he is not a worthy nominee for Best New Blog or Best Humour Blog in the Wizbang Weblog Awards.
Meryl states:
I said last week that I don’t think you should vote for Allah for either Best Humor or Best New Blog in the Wizbang weblog awards. My opinion seems to have annoyed a blogger or two, so I think I should explain my reasons.
Let’s start with the caveat that I don’t know who is writing the Allah blog, and that this is not directed personally at him/her/them, except as to the fact that the author is writing the blog. If people choose to take this as a personal attack on Allah, I can’t stop them. I can think those people are completely missing the point, though. All I have to judge “Allah” by is what I read on the blog. And what I read on the blog offends me. Greatly.
Here’s the thing about “Allah.” His schtick is that he harps on Jews and “kufrs,” in what is supposed to be a parody of radical Muslim thought. But there’s a problem that stems from the conception of the blog: it has become incredibly offensive to me as a Jew. Reading “Jew this” and “Jew that” in negative connotations, the constant insults of Jews, the nasty references to Israel – even though that’s the main idea behind the parody- offends me. And I don’t think I am alone in being unable to read it without taking offense.
Since I have personally endorsed Allah in the aforementioned categories, it is safe to assume that I do not share Meryl’s view (which is a rare occurrence in itself since I agree with almost all of what she writes about). That is not to say that I belittle her claim that she finds Allah offensive. There is no doubt what he writes about can offend. I personally am not offended since it is clear to me that Allah is a parody. Not only that, Allah is parodying some of the major world issues of this century – terrorism, militant Islam and anti-Semitism. He is using shock value to attract readers to his blog, which he has done successfully. And in my books, if he has people reading his blog and contemplating these important issues, the criticism is a bit harsh.
I can almost hear Meryl’s response now “But he is not funny. He is only offensive.” Some people will agree with Meryl, but I think he is pretty funny. And not in a belly-laugh kind of way, but more in a “black humour” kind of way. He makes me laugh at the absurdity of militant Islam and anti-Semitism.
I revert to Meryl again.
Jew-hatred is called the world’s longest hatred. Its fires are fanned daily throughout the Arab/Muslim world and beyond. Truth to tell, there’s not a whole lot of humor to be found in it, outside of a Mel Brooks spoof here and there. Really, what’s funny, after all, about knowing that there are many, many people in this world who want me dead, simply because I was born to a Jewish mother?
Meryl is 100% when she says intimates that Jew hatred is not funny. But I personally do not find Mel Brooks funny. It is all subjective. As the old proverb goes: “One man’s meat is another man’s poison.”
You do not need to read Allah to realize that “there are many, many people in this world who want [us] dead, simply because [we were] born to Jewish mother[s].” This is unfortunately readily apparent just by turning on the news. I believe that Allah’s strength lies in his ability to draw attention to these important issues in an interesting way.
Of course, I do not find every Allah post to be exceedingly humorous and clever. But which blogs can that be said about?
I will conclude by stating that the voting results so far vindicate my view that many people do find Allah to be a clever and humorous blog. Just like they vindicate my view that Meryl Yourish is one of the very best writers in the blogosphere.
