Aug 02 2012

Comedy is dangerous

Categories:

Abdi Jeylani Malaq Marshale must have been an awesomely brave person. He lived in Somalia, he was a comedian, he made fun of Islamists, and he worked to dissuade young people from joining the insurgency.

So someone shot and killed him.

And it’s not just comedians!

So far this year, at least one Somali journalist has been targeted and killed each month.

This post has no tag

16 comments

Skip to comment form ↓

1

dougittner

2 August 2012 at 8:12 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Somalia is the Libertarian, free market paradise. They don’t need no stinking government regulations on behavior. If someone doesn’t like your jokes you can pull out a gun and kill them, you don’t even need a concealed carry license. That comedian wasn’t killed, he was just experiencing freedom, Ron Paul style.
2

jjgdenisrobert

2 August 2012 at 8:31 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I was about to comment, then I read @dougittner. F&F, my friend, F&F…
3

dobbshead

2 August 2012 at 8:36 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

That mans very existence was an act of bravery. The world is less without him.
4

Pyra

2 August 2012 at 8:39 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

He left a legacy in his courage. I will forever remember his name. More than I can say for the crazies who took his life.
5

Pyra

2 August 2012 at 8:41 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

I apologize for my use of “crazies” – I forget others are more sensitive to it than I. I had hoped I didn’t post that when I reread it. You’d think I’d be sensitive to it since I carry a few diagnoses of my own. But whatever the word you want to use, it goes far beyond mental illness, which I don’t hold as being crazy, anymore. But that’s because I grew up surrounded by mental illness. The word “crazy” wasn’t used as an indicator of mental illness so much as stupid people doing stupid shit.
6

birgerjohansson

2 August 2012 at 8:48 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

There should be some grassroots organisation using donated money to provide exposed people in third-world countries with bodyguards and kevlar vests. Of course, it would only work in those countries where not the state sponsors the murderers.

BTW in regard to (nominally non-crazy) ignorant people I would lump those murderers together with the penis-eating cannibals in a previous thread…
7

Gregory Greenwood

2 August 2012 at 8:51 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

dougittner @ 1;

Somalia is the Libertarian, free market paradise. They don’t need no stinking government regulations on behavior. If someone doesn’t like your jokes you can pull out a gun and kill them, you don’t even need a concealed carry license. That comedian wasn’t killed, he was just experiencing freedom, Ron Paul style.

As you say, it seems that, in the Libertarian Utopia of Somalia, you engage in comedy criticism with bullets, not words…

I cannot imagine the sheer level of courage it must takes to be the public voice of conscience in a society like that.
8

Dick the Damned

2 August 2012 at 8:55 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

That is so sad.
9

Bernard Bumner

2 August 2012 at 8:59 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Killing critics is the weakest, most cowardly response.

I had never heard of Abdi Jeylani Malaq Marshale, but now I know his name.
10

newfie

2 August 2012 at 11:43 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

woah, tough room.
11

nohellbelowus

2 August 2012 at 1:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

It takes great courage to publicly speak out against injustice. Professor Myers literally puts his own life on the line each and every day. The silence in this thread speaks volumes.

Bah. It’s a lot more fun ostracizing igno-misogynists. Where is one of those threads… ah… found one. CLICK.
12

Illuminata, Genie in the Beer Bottle

2 August 2012 at 1:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Hey, it’s the totally hip and cool bigot, nohellbelowus!

C’mon baby, shake that bigot-maker for me!
13

nohellbelowus

2 August 2012 at 1:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

@12:

Damn. How disappointing. I was hoping to catch a keeper.

*Unhooks the puny fish and throws it back into the water*
14

nigelTheBold, Venomous Demonic Hater

2 August 2012 at 3:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

nohellbelowus:

It takes great courage to publicly speak out against injustice.

In some places, yes. Somalia is one such place.

The US isn’t, so much.

The biggest danger of speaking up for social justice in the US is to attract a lot of whiney defenders of misogyny who hate it when the injustice being addressed is their own little bigotry.
15

randhirsingh

2 August 2012 at 5:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment

Bernard Bumner: I reckon there is one instance in “Sirat Rasullalh” that predates Hadith wherein, the prophet of Islam tied the legs of a very old lady to two camels and drove them in opposite direction. The reason for this heinous act was that she was once critical of the prophet.
This story follows from there…its all sick, top-down…I would not blame the fanatics/murderers more than what they openly claim to believe-the ideology of Islam.
16

scaryduck

3 August 2012 at 6:43 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment

There should be some grassroots organisation using donated money to provide exposed people in third-world countries with bodyguards and kevlar vests. Of course, it would only work in those countries where not the state sponsors the murderers.

I point you toward the International News Safety Institute, helping to protect and train journalists the world over.