Indigo Jo Blogs

Politics, tech and media issues from a Muslim perspective

More on that Boudreaux pic

by · 16th April, 2004

A while ago I posted a picture here I got from CAIR about a Marine (or ex-Marine) standing with two Iraqi boys with a sign saying “Lcpl Boudreaux killed my Dad, then he knocked up my sister!”. Knocked-up means made her pregnant, by the way. No-one is suggesting that he actually did what it says on the sign, because he’d have some difficulty getting smiles and thumbs up from the two lads if he really had killed their dad and raped their sister. But others have suggested that the sign has been doctored. Others disagree, including myself. Here’s why:

  • The name refers to ‘Boudreaux & Thibodeaux’ jokes which are common in Louisiana: but the names are real names, and two names of soldiers or Marines called Boudreaux have cropped up in discussion. A Ted Boudreaux jr. from Louisiana is now under investigation.
  • The real sign said ‘saved’ and ‘rescued’: but another real sign said ‘saved’ and ‘fixed up’. Which is the real real one? (That’s the clincher, for me.)
  • What about that finger above the boy’s left hand? Perhaps it’s the soldier’s finger? It doesn’t look like a thumb to me as some seemed to be suggesting. It’s a finger.
  • There’s a light mark on the cardboard after ‘killed’, which may be the result of a bad Photoshop touch-up: but it might not be. Look to the right next to “Lcpl” and “killed”: there’s another lighter patch there too. It looks to me like variations in the colouring of the cardboard, or rises or dips in the cardboard shown as lighter colour. It could also, as has been suggested, be due to loss of detail which occurred in compressing and expanding JPG images.

    • Unbelievably, some people are willing to admit to finding this picture amusing. The fact is that such accusations against a woman in parts of the Arab world could result in her getting killed, which may well be the reason (Allah knows best) why making accusations against women is such a serious sin in Islam. The military, of course, will be concerned about the possible consequences for the military now that this picture has spread around the Internet. And of course, others have taken the opportunity to attack CAIR, accusing them of being a Hamas front group or whatever. The fact is that CAIR itself is a civil rights group which campaigns against attacks on Muslims and in favour of hijab rights and civil liberties. If some members have Hamas sympathies, it’s nothing to do with CAIR’s function, and if they were carrying out or planning terrorist attacks on US soil, they would most likely have been caught long ago.

    Share

    You may also like...