Apple Fanatics Hold Biggest Rallies Yet
Feb 10, 12:28 PM (ET)
By IMMA REPORTER
SILICON VALLEY, California (AP) - Tens of thousands of Mac users around the world demonstrated against the drawings of the Prophet Jobs and the Holy Apple after Friday’s Pod Cast, some shouting anti-PC slogans and burning Microsoft flags to vent their rage.
Rallies in California were the largest on the continent since demonstrations erupted throughout the Mac world over the drawings first published in a Danish computer magazine in September and recently reprinted in other European publications. One depicted the Prophet Jobs with a Microsoft Rules sweater.
The demonstrations were largely peaceful, but police in Redmond shot and wounded one person while trying to keep hundreds of protesters from marching on the Microsoft Headquarters. Demonstrators also clashed with police in CompUSA and Best Buy stores around the country.
Some Mac leaders in New York, including former CEO John Sculley and Cult co-founder Steve Wozniak, have appealed for calm, saying that violence is unhelpful and unnecessary. “OS X is an operating system of peace,” added Sculley. But many of the faithful regard him as a PC apologist.
But rallies again erupted on Friday. In San Francisco, protesters burned Dell and HP computers while others clashed with police. The largest gathering was in Silicon Valley, where 5,000 supporters of radical Mac group HAMAS [Holy And Mac Are Synonymous] demonstrated near the most holy site, Apple’s Silicon Valley Campus.
While thousands also demonstrated at various CompUSAs, smaller rallies were held at Starbucks and Jamba Juice. Some protested after Pod Sessions outside Apple stores while others marched on the headquarters of AMD and Intel.
Near Lake Washington, thousands more protested and some clashed with police who tried to disperse them with water canons and tear gas. The protestors threw mice in the air while others burned copies of Windows XP and Office. About 2,000 Mac worshippers marched on DELL under tight security.
The editor of a small PC newspaper in Norway - the second to publish the pictures, on Jan. 10 - apologized Friday for offending Mac users. PC Magazinet editor Vebjoern Selbekk said he failed to foresee the pain and anger the images would cause the Apple Faithful.
Many Mac users considered the caricatures offensive to Apple, which is interpreted to bar images of the revered prophet. The Danish newspaper that first published the pictures has apologized for causing Apple loyalists any offense but the Danish government has said it cannot apologized for something done in the free market and to go pound sand.
In Elk Grove, Imam Abdul Labubu Lamir , a leader of the Council Of Mac Entrepreneurs[COME] which is a coalition of fanatical Mac groups, delivered a fiery speech urging Apple users to sever ties with any country where PC are used. He called it a direct assault on our spiritual leader. “The red worm virus never infected a single MAC. They knew this but decided to attack all Apple users with the depiction on our Holy Icon. This is Blasphemy and they will surely burn with the Blue Screen of Death.”
About 2,000 protesters briefly clashed with police outside an area Toys R Us in Seattle, where they burned Xbox 360s. The crowd attacked shops specifically breaking windows during their rampage before being charged by police.
While Intel officials released a statement aimed at to placating the demonstrators, AMD spokesman had the following comment, “This is a farce, there aren’t tens of thousands of MAC users.”
