Denmark opens up a can of worms

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Can beer be far behind?

 

God (Allah?) forbid that the radicals notice that the school system had made that rather gracious accommodation in the first place. The only thing they'll see is that it's being taken away. Ain't myopia with regard to anyone else's rights just a grand thing?

 

Taqiyya

Mohammad dance (this one is evil)

[ February 10, 2006, 14:20: Message edited by: The Great Snook ]

 

I could give thousands of examples of people standing up to terrorists, but none of them would include insulting peoples religions via newspaper cartoons (and from a safe distance I may add).

I will leave that to the bitter and twisted people that want to 'bomb the entire middle east, take their oil and turn the land into a vacation resort'.

 

If you want to abuse freedom of speech, be prepared to face consequences, that is all.

 

And what consequences should those be? Should you be decapitated? Maybe cut off your hand?

No, really.

 

That is silly. Punishment should be done accordingly to danish law. A public apology sounds fine. Money wouldn't be bad, either (and I think it's common).
Now that I remember we had a similar case here in Argentina. An artist was forced to suspend his show because it offended christians. It was kinda stupid because they could've chosen not to see it. "Choose your destiny"... mortal kombat wasn't mistaken at all!

 

Depends who the hell you offended. If you're gonna offend someone, expect a backlash. If someone burns the US flag on TV do you think people are gonna sit around and do nothing?

 

Erm...yes...that's exactly what i think. What else would you suggest ? Carpetbomb the flagburner's capital ? Who cares about a friggin flag ? It's beginning to become some sort of national tradition in several countries, or so it seems. Matter of fact...i've given it some consideration to move to the middle east and open up a franchise of flagshops. I reckon i'll make my first million before the year 2006 is over.

 

Pac-man: others have had that idea already I read a couple of days ago that the Israeli flags the Palestinians are so fond of burning are provided by an Israeli outfit

Well, I am sure Denmark has laws protecting the public in case of slander, defamation, etc. However, before punishment should be given, you are sort of expected to make your case in a court. I did not notice the muslim crowds advocating such approach either. It was more of the "death to the infidels" type.

 

Blackthorne, are you absolutely sure? As far as I know these kind of crimes (libel? it's an attack to a system of beliefs anyway) are punished in every european country. We would have to check danish law very closely. And european treaties on this issue. I think it's very likely to be considered a crime.

 

I guess what some people are advocating is a return to the middle ages, when if somebody would publish something offensive to the church, he could expect to be arrested and imprisoned/ or fined.

Also, from the head of Hezbollah:

What is actually depressing is that the western world takes this seriously (as can be inferred from the refusal of mainstream american newspapers to publish these cartoons, I would say).

 

You can't libel a "system of beliefs." You can only libel an individual.

Really, *any* religious text or image is potentially offensive to someone. Some Shiites produce images of Mohammed and find them inspirational, while some Sunnis find this blasphemous. At times of conflict between Protestants and Catholics, some warring protestants sacked Catholic Churches and destroyed all the artwork therein, which they considered to be "graven images," while warring Catholics destroyed the printing presses Protestants used to print bibles in the vernacular.

More recently, conservative Christians picketed "The Last Temptation of Christ," which they found to be blasphemous, and liberal Christians wrote long opinions agains "The Passion of the Christ," which they found morbidly obscessed with the suffering of Christ on the cross.

These examples could go on and on and on. What kind of solution is it to say the "we will only get along if no one has the legal right to offend the religious beliefs of anyone else," when most of the religious beliefs people hold tend to directly contradict beliefs held by others, when many fundamentalists find the beliefs of others offensive, and when many secularists find the social practices of fundamentalists oppressive?

I can't see any other solution than a free press jealously guarded by an informed democracy.

 

Very good point, Bion. After all, I could be a follower of the Holy Church of the Flying Spaghetty Monster, and all the mentions in the press of these false gods could be deeply offensive to me.

Also, I decided that in my previous post, I should replace "western world takes this seriously" with "western world rolls over". Take a look at this:

And the answer from the west:

This is disgraceful.

[ February 11, 2006, 06:19: Message edited by: khaavern ]

 

Since they obviously hate Denmark, we should stop sending money down there. I bet that would stop the flag-burning in a hurry!

I kind of feel like doing a little picture of Muhammad myself. (Although, last time some kid did it in school, he was beaten up by his Muslim classmates....)

 

This is more than a little unfair. In high school, people get beaten up for insulting other peoples mothers. No one denies that insulting someone elses mother (and meaning it) is considered a form of provocation. Insulting the most pivotal person in someone's religion (especially when that person is already subject to scorn and derision based on his religion) is an even bigger provocation.

 

So if someone makes a picture of Jesus, I can bonk him in the head?

At least in my school, we were able to have a civil discussion. (Although, some of my CHRISTIAN classmates kept yelling and interrupting.)

Too bad they didn't print those pictures of Jesus after all, it would have been interesting to see how the West would have reacted.

[ February 13, 2006, 17:38: Message edited by: Jesper898 ]

 

I'm just left wondering how big the flag industry must be over there. Just about every news report I see from that region has people burning flags. Where are they all coming from?

 

Most of em aren't even real flags. Some are drawings of a nation's flag on a white piece of paper, and sometimes it's just a piece of cloth which they painted in the colours of the country they happen to hate that week.