I just heard a story on CNN about a Danish neswpaper that published an illustration of the profet Mohamed with a turban shaped like a bomb. I am Greek Orthodox, and consider it discracefull for anyone to be disrespectfull of another person’s religion. Why does it have to come down to a cultural war? Why don’t people understand that we are all humans on this planet and that we NEED to protect each other without finding contradictions among ourselves all the time? One cannot and should not feel free to use the power of the press to affect weak minds into believing that the profet Mohamed has anything to do with terrorism. Shame on whoever felt free to offend our fellow man and their beliefs.
Unfortunately, how do you reconcile the inherent conflict between the right to be protected from “hate speech” versus the right to “freedom of speech”.
I think each side has good points, but at the end of the day, I come down on the side of “freedom of speech”.
Personally I think there is more going on here than Muslims being offeneded by a cartoon in a Danish newspaper.
“Until Muslim nations and peoples do get the idea that free expression means freedom to offend as well as the necessary correlative – to be offended – we have a problem.”
“What we have learned over time is that free expression is society’s relief valve, without which aggression and hostility go underground. What eventually bubbles back up to the surface is the sort of spirit that drives today’s jihadists. Better to air and view our disagreements by the light of day – in the public forum – rather than wait for them to find expression by darker means.”
Kathleen Parker _ Orlando Sentinel; 1 February, 2006.
the complete Opinion:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/orl-parker0106feb01,0,4910644.column
freedom of speech- in that case kathleen parker is one of those who smokes and shoots with junkheads then hallucinates prophets, who fought evil and pagan sinners that burried their first born daughters, wearing bomb shaped turbans, then she takes another hit to write this bullshit.
maybe she wants superstitious pagans back so they would bury her alive.
oh i forgot - bush is already doing something similar with iraqi population, US and “ally” troops in iraq. he just got rid of saddam so he can intimidate “terrorists” and kill/blow up more people easier.
saddam is a saint compared to bush. his date of use just expired for cia.
Unfortunately, people do not see the bigger picture. Non muslims do not have the RIGHT to ASSOCIATE a figure of faith, WHOEVER that may be, whatever he or she represents, with terrorist acts.
Non Muslims do not have the right to determine whether a whole religion is more sacred or less sacred than their own. Yes, lets all be in favour of Freedom of expression. The way I see it though, I wouldn’t make a joke as free a I would be, about somebody that I new would be offended. Because this would be lack of respect. The message in this case was all wrong. An illustration can become very powerfull but shouldn’t it be used positively?
That newspaper chose to publish the message that whoever is associated with the teachings of the profet Mohamed is a terrorist and that the teachings themselves trigger terrorist actions. If anyone believes that this statement will bring two religions closer to one another is a fool especially at times like this where the situation is so delicate! Remember who started all this.
As I remember it The USA invaded a country claiming that they were up to no good. Then it was proved that it was all a lie, nevertheless countries voted in favour of this invasion and participated aiming at forming a situation where they could profit from and did not hesitate killing women and children while doing so. Like sheep, it seems people chose to believe the lies and start a people’s war, a cultural war not seeing that nowadays wars are led by governments.
I hope people wake up soon and chose to use their FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION to bring people together and not push them appart.
As long as the more powerfull wish to devour the weaker, theory’s about UNIVERSAL DESIGN, design for all, sustainable design, inclusive design and so on, are going to remain at the bottom of designers’ agenda. Unfortunatelly, even at this age where we believe that civilization has progressed so much, the RULES OF THE JUNGLE apply. Such a shame… One would have thought that by now, someone should have done something to promote humanity above religions.
US government is getting itself aligned with a nuclear war. they don’t understand that china and russia although seemingly out of cold war would retaliate if pushed for a new world order based on US plans. i think bush has already put US in a dangerous situation with his insistance on challenging islam.
The whole case of the drawings in a danish newspaper has been completely blown out of proportions. From being a case about bad judgement from a editor at a newspaper, who should just have apologised emmidiately, to being a case where threats of terrorist acts and hostage takings are common.
I honestly don’t think the editor of the newspaper thought that it would have this effect. The point wasn’t to provoke anybody, however it did (3 months after the drawings had been printed), and the editor should have forseen this.
I think misunderstandings and false rumours have made the case worse, and brought it to this level. The latest news is that 70 indonesian muslims broke into the danish embasy and torched the national flag.
I think the thing to remember here is that with freedom comes responsibility. Another thing is that you should use your freedom of speech to say something that’s important for you. I really can’t see why it was important for this Danish newspaper (Jyllands posten) to show these pictures of Muhamed. It’s a known fact that any depiction of Muhamed is considered disrespectful in the Muslim world. If the motivation was to say anyhing about how parts of the Muslim world is (ab)using religion to back up war/terrorist activities, they could have done this in a way that wouldn’t have offended every Muslim but targeted their critique towards the ones they had in mind. Bush has been using Christian references in his arguments and his crusade against terrorism. Still, you don’t see drawings of Jesus with bombs. You see pictures & drawings of a mad man pointing at his Bible.
When someone voices negative opinions about the Pope, all hell breaks loose, they get ostracized and boycotted. If someone defames a cross or picture of the Pope, watch out. If someone burns even an image of the American flag, fahgetaboutit. And this ain’t even talking about “freedom of speech attacks” on Jesus.
There’s a lot of hypocrisy and smugness in Western Culture - U.S. and Europe-
and very little interest or consciousness about other cultural parameters.
ALL THIS SAID, I DON’T THINK ANY OF THE PROPHETS WOULD KILL OVER A CARICATURE OF THEMSELVES. NOR WOULD THEY ENCOURAGE ANYONE ELSE TO KILL FOR THEM.
These men are going to blow us all up.
Design like it’s the end of the world before then, because, hell, it probably is.
muslims would never dare to desecrate or insult any prophet mentioned in quran like christ, abraham or moses because frist of all mohammad was a descendant of abraham and second that would immediately make them a candidate for hell in the eyes of god.
muslims don’t care if anyone makes fun of or insults a personality whether muslim or not.
i don’t think i have to call fbi this time but i say it here on core. if the so called freedom of speech west makes fun of the prophet again there would certainly be a huge attack on US soil.
wow, violently passionate, ufo.
look, do you think Mohommad would agree with the use of violence as a response to the cartoons?
wow, violently passionate, ufo.
i wasn’t speaking for myself. it’s just the way muslims will respond.
look, do you think Mohommad would agree with the use of violence as a response to the cartoons?
no. actually he was very tolerant and famous for his sense of humor. there’s a lot of evidence about how he thought of humiliation as a way of getting closer to god not only in quran itself from the words of god addressing his character but also stories that carry his signature style of being humble and how he prefered to worship god than do anything else.
however muslims take it hard when their prophet is humiliated since god in quran blesses mohammad with his welcome. this’s very important to muslims.
but when you compare him to jesus he was more direct in enforcing god’s wishes.
jesus shocked jews performing miracles. they couldn’t believe there was a prophet before the messiah calling himself messiah. it was the establishment’s worst nightmare because now they had to listen to him spreading god’s word.
but for mohammad it was different. pagans called him a madman who has failed in love, and called the verses of quran crazy arabic poetry, and his miraclework practiced arts of sourcery . these are all mentioned in quran. however he never lost patience with his people even in his last day. he announced that he would die the next day so people won’t see him again. suddenly an old humorous guy stood up and said: “wait a second before you leave tell me if all my sins will be forgiven since i’m present here and listening to your last words”. he smiled and said “yes they’re forgiven”.
he was also very direct. a person who had become a muslim and fought with him in his hardest campaigns against resisting arab tribes who had surrounded muslims and isolated them from food and fresh water supplies betrayed him by committing adultry. he realised he had done wrong and went to mahammad for forgiveness(btw there’s no mention of whose wife he had slept with in this story meaning the person hid her identity for protecting her). mohammad told him if you want to be forgiven and go to heaven as you have accepted your wrong doing you’ll be stoned to death as god has ordered. otherwise you can leave here and live with your sin until the judgement day. he accepted and got executed by prophet’s order.
also remember jesus was already a hebrew and he knew all the old testament. mohammad although a descendant of abraham was a pagan who turned away from what arabs were worshipping and doing in the name of diety. arabs and jews are the sons of noah, and there were many arabs and jews who became christians before christianity became popular in medeival europe to the point of fanaticism. then came islam inside the arabian peninsula. this time christians and jews who had somehow tolerated each other were faced with yet another update. it was very tough for them because islam changed everything when asking worshippers of god to pray toward mecca where abraham had built the house of god. they simply couldn’t do it for political reasons because that would mean for them that arabs were their rulers.
mohammad never invaded any country because in quran there’s a verse that says those who don’t want to be muslims should not be forced to accept islam whether they have a religion or not but there’re also many verses that encourage fighting against those who want to force their evil on muslims and on others who believe in god like christians or jews.
but some people in power, politicians, countries hide behind christianity or judaism to do their evil. so islam’s fight is with those people not christians or jews.
whatever happens in form of violence is unfortunate, but you have to see who benefits most from it. arm dealers/manufacturers who make billions of dollars or muslims who blow themselves up to keep their land where their fathers have lived for thousands of years?
free expression is society’s relief valve …
Let’s keep talking.
This white, male, Protestant, Presbyterian (with Mennonite grandparents) suggests these two books:
The History of Islam
(originally published under the title; The Holy Sword)
Robert Payne
Dorset Press, New York, 1990
ISBN 0-88029-562-7
Arab Historians of the Crusades [The Crusades from the Arab perspective (my emphasis)]
Francesco Gabrieli
Dorset Press, New York, 1989
ISBN 0-88029-452-3
Hey Muslims take a chill pill!
It is a Danish newspaper that publish this. It is not the actions of the Danish govt or all of its people. Just because of this some of you can justify threatening the life of not just the Danes but all Europeans?
From a strictly public relations standpoint you are making more of a fool of your self and whitteling away the little sympathy that the people have with your cause. If you didnt act like maniacs there would have been a country called Palestine years ago
Using your logic its ok for the US to nuke the whole Middle East because Osam Bin Dipshit killed thousands in NY.
using your logic muslims should give up their faith and die by the hand of zionists and mafia mercinaries in pentagon because a few thousand morons want to make more casino, drug, alchohol, prostitution, arms and other nonlegit ways to make money in NY and call it WTC.
I find it quite telling how selective the outrage is from the Muslim community.
How many cartoons are printed on a daily basis in Muslim Media that depict extremely offensive and insulting characatures of Jews, Christians, and Hindus? Where is the outrage then?
Personally, I think we are on a collision course on a global scale. You can put the blame on Bush, you can blame Osama, you can blame (insert your own petty, shortsighted idea of the boogeyman here), but I think we all share the blame.
Just like a forest tormented by months of dry heat, we are primed for conflict and destruction worldwide. I think it’s going to cost many lives and be absolutely devastating. But just like the forest that has been leveled by fire, we also shall rebuild and heal.
This is one of the unfortunate side effects of the information age. We have all been brought so close together so quickly, we don’t truly know how to handle oursleves around each other yet.
But this too, shall pass…
muslims have never insulted christianity or judaism. they have made fun of israel, bush, sharon and other stupid leaders with their stupid flag waving and their retarded ideals but never any religion.
In today’s western culture we (especially city folks) have no bounds to what can be said, written or talked about. Culturally we break all the rules.
Children have sex. Mom is a stripper. Priests abuse children. Installation of Pope being hit by a meteor.
Some people in NY are outraged because someone painted picture of Jesus that looks like Osama. But most people don’t give it a second thought.
Culturally west broke most of “old rules”
Girls call guys. We call our parents by their name. Lack of sensitivity for the rules of the past.
On the other hand middle east go by the book. Deep traditions and rules. Some western cartoonist did not realize how deeply it would touch the nerve of the muslims.
Here is something for your nerve you CRACKER, NIGGER, KIKE, RAG HEAD, CHINK, WOP, POLACK, FOB, TONTO, GOOK, ETC…
Do you feel offended? I guess the west has not broken all the rules. The muslims feel offended.
P.S.
If this post gets taken down it’s because it may be offensive to someone.
We try so hard to be politically correct but we don’t give second thought to other cultures beliefs, feelings and attitudes.
cont.
Why wouldn’t we be outraged about the flag burning? Or dancing Palestinians when the WTC came down?
I am not trying to get on either side of the argument.
My question is:
What human need do we have to disrespect and offend others?