Mohammed cartoons

[bill barlow]

With Jack Straw publicly condemming the Mohammed cartoons and the British Press not publishing them does anyone else think a dangerous precedent is being set?? Is it the first step to British women having to cover their faces in public to avoid offending Muslims??

[Lonnie]

Of course it is, in this country at present, at risk of being called a racist, which I don't believe I am, anything that offends Muslims, and thats anything they say offends them, is adressed by our leaders, whereas if something offends you or I, is not. at a good guess, at this rate, this country will be Muslim within twenty years.

[noxlumos]

No I don't think it is. 99% of Muslims I have ever encountered are really pleasant,nice,rational,non-extremeist people, just like Christians and Jews and Hindus and every other religion.At the moment we are involved in an inflammatory war, poking our oar in again where we shouldn't be and the levels of frustration amongst the Muslim community is huge. We are giving the few fundamentalists within Islam in Britain a carte blanche to effectively spread hate successfully to young men who see great wrongs being comitted in Iraq for example, while the majority of decent Muslims look on in horror as their esteem within British sciety sinks to an all time low, largely thanks to the tabloids.

People are using excuses on both sides to stir up religious and racial hatred, it's up to the decent majority of both sides to come together as best we can and combat it.

I think not publishing the cartoons is a good idea since they are known to be offensive,it's not a freedom of speech issue it's just common civility, on the other hand a violent response to something Muslims don't like, as we have seen, only plays into the hands of the race haters everywhere. We all really need to all a grip before we go back to the dark ages.

[laurence2]

I,ve just seen the pictures of the so called PEACEFUL demonstration in london yesterday, And quite simply these so call demonstraters { ref: the ones with the hate banners} offended me and i suspect many others yesterday, What sick parent would let a baby wear an I LOVE AL-QAEDA HAT, these individuals have no place in any walk of life, I'm not religious/racist etc, and believe in freedom of speech, but enough is enough.These people are total cowards and if i have offended them tough, The mistake was made in denmark not here.

ps, This country weather you like it or not is being devided by the day, and these sort of protest are not the way forward, PEACEFUL ONE,S THO i have no issue

[DirtyHabit]

Noxlumos,
99% of Muslims I have ever encountered are really pleasant,nice,rational,non-extremeist people.

I keep hearing this but when will this silent majority march and declare "NOT IN MY NAME"
There have been many marches by British people against the war in Iraq, so when this silent majority speak up, I'll listen.

[Lonnie]

I understand, and agree to an extent with noxies post, but its the fanatics that should be stamped on, from a great height. Wonder what would happen if you or I were to go to one of the countries these people either come or originate from, and say that they want, by terrorism. as they have done here, to take over the country.

[brionon]

As a Buddhist, I did not threaten to kill any Muslims for the Taliban's destruction of the statues of the Buddha in Afganistan. And if there are no pictures of Mohammed how does anyone know those cartoons were of him ?

[chimney]

How does this sort of behaviour make Muslims appear, I appreciate that this was done by a minority and intelligent people can see that not all Muslims behave in this way but the ignorant that walk among us will not see it that way

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/04022006/325/fury-prophet-carto ons-calls-restraint.html

[bernardo]

It was wrong of Jack Straw to condemn the cartoons, but it is not setting a precedent. He was just expressing his opinion. I salute the newspapers which published the cartoons, and I am all in favour of people ridiculing or blaspheming against any religion - because all religions are superstitious mumbo-jumbo and nincompoopismatic nonsense.

[LeMarchand]

noxlumos, surely you believe that it's perfectly OK to make hateful statements about other people's religions? I quote - "The UK is renowned all over the world as a place of equality and free speech and this (Religious Hatred) bill sought to destroy that by making it illegal to make religiously biased statments which might invoke hatred. You may not like what some people say or what their opinions are, but it's a part of being a responsible individual to sift through information you hear and decide what is and is not right. It's not right for a Nanny state to decree what I may or may not hear or say.That is why it's demise is being championed."

So is it, or is it not, right to encourage people not to say things that would offend others? As you now seem to be advocating that saying things that you know would deeply offend others is a bad thing. Or is it only if someone is forced to shut up by law that it's bad?

To answer the original question: it's a lose-lose situation. Print 'em and the sort of folk who want to take it as a slur will; don't print 'em and they'll proclaim it a victory. I found the news report where one angry Muslim guy was warning that Islam would soon be the only world religion pretty scary. Those guys may be in the minority, but there's enough of them and they're determined to do something about it.

[bill barlow]

For those who have not seen what all the fuss is about and what "offends" some people.

http://cryptome.org/muhammad.htm

[bill barlow]

Just tried the link I just posted and thats been taken off!!! Its getting worse!!!!

[searchme]

They get away with it because they're muslim.

Anyway-who said you could speak your mind??

[kempie]

bill barlow - you have kept to type and jumped to another conclusion without fully appreciating the problem vis-�-vis your link to the cartoons.

They have not been removed - you failed to post the link correctly.

Try removing the </p> from the end of the URL.

[kempie]

...or you could just remove the extraneous </p>, as I suggested, thus.

[noxlumos]

Le Marchand, I do advocate free speech as you quite rightly point out. I am also a polite person I like to think and would not use my right to free speech to intentionally insult another person without good reason. I have no problem with the cartoons myself, but then I am not a Muslim.I wouldn't imagine that the creators of these cartoons understood quite what a hornets nest they were whipping up in creating them and I do not feel initially that any offence was intentionally caused above what westerners would consider slight mocking or political/religious satire.What has happened since is that every fundamentalist loony and trouble mongering paper Ed has whipped the whole situation into something far greater than it was supposed to be, and I don't think I'm alone in thinking that people's strings are being pulled by newspapers across the board. This is good news for them, this will sell their papers."Militant Muslims threaten the very fabric of our Society!"

These headlines sell their rags for them, I'm just not prepared to jump on board their paranoia when it doesn't take a genius to see straight through them.Express yourself freely but use discretion and don't insult anyone you don't have to, that's all I was trying to say.

[*ALFIE*]

I know Islam is an ancient faith parallel to christianity dominated by half of our world, but it is such a shame that muslims ALWAYS seem to be in the spotlight in almost everything. Why is it never the other ethinic groups in the country such as Hindus, sikhs etc...? I have muslims friends, and their all great people.