More on Muhammad Cartoons
I had a record number of visits on Friday, which is unusual as normally the slowest weekday for me. Looking at search terms though I noticed a lot were coming through on “Muhammad Cartoons” and checked on Google and I am the seventh highest site listed on that term. Explains a lot.
I note our beloved Government has stood up for freedom of the press. Ha if only. Nope Chris Carter has said the Dominion Post’s decision undermines New Zealand’s reputation as a tolerant country. Sorry Chris but the publications shows we are tolerant. Just as having C4 show the Southpark Bloody Mary episode will show we are tolerant. I am waiting to hear you demand that is not shown.
Some Muslims in the UK has called for a repeat of the 7/7 bombings in response to the cartoons. Hell considering how inoffensive the cartoons are, think if something really insulting had been published – they’d be calling for Iran to nuke the entire country or something.
Also to highlight the hypocrisy involved in many of these protests, some of the cartoons published in Muslim countries have been collated at Whale Oil. The one above is pretty offensive (especially to Holocaust survivors) but they get published every day without any fuss.
Also useful to note in terms of hypocrisy is this story about a Turkish film which shows:
They kill dozens of innocent people with random machine gun fire, shoot the groom in the head, and drag those left alive to Abu Ghraib prison where a Jewish doctor cuts out their organs, which he sells to rich people in New York, London and Tel Aviv.
Yes a Jewish doctor cuts out the organs to make money selling to evil rich Jews around the world. How’s that for stereotypes. And yes Hollywood actors are playing leading roles!
In Syria the Danish and Norwegian embassies were set on fire. This is why it is crucial that every western country publishes the cartoons. One can’t let the bully boy tactics succeed by letting them focus on one target. Once every western country has published then trying to enforce trade bans will hurt them more than the countries involved.
Back home Tom Scott states the obvious saying “the Islamic community needed to get a sense of humour”. Scott talks of how in 1969 he was prosecuted for blasphemy and he planned to call God as a defence witness 🙂
In the same story the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand president (and I must say again the generally the Islamic leadership in NZ is moderate, not extreme) that “Freedom of expression does not mean ‘absolute’ freedom, going as far as mocking other religions and their beliefs. Certainly, it would not mean to inflict emotional pain to anyone.”
Actually that is entirely what it means. No freedom of speech is not absolute but it certainly allows mocking religions and beliefs. I mean I don’t want to live in a country where I can’t mock the Church of Scientology no matter how much emotional pain it inflicts in Tom Cruise.
Oh and some good news to end this post on. C4 have confirmed they will show the Bloody Mary episode of Southpark. And Maria von Trapp shows the right attitude to them. She is a Christian and can’t wait to see them.