If I lived in Europe right now, I think I would be calling every magazine and newspaper and demand that they reprint the 'muhamad' cartoons...

It so disgusting that people bow to arab preasure so easily. Even more disgusting that people are willing to kill innocent people over a political cartoon. UGH!

I do believe that the whole "Freedom of Speach" thing originated from people wanting to make fun of Jesus.

And lets not forget about the complete hypocrasy of these "muslims."

To what are you referring love?

Hypocrisy, yeah.
However, is it reasonable to risk the conflict of civilizations (it could really escalate to that I believe) because of one picture? I don't think so.

I reiterate.. ?_?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4682560.stm
Try here I have no time to look for a better link.

....having a muslimg teacher and taking arabic much to my displeasure...anf my big sister being a muslim...
You printed a picture of The Phophet (peace be upon him) with a BOMB shaped turban...
That is like shitting on jesus/the pope, or spitting on His Royal Magesty
If some european dilllhole had spit on my king I would not have though twice about setting his house on fire, or rallying others to do so, even with the hufe karmic negative killing or inciting violence would alot me.
You cut those people REAL deep...I mean I am sure that seriously tore them down to their core..so yea...thats wha you get for not being culturally aware and making some stupid mistake like that...
love-mimi

Could a caricature of a pope be printed? I guess it could. It's the same thing.

yea the pope with a gun shooting some jewish infidels...?
that is kind of like what this is mate...

Here's one almost identical to the picture in question Pope cartoon.

I will post the pictures that Arab countries print about Jews all the time, however... People have made pictures of Jesus out of elephant dung and it gets placed in a Museum.

Christains get offended, they write a letter of protest to the musuem and threaten a boycot of thier products... they DO NOT GO AROUND KILLING PEOPLE!

Its called FREEDOM OF SPEACH and is the basic tenat to freedom and emancipation from Kings and Popes.

And yes, I do think a trivial matter like being allowed to say what you want to who you want is worth risking the conflict of civilizations. If you want to remove the ability for people to express themselves you might as well just move to Iran and enjoy yourself there.

For every embassy they bomb and burn down, there should be 10 more slanderous cartoons... I'd even be willing to fund a giant picture of mohamed with a bomb as a turban on the moon. That would really get them! (since they have a 100% Lunar calendar)

http://www.adl.org/Anti_semitism/arab/qatar_cartoons.asp

I find these cartoons terrible, but I'm not going around saying we should burn down buildings of people who come from Qatar, or threaten kidnapping and murder their citizens abroad, or even suggesting a complete boycot against anything manufactured there.

Ahhh...I see, it all makes sense now! thanks Dags
My point is some people have a part of them that is wit their soul. Msulims never speak of the Prophet without the phrase "Peace Be Upon Him" said directly after...to Muslims he is a part of them.
The only example I got is My King. I am Thai, and we have a King. Every Thai loves the king, we do not have to love him, we are not forced to, but he is the greatest person. He is heald almost sacred in Thailand, he is not a god or anything, but he is given the utmost respect, and we have a special language we use when speaking of Him or The Royal Family.
If someone spit on the king, i would be infuriated...He is MY KING, that is just not something you do, freedom of speech my asss you spit on THE KING, comehere you little forienger worm *spit on foreigner like 1mil times*
Not sure if this analogy helps anyone but like...meh I have lost my train of thought...
love-mimi

My problem is not that they are offended, images of the prophet are insulting to the Islamic communities and I think it was a stupid mistake to print it. However when a large proportion of the Islamic response was to run around shouting behead everyone who isn't muslim. Then its out of order. Both actions are unacceptable. Unfortunately for the Islamic community of the world as long as the Imans do not try and control fundamentalist outbreaks all muslims are going to end up on the bad end of the stick. In Britain the Islamic fundamentalists response to the action caused the BNP (quite possibly the most dispicable political party in existence) to gain a massive support boost in many areas.

If an Islamic paper published a picture of the pope raping jesus, the response would be for people to be upset and the pope to condemn it, but no one would shout behead anyone.

It is really annoying that a paper was this stupid to print it. Yes you may scream free speech, but I will scream back just as loud about responsibility for your speech. It is a travisty that many productive members of our society that are muslim are now suffering as a consequence of this, but they can't just look outwards for responsibility to fall. The political environment of the time caused this cartoon to be conceived. When you have a major Islamic state such as Iran taking fundamental Islamic action in its stride with the authority of the Ayatollah, you are opening you religion to attack from the small minded bigots of the world.

This is akin to the Catholic Church's, none involvement stance during the Holocaust. When you give the impression with great volume that your religion and not just small groups of extremists are responsible for terrible actions, bigots like the BNP who are looking for any excuse are going to jump on it.

I would like to clarify that I am not condoning the publication of the image of The Prophet, not am I taking an anti-Islamic stance. Many close friends of mine are Islamic and some quite conservative muslims, but there response was to be upset and offended, not to shout kill everyone who isn't muslim. This is what lead to the Christians launching their crusades, or the Spanish Inquisition, their opinion that everyone with a different religion must repent or die. I like to think we have come a long way in the last 300 years but apparently not.

I am also not a member of any other organised religion, this stance is not designed to sound bigoted although no matter what I put it will.

Its a shame that this is a post I have put more thought into than any other I have ever made, but I am still going to be seen as a bigot no matter what happens.


EDIT: And apparently thinking about your post for too long gets you d by Dag

Wait...so the issue is that they are mad over the Cartoon, or because it was a cartoon about The Prophet (PBUM)?

The cartoons of Muhammed raise a broader issue of free speech. Free speech is sometimes offensive and culturally insensitive; Arab governments asked Western governments, all of whom happen to value freedom of speech and civil liberties quite highly, to censor freedom of speech to avoid offense. Western governments refused, because they cannot and do not censor their press whereas the majority of Arab governments do...

And what did these particular Muslims do?

Proved the point of the editorialists magnificently.

The issue is not that they are mad, its that a large proportion showed they were mad by killing, or advocating the killing of, innocent people. That is A VERY BAD THING™

I also feel bad for my teacher, he is torn deep down now...It is true that because of a few fundamentalists the whole religion gets a bad wrap, and he feels that is bad...but there are whordes of publications online (www.islamway.com) as an example, that specifically with direct references to the Qur'an say that terrorism is not allowed by the orders of Allah.
Killing someone is wrong I agree and the paper should have known their would be actions for doing such a hurtful and shameful thing, ESPECIALLY when some entire NATIONS are just begging for an excuse to nerf the EU, namely, certain fundamentalist peoples...Guess they are lucky Kim Jong Ill is not Muslim...

This is the problem yes there are lots of publications that quote the Holy Qur'an correctly showing how fundamentalism is wrong. If it was just rogue fundamentalist groups then that would not be the issue. The problem is you have countries like Iran that have state backed fundamentalism, and that is a whole different level of statement.

I point at Malaysian Islamic Jihad, those people should not be allowed to exist.
I point at the dictator of Burma, who has an entire army of Children, aswell as is known to have the largest child military in the world.

My point is we are all from different places and cultures...what to me is like "OMG HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT!!" to someone else is like "meh...freespeach"
In Thai we have freedom of speech, to an extent...we , in theory, COULD stand in the street and yell about how the king is an and we would not get arressted, but you would not make any friends, and I wouldn't be the least bit suprised if a group of guys beat the living crap out of you, that is a place you don't go....just because you CAN say something does not mean you HAVE to.
Like for me...I do not care so much about Iran or Syria, or Pakistan V. Israel, but I DO care about MIJ who keep killing school children down near Hat Yai in the south, or the Burmese children's milita who are blowing up border guards and food convoys...
It is a big matter of who you are and where you are from. I am a fundamentalist Thai I guess...you do not disrespect my king or my nation. I would not stand for that. You have the same kind of people in usa too, who are so proud to have usa as their homeland. I think this kind of fundamentalism is good for the people. The people of the fundamentaist nation need to find a source of naitonal pride, something to cling to. Violence is not the answer, never was.

I think the issue is primarily European. The cartoon was offensive, yes. Anyone who's heard anything about Islam (where any images of the Prophet are strictly prohibitted) would've known beforehand that this will be a bomb. Yet it was published, and not just that - it was reprinted by several newspapers, which all knew full well that this was escalating into a huge row with the Muslims, and still eagerly went ahead with it.

Something just tells me that this is a manifest of not simply a fight for free speach, but some internal European discontent with the existing state of affairs as far as national and religious composition of the continent goes, and how it effects political and cultural state of affairs within Europe.

Just something I noticed here in the U.S. news..

They have a piece talking about the terrible responces to a political cartoon, sadwhiched between TWO segments of the egyptian ferry that sunk and they are looking for surviors. Its like they are trying extra hard to say "Its not about Muslims, we care about muslims, its about violence and speach"

Any other day I would say "eeeew, such a terrible cartoon" However, I am a firm beleiver that if someone threatens your life for saying what you believe, then you must get up and say what you believe even louder.

Its riots like these that make normally thoughfull people like myself, think of all those people as terrorists. Because thats what they are doing, using fear and violence to surpress the opinions and ways of life of others.

But Thats why I say we should be republishing those cartoons as often as possible, and showing them untill they decided they have had enough destroying thier own countries with riots.

Its not like they don't spit on the face of Jews every single day in their media and newspapers. Notice that those politcal cartoons do not target Israel or Sharon, they target "Chasidic Jews"...

To me, the worst part about this, is that the muslims are going to get away with it. The French newspaper that published the cartoon, has allready fired thier editor as a sign of "good will"... Thats a person's livelyhood they just destroyed, because they don't want to risk offending some hot headed muslims.