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A drawing of the Prophet Mohammed...
BillieTheBot
Posts: 8,721 Bot
Hope I didn't set off too much of a panic back there, Jim V.
Apparently, yesterday was "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day". As I understand it, Comedy Central bottled out of showing a depiction of the Prophet Mohammed on an episode of South Park a few weeks ago. This was following death threats to the show's creators from a radical Muslim group. A Seattle cartoonist then declared that May 20th was going to be a day for drawing pictures of Mohammed.
It all passed off quietly enough until the Pakistani authorities decided to give the event a whole load of free publicity by announcing that YouTube and Facebook were being banned from the country due to the "offensive content" on them aimed towards Muslims. Now, the cartoonist who inspired this campaign has apologised on her blog, saying the cartoon was "hijacked" and that she thought the campaign was indeed "offensive to Muslims". Hmm...
The original Facebook group (from the Beeb) about this claimed that "They (radical Muslims, presumably) can't take away our right to freedom of speech by trying to scare us into silence.". No, but Facebook could, and did. In between their endless bloody fiddling with the website, they've found time to delete the group, thus taking away this freedom of speech they speak of. Gutless cowards.
What do you all make of this hoo-hah, then?
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Pakistan needs to get with the times :-)
To my understanding society in general is in total denial... Their actions are totally opposite to what they believe(islam), extreme hypocrisy you can say.
Note: I am from Pakistan
Its easy to say.... Americans still can't think above race, how you can expect from a society which is on the edge of social, economic and political break down? Plus where we have given birth to religious nuts, which exploit religion to kill people (thanks to UK and ESPECIALLY America)
You are not forced to use your freedom of speech even though you have it.
Well actually, this campaign was in response to Comedy Central's decision to take off a South Park episode in response to violent threats from militant Islamists. So yes, I think it is very important to use your freedom of speech to combat these people.
So why offend thousands of followers of Islam to make a point at comedy central?
Not all followers of Islam want to kill us (yet)
Unless they'd consider the word "CENSORED" to be a depiction of Mohammed. In which case I'm well and truly fucked.
There's a difference between trying to confront censorship and deliberately trying to antagonise people though isn't there?
e.g. the EDL. They say they want to protect English jobs / livelihoods, they do so by confrontational and then violent marches with plenty of racism thrown in to boot.
As I've been suggesting on other sites, though, there's actually no need to seek to deliberately antagonise Muslims, when the real rug chewers will do it all themselves. Any image is sacriligious to them. Billy Connolly with a bomb on his head, say...
We make allowances for religious holidays, we don't desecrate sacred buildings. We respect religious beliefs even if they are not are own. The West is, for the most part, practicing religious tolerance.
So why anybody would go out of their way to offend a (for the most part peaceful) religious community by picking on this one thing - creating an image of a icon they believe should not be seen - is beyond me. It doesn't hurt you not to have pictures of Mohammed around, so why make them?
Yes other religions don't mind sacred images, but this one does. It's a bit different - get over it. I'm sure you'd get a similar response from Christians if you started mashing up the crucifix. Creating them simply offends the majority in an attempt to challenge the militant few. Does anyone really think a facebook group is going to change their religion? Or make them put down their guns?
Hardly. Only 7 minutes between your 2 posts. You on speed ?
I'm sorry but when threats of violence by intolerant biogts are concerned, I'm an advocate of the 'take a double dose, cunt!' approach. The more death threats, the more drawings of Mohammed should be published. In fact, every individual in the world should draw one. Fuck all fundies.
It's not about changing their religion. It's not even addressed at muslims. It's aimed at the cowards in the mainstream media running huge stories about cartoons that offend ignorant bigots who think that the rest of the world should be forced to follow their religion, and then refusing to show the very cartoons they're talking about, effectively hanging a fellow journalist out to dry. By pandering to these people, you're giving them credibility, and heightening the impact of anyone who actually is brave enough to actually express what they think, whatever that may be. This is a show of solidarity with anyone who wants to express their views about any subject in any way they feel is appropriate (well, any way that doesn't harm another person). Moderate muslims presumably support that. If they don't, then I'd be dubious about calling them moderate. Come on, some of the cartoons are actually quite funny.
That doesn't make fun of Muhammad, it doesn't make fun of Islam, it makes fun of the people who are likely to most object to it. And most importantly of all, if nobody was trying to suppress free speech with violent threats, it wouldn't exist.
From the South African Mail & Guardian, btw.
It looked to me that it was all down to the makers of 'South Park', but they probably made the episodes in the certain knowledge that displaying Mohammed would have been forbidden, so they were ripping on that attitude.
They are not racist at all! The EDL has many black and asian members. Also nearly all the violence at EDL events comes from so called anti-racists moblised by groups like Unite Against Fascism who wrongly claim that it is racist to protest against Islamic extremists.
The EDL doesn't have 'many black and Asian' members from what I've seen and read; it has a few that it's very quick and keen to push in front of cameras.
I'll grant you that they've certainly been at pains to try quell racist and overtly violent protesters, but let's not pretend they're anything more than a group of largely white males who like getting together, sinking a few beers, feeling the buzz of being in a group where trouble might kick off, and shouting football-esque chants in unison - usually at other groups.
I also find the prominence of Israeli flags at their demos to be quite revealing. Especially when combined with campaigns against halal meat being used in mainstream restaurants. This is just tribal bullshit, plain and simple. You cannot be against halal meat, and not also speak out against kosher meat. All of this stuff is deliberately done because they know it winds up both muslims, and any opponents or critics of the current Israeli regime. They are deliberately using the Israeli/Palestine conflict to provoke other groups. It's just ludicrous to suggest that they're not explicitly a far right group, that even the BNP has distanced themselves from.
If they're really only concerned about Islamic extremists, and not muslims in general, then why does the actions of Turkish muslims in Europe cause them concern? If you were to pick muslims from any country as the least likely to open a mosque that contributed to extremism, it would be Turkey.
Also they are not a racist organisation as you keep trying to claim! They were set up because Britain has been for many years the target of Islamic terrorists. Remember this incident by any chance? :- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI4ctfQ-aYg&feature=related
The EDL are simply not prepared to stand by and wait until these extremists bomb us again! Remember next time it could be you who gets blown up by these lunatics.