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Local editors avoid cartoons (AU)
news.com.au ^ | 02/05/06 | Unattributed

Posted on 02/05/2006 6:20:02 PM PST by America's Resolve

THE editors of Australia's main newspapers say they are reluctant to publish cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Mohammed because it is unnecessary and could incite unrest. Many Muslims across the world have demonstrated, some violently, since a Danish newspaper first published the cartoons, one of which depicted Mohammed wearing a turban resembling a bomb.

The Daily Telegraph editor David Penberthy today said publishing the images could have nasty consequences, especially given racial tensions in Sydney.

"There's a fairly longstanding sort of acknowledgment and understanding that within Islam, any depictions of the prophet Mohammed ... are precluded, in the same way that we'd think twice about doing a cartoon that mocked Jesus," he told ABC Radio.

"Particularly at a time when there have been a lot of tensions in Sydney between Anglo Australians and particularly Lebanese Muslims over the summer, with the conflict we saw down at Cronulla and the reprisals that followed.

"You do have a bit of a social responsibility in the newspaper to think through those kinds of things.

Advertisement: "I don't know whether people would really want to take the risk of that level of social unrest."

(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...


TOPICS: Australia/New Zealand; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cartoons; danish; denmark; mohammed; muslimriots; norway; norwegian; rop; trop
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If they fail to stand up for their press feedoms over such an issue as this because of fear of Islam, one has to wonder what the next freedom they'll lose will be.

The Daily Telegraph editor David Penberthy today said publishing the images could have nasty consequences,

Sheer fear is driving this story now.

What about when the muslims go on a rampage and demand that western women no longer drive? Are we to deny them that right for fear of muslim madness?

This is crazy.

Those Danish cartoonists were indeed right when they feared for their lives if they drew pictures of Islam, which started all of this in the first place.

1 posted on 02/05/2006 6:20:04 PM PST by America's Resolve
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To: America's Resolve
Thief


2 posted on 02/05/2006 6:26:49 PM PST by sageb1 (This is the Final Crusade. There are only 2 sides. Pick one.)
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To: America's Resolve

If they fail to stand up for their press feedoms over such an issue as this because of fear of Islam, one has to wonder what the next freedom they'll lose will be.

they already lost the most important one thanks to george soros & rebecca peters, they gave up their right to protect themselves. their firearms....& the muslims are restless...


3 posted on 02/05/2006 6:28:13 PM PST by ronnied (we are the only animals that bare our teeth in greeting...)
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To: America's Resolve

Submission 1, Australia 0.


4 posted on 02/05/2006 6:28:16 PM PST by PeoplesRepublicOfWashington (How long do we have to pretend that Democrats are patriots?)
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To: ronnied
Ah, no, we haven't. Australians still own a lot of firearms. For some reason, this has been misrepresented in America.

Just out of interest, how many US papers have printed these cartoons? So far, I haven't heard of any and I'm wondering if that's a lack of publicity, or if US papers are also proving reluctant to do so.

I wish Australian newspapers would have the guts to do so - and I'm appalled that nobody is making that stand.

5 posted on 02/05/2006 6:30:44 PM PST by naturalman1975 ("America was under attack. Australia was immediately there to help." - John Winston Howard)
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To: naturalman1975
I know of only one, but I don't know of any that have consciously made that decision ... YET.

I also wish they would run them, every paper in the country, but they won't. Nobody ever said liberals/journalists were the souls of valor.

6 posted on 02/05/2006 6:34:08 PM PST by America's Resolve (I've become a 'single issue voter' for 06 and 08. My issue is illegal immigration!)
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To: America's Resolve
"I don't know whether people would really want to take the risk of that level of social unrest."

Of course not. It might mean taking control of rabid muslim extremists. Heaven forbid.

/disgust
7 posted on 02/05/2006 6:40:22 PM PST by Number57 (Badly worded, but heartfelt)
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To: America's Resolve

Amazing that someone can equate Jesus, the loving son of God, with a murdering, treacherous, hate-filled, mentally deranged pedophile.


8 posted on 02/05/2006 6:40:57 PM PST by Kirkwood (Time ot bring back the Crusades.)
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To: America's Resolve
Brit euphemisms: "On Saturday, mobs in Syria torched the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus in a row over cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammed."

A "row"???
A "row"???
"...very like a whale..." (Shakes, Hamlet, Polonius)
9 posted on 02/05/2006 6:41:29 PM PST by purpleland (Elegy 9/11/01 Vigilance and Valor! Socialism is the Opiate of Academia)
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To: naturalman1975

Ah, no, we haven't. Australians still own a lot of firearms. For some reason, this has been misrepresented in America.
Just out of interest, how many US papers have printed these cartoons


our state dept. decided to appease the enemy on this one, we're sitting it out. also, if you have them {firearms}
keep them handy. never know...


10 posted on 02/05/2006 6:43:52 PM PST by ronnied (we are the only animals that bare our teeth in greeting...)
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To: America's Resolve
Well, if you have a neighbor who DETESTS rap music and is REALLY mean and unpredicatable, what MORON decides that he MUST listen to his rap music, blasting it, DELIBERATELY provoking the mean neighbor?

Remember a couple of years ago, the Dutch director who DELIBERATELY put out a movie that he KNEW would cost him ALL kinds of flack from Muslims? van Gogh? The Muslim woman who co-produced the movie TOOK the police protection and still lives. Van Gogh wouldn't take the police protection and is dead...stabbed and shot by an angry Muslim while riding his bicycle in broad daylight.

The Danes are pushing buttons. They know it and shove the insult right in Muslim faces and say "EAT THIS!"
Now come the consequences and repercussions.

I dunno. It's so easy NOT to be insulting of others religion, race, ethnicity, etc. Why insult people you don't like? Why push buttons which everyone knows will enrage?

Europeans have such strict rules against neo-nazis, anti-Semitic remarks, behavior, etc., yet they find it just fine to insult Muslims. If this cartoon had mocked Jews or had any BREATH of pro-nazi in it, the cartoon would not have been run.

I see a double standard. Perhaps, I'm wrong.

11 posted on 02/05/2006 6:49:40 PM PST by starfish923 (Socrates: It's never right to do wrong.)
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To: PeoplesRepublicOfWashington

In case you haven't been watching, the enire US media is also afraid to publish the pictures.


12 posted on 02/05/2006 6:55:27 PM PST by TrebleRebel
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To: America's Resolve

Cowards!


13 posted on 02/05/2006 7:07:22 PM PST by lilylangtree
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To: lilylangtree

Fox News displayed the cartoons, CNN hid behind their little pixels!


14 posted on 02/05/2006 7:08:50 PM PST by bygolly
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To: starfish923
And when your surly neighbor decides that he doesn't like red cars? Are you going to destroy your red car for fear of provoking him? Then when he decides that he doesn't like blue houses? Are you going to destroy your blue house for fear of provoking him?

Trite as it might sound, there's a principle here that MUST be defended. The right to not be dictated to.

I'm a Christian. I'm not muslim. The prohibition against images of Mohammed is a muslim rule. Why should I and my religion and culture be forced to observe and obey muslim strictures?

What is the next rule that I'll be subjected to if they win on this issue? We'll have to all live under sharia law because if we don't, they'll get a few million people together and start lopping off heads again?

I think you're wrong. For me, the line is drawn HERE by my choice, because next time it'll be drawn THERE, by their choice.

15 posted on 02/05/2006 7:09:16 PM PST by America's Resolve (I've become a 'single issue voter' for 06 and 08. My issue is illegal immigration!)
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To: TrebleRebel
Not the entire US media. I saw them on Fox News Channel--Brit Hume's show, if I recall correctly. Interestingly, I haven't heard any Islamists bellyaching about this. They seem to be focused on Europe. But then their beach head in Europe is much stronger than it is here. I also find interesting the gutlessness on display by our mainstream media. I'm sure no one here is surprised, but our liberal yellow journalists are more than willing to degrade Christianity and Judaism.

The time has come to amend our Constitution to define a religion worthy of the protections of the 1st Amendment. I'd start with defining a philosophy that controls the behaviors of its voluntary adherents as a religion. A philosophy that controls the behaviors of non-adherents is not a religion at all, and deserves no protection--in my opinion. Another criterion I would add is to deny classification as a religion to any philosophy that does not practice what it preaches. In the case of Islam, they would be denied because of unwillingness to allow the freedom of religious expression they so ardently demand in western societies, and because of their willingness to readily degrade other religions through the use of derogatory cartoons and brutal murder.

16 posted on 02/05/2006 7:14:52 PM PST by PeoplesRepublicOfWashington (How long do we have to pretend that Democrats are patriots?)
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To: bygolly

Hooray for Fox!


17 posted on 02/05/2006 7:49:03 PM PST by lilylangtree
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To: America's Resolve

What is needed is for all the hate material published by the Islamic fanatics to be exposed so that everyone can see what Islamic fanaticism is all about. Not enough people understand how dangerous the fanatics are and how important it is to root out their terrorism.


18 posted on 02/05/2006 7:50:12 PM PST by Fair Go
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To: America's Resolve

Australia and New Zealand are becoming home for spineless, immoral cowardly cowards.


19 posted on 02/05/2006 7:52:26 PM PST by yarddog
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To: America's Resolve
And when your surly neighbor decides that he doesn't like red cars? Are you going to destroy your red car for fear of provoking him? Then when he decides that he doesn't like blue houses? Are you going to destroy your blue house for fear of provoking him? Trite as it might sound, there's a principle here that MUST be defended. The right to not be dictated to.
1. No one is that bad, even Muslims. They really hate Mohammad being ridiculed....just Mohammad. Don't you remember the stink about 10-15 years ago when Sleazywood made a movie about Mohammad? It was, by Sleazywood standards, rather reverend of him, but Muslims WORLDWIDE put up a HUGE stink! Boy, was Sleazywood shocked. Lol.
2. Sticking to a principle is one thing, but using the "principle" as an excuse to ridicule a religion's main icon makes no sense and makes the "principle" empty.
3. As I said, if the cartoon had been anti-Semitic or pro-Nazi, then the "principle" would go by the board and censorship would be called the "principled" thing to do.

I'm a Christian. I'm not muslim. The prohibition against images of Mohammed is a muslim rule. Why should I and my religion and culture be forced to observe and obey muslim strictures?
This isn't about "images" of Mohammad at all. It's about ridiculing Mohammad in a political cartoon. If you were in Europe and you did a cartoon denying the holocaust, for example, you WOULD be guilty of a crime and sentenced to prison, just for SAYING OUT-LOUD IN A CARTOON that the holocaust never existed.
My point is that every society has a tender spot. You know that. The Muslims' only really tender spot is ridicule of Mohammad. That hasn't changed.
Besides, I'm not saying that the ridicule of Mohammad SHOULDN'T be done. What I have said and I will repeat it yet again is that now the Danes have to face the repercussions throughout the Muslim world, all 1 billion of them, for INSISTING on ridiculing Islam's holiest icon after God.

What is the next rule that I'll be subjected to if they win on this issue? We'll have to all live under sharia law because if we don't, they'll get a few million people together and start lopping off heads again?
We've been rubbing up against the Muslims for 65 years via oil production, with them politically since 1948 (when Israel became a state) and the ensuing war years, and the only really tender spot that sends them rioting en masse, that is, world-wide, is ridicule of Mohammad. The only thing.
There really is no need for your dramatics. You know that.

I think you're wrong. For me, the line is drawn HERE by my choice, because next time it'll be drawn THERE, by their choice.
Well you are certainly entitled to your own opinion.
I have the feeling that you have drawn the line of opposition long before this incident and have hated the entire Muslim, Arab and middle-east population for a long time.
I lived over in Saudi Arabia for five years and gave up hating peoples, cultures and religions in a knee-jerk manner, as I was taught to in this country. Mind you, I DIDN'T ever learn to like their culture or tradition and it was too damned hot over there, but I sure got a brainful of information that made me realize what bias there is in the media of the world....ours included.

Each side is fed such false, hyped-up half-truths/half-lies by the lying media. I discovered that, much to my chagrin.
The older Arabs, like older Americans, who have been around a while, have some maturity and life experiences, (not even much or any education) know the futility of making enemies with races, religions, countries and continents.
It was all so futile, useless and wasteful. We are force-fed SUCH a crock in this country -- as they are over there. Crock-fed, compliments of agenda-driven media and politics.

It would be a good thing if people could live and travel overseas and make up their own minds, be the judge themselves of what they see and hear.

20 posted on 02/05/2006 8:00:36 PM PST by starfish923 (Socrates: It's never right to do wrong.)
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