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Posted on 02/06/2006 9:29:24 AM PST by Pokey78
THE trouble with the West is that we have forgotten that some things are sacred.
We find it so difficult to comprehend the reaction of the Muslim world to that ham-fisted Danish cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a terrorist because our churches stand empty, our faith is weak and our God has left the building.
The idea that this is still a Christian country is laughable. We may haul in the local vicar for weddings and funerals, but that's about it. We worship our idols -celebrity and money, the sex lives of the rich and famous - but the Good Book is about as relevant to most of our lives as the ration book.
Christianity is widely mocked. The feeble humour of the Jerry Springer opera whipped up some half-hearted controversy, but nobody really cared beyond a few Bible-bashers considered to be humourless spoilsports.
Once this was a Christian country, back when we were all singing two hymns a day at school and fretting about burning in hell for our sins.
When I was a child, we could all chant the Lord's Prayer by heart. Do the Vicky Pollards of today know the Lord's Prayer? Can't see it, myself. So I feel an instinctive sympathy for Muslims who still hold to the belief that there is such a thing as blasphemy.
The Muslim community say that those puerile Danish cartoons should not have been printed, and they are right. It would not have been censorship or the curtailment of free speech to not print (and reprint) the offending cartoon. It would have been basic human decency. It would have been cultural restraint at a time when tension between the West and the Muslim world is higher than it has been for centuries.
I have read a number of commentators say that they would "defend to the death" the right of some crappy little Danish paper to print their nasty little cartoons.
But if I am going to die for a cause, then it is going to be a better one than the right of some Scandy cartoonist to print offensive rubbish.
If we are going to argue with Muslims, then let it be about something worthwhile.
The attitude of Islam to women. The attitude of Islam to gays. The attitude of Islam to Israel, which is routinely threatened with extermination by everyone from Hamas to the leader of Iran to mad mullahs with spit on their beards in Finsbury Park.
Printing that cartoon was supremely stupid. Muslims have a right to live their lives without seeing their religion vilified in a way that is designed to cause hurt, anger and offence.
What Muslims should never have the right to do is what they did on the streets of London on Friday. Around 500 demonstrators marched from the Regent's Park mosque to the Danish embassy, carrying the most sickening placards I have ever seen in my life.
On the streets of the city where Londoners were murdered and maimed on July 7, the pinhead protesters carried slogans boasting: "Europe, you'll come crawling when mujahideen come roaring" and "Behead those who insult Islam". On the same streets where four terrorists committed mass murder, a placard gloated: "Europe you will pay - fantastic 4 are on their way".
A toddler, 20-month-old Farisa Jihad, was dressed by some moronic adult in a hat that sneered: "I love Al-Qaida".
And they got away with it. Nobody was arrested for these sickening incitements to murder. Nobody was charged for spewing slogans of hate that gloated about the dead and broken bodies of July 7.
And that offends me. That offends me to the core of my being.
Responsible Muslim leaders have already condemned the appalling placards. But it happened. And I can't think of any thing more likely to create real loathing for Muslims. I can't think of anything more likely to make the BNP a real force in British politics.
I can't think of anything more likely to make the average British citizen - whatever his colour - ask: Whose country is it anyway?
MUSLIMS deserve the respect accorded to all our people. They take their religion infinitely more seriously than we do, and we should understand that. And if they want to burn down a few empty Scandinavian embassies in Syria because of crass depictions of the Prophet Mohammed, then personally I couldn't care less.
But when someone starts carrying placards in my city gloating about 9/11 and 7/7, when men with big mouths start promising death and destruction, when you tell us that we will be massacred if we offend you, then our tolerance is pushed to breaking-point. Muslims deserve to have their faith respected.
But if they want a Muslim country, then perhaps they should go and live in one.
Sorry, just because you have a right to say something doesn't mean you should. With freedon comes responsibility.
And the people of yesterday had a good sense of responsibility. Today, NOTHING is sacred.
I wish every newspaper would publish them for this reason. Right now, all of the unwarranted violence is directed toward all things Danish. There should be a more diffuse target.
Posting those cartoons was disrespectful, irresponsible and stupid. That said, the reaction from Muslims is out of proportion to the original offense and far worse. The only good to come from it, is to reveal the irrationality and the nature of our enemy.
It did omit the part about Muslim fanatics getting into a killing frenzy over pretty lame stuff. Infractions regarding sacred stuff could not result in mayhem in any "Religion of Peace".
"Sorry, just because YOU don't like a religion does not mean YOU should say whatever disrespectful thing you want about it.. "
Why not? We still live in a free country, with freedom of speech. Whats to stop me from saying whatever I want?
Muslims would like to think that we aren't allowed to express ourselves freely if it means we might offend someone but thats simply not the case. We can and we do. If you don't like it, tough.
If we are going to argue with Muslims, then let it be about something worthwhile.
Hmm...so, freedom of expression and the press isn't worth "arguing" about to these Mediots? Fundamental Freedoms are not worth fighting for, or calling the Islamazis on? Then what is...let's see:
The attitude of Islam to women. The attitude of Islam to gays.
So...what we see with the Islamazis rioting over a cartoon...threatening another 9/11 in Europe isn't enough to expose these evil ba$tards as what they are; a threat to Humanity? No...they don't believe in Western Gay superiority! THAT is what offends the presstitutes!
The attitude of Islam to Israel, which is routinely threatened with extermination by everyone from Hamas to the leader of Iran to mad mullahs with spit on their beards in Finsbury Park.
OK...NOW I call BS! Not one of the EuroWeenies has EVER taken the PaleSimians to task for their unwaivering haterd of everything "Jooooo"...nor have they EVER shut off the Gravy Train at ANY time these Islamazis have slaughtered Israelis, or attacked with missiles...
NOW they are concerned about Islamazis treatment of the "Jooos"?!?!
I don't think so! But it makes them LOOK better than they are...and appearance is what they are all about!
It wouldn't be a diffuse target, it would be an overwhelming enemy to target. It would be the non-violent conquering of radical Islamism.
That works in the case of "Piss Christ", because it's not an accidental case of blasphemy. But in the case of the cartoons, any representation of Mohammed constitutes blasphemy; it's not just these cartoons, it's any possible cartoon.
It doesn't end there, either, because other unintended blasphemies can (and do) occur. The logo of Coca Cola makes some blasphemy in Arabic, if viewed the right way. Every container of liquid is potentially somebody's "Piss Christ". You can never say, "I know blasphemy when I see it", because blasphemy exists in the eye of the offended.
IAC, Most Muslims don't seem to listen to these "responsible"leaders.
He's confused. He doesn't know that the secular England he loves cannot stand up against Muslims who take their religious seriously.
Ok - I'll bite.
So the sign means?
Approve, no, but let them.
Once they over step the boundary to thier right to protest to my right to peacefully exist, then I will have to use my second admendment right...
It is the name of Allah on a pig's balls
That's hillarious!... I mean Dispresectful!
Shame... Shame.....
That I'm sure is the reason why it was done in the first place, and that's exactly why I wholeheartedly support it.
Great point! What these apologists for islam are demonstrating is that islam is incompatible with Western Civilization and its freedoms. Their conclusion, that therefore we need to give up our freedoms when it comes to islam, is exactly wrong.
"But if they want a Muslim country, then perhaps they should go and live in one."
That's their plan to be able to live in a muslim country, no matter where they want to live on earth. Everyone else must convert, submit or die.
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