Posted on 02/12/2006 7:15:40 AM PST by rellimpank
February 11, 2006 Suppose you were a newspaper editor, and you could run any or none of the following opinion pieces, which would you choose? 1. An article that points out that boxing champion Muhammad Ali claimed conscientious objector status to avoid the Vietnam War draft, and which calls Ali and his fans "chicken---- black boy draft-dodgers."
(Excerpt) Read more at rockymountainnews.com ...
The issue is whether a religion or any group can dictate to peoples outside that religion or group how they must behave.
Islam is saying that it (sharia) is the ultimate authority and will redefine the WORLD in its image.
Free speech is the foundation for freedom. Islam has fired the first shot in this world war.
Islam screamed for suppression of free speech...and most of the west acquiesced like a submissive puppy.
Newspapers which refuse to run the cartoons are hiding their cowardice behind a veil of sensitivity.
I would tend to agree on the importance of this cartoon flap, and its significance in defining the opposition more clearly in what, unfortunately, does appear to be developing as a clash of cultures.
It seems to me that one of the elements of Islam most unknown in the West is their (Muslims) inability to distinguish between Social, Religious, and Political elements of their lives. No doubt due to there being no distinction in the hard line Islamic societies between them.
Islam is proclaimed by the Iranian president, all of its 'leading' scholars, and nearly all of the prominent clerics to be a supra-religion, one that is above all others; and, that it is to be accepted as such in all parts of the world, as non-believers are infidels, less than the worst Muslim, worthy only of slavery or even death in the names of their god and prophet.
Several generations of closed societies, strident governance, and a docile (non-existent?) opposition has served to create a current generation that has been carefully brain-washed, inside a cocoon controlled by the Imams and Mullahs who are the theocracy of Islam.
Europe and the West must stand up to the encroachment of Islam, and re-assert their own national characters, without apology or appeasement.
Baloney. A better approach would have been to post a few of those cartoons on the editorial page with excerpts of other newspapers excuses for not printing them - like sensitivity. Alongside, show pictures of the "Piss Christ" and dung-spattered Virgin - along with examples of other newspapers reasons for not suppressing them - like free speech and freedom of the press.
I told him the same thing I told the Seattle Times' managing editor - if I have to go to the Internet to see the pictures, why should I go to the print media for news?
Even in their death throes, the print media won't realize it's not the medium - it's their message.
MEMRI.org - Special Dispatch Series - No. 1089 "Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi Responds to Cartoons of Prophet Muhammad: Whoever is Angered and Does Not Rage in Anger is a Jackass - We are Not a Nation of Jackasses" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "In a February 3, 2006 Friday sermon, Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, who is head of the European Council for Fatwa and Research, president of the International Association of Muslim Scholars (IAMS), and the spiritual guide of many other Islamist organizations across the world (including the Muslim Brotherhood), exhorted worshippers to show rage to the world over the Danish paper Jylland Posten's publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. The sermon was aired on Qatar TV on February 3, 2006.") (February 9, 2006)
News.BBC.co.uk: "CARTOON PROTESTER WAS DRUG DEALER" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "A Muslim demonstrator who imitated a suicide bomber in London to protest over cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad is a convicted drug dealer. Omar Khayam, 22, of Bedford, was jailed in 2002 and released on licence last year after serving half of his sentence for dealing heroin and cocaine.") (Last updated February 7, 2006)
BRUSSELS JOURNAL.com: "'THE WAR IS ON'" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Yesterday (Thursday) Mullah Krekar, the alleged leader of the Islamist group Ansar al-Islam who has been living in Norway as a refugee since 1991, said that the publication of the Muhammad cartoons was a declaration of war. "The war has begun," he told Norwegian journalists. Mr Krekar said Muslims in Norway are preparing to fight. "It does not matter if the governments of Norway and Denmark apologize, the war is on.") (February 3, 2006)
ISLAMONLINE.net: Cairo - "WARNINGS CARTOONS RISK VIOLENCE" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The blasphemous cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) by a Danish daily and other European newspapers are risking to trigger acts of violence around the world, officials and commentators warn." (February 2, 2006)
At a law school in the St Paul suburbs apparently a faculty member (?) posted some of these cartoons on a faculty board and put a sheet of paper up saying "Comments?"
She's under disciplinary action last I heard.
It is not just the 12 cartoons.
There are three more made up by the islamists to inflame the others!
Links to pictures below.
http://www.ekstrabladet.dk/grafik/nettet/tegninger40.jpg
http://www.ekstrabladet.dk/grafik/nettet/tegninger38.jpg
Compare the above.
Duo hogs top prize in pig-squealing contest
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8959820
http://www.ekstrabladet.dk/grafik/nettet/tegninger39.jpg
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.