Posted on 08/31/2007 5:59:09 AM PDT by IrishMike
Marking the beginning of yet another dispute over free speech and religious sensitivity, the government of Pakistan has joined Iran in protesting the publication in a Swedish newspaper of a sketch featuring the head of Mohammed on the body of a dog.
"Pakistan condemns, in the strongest terms, the publication of an offensive and blasphemous sketch of the Holy Prophet in the Swedish newspaper," the foreign ministry in Islamabad said in a statement Thursday.
A Swedish diplomat was summoned to the ministry and "was told that the publication of the sketch had caused grave affront to the religious sentiments of Muslims," it said.
"Regrettably, the tendency among some Europeans to mix the freedom of expression with an outright and deliberate insult to 1.3 billion Muslims in the world is on the rise," the statement said.
A Swedish foreign ministry spokeswoman told Sweden's English-language The Local that the diplomat had apologized for any hurt feelings the publication may have caused.
The government in Stockholm has distanced itself from the decision by a regional newspaper, Nerikes Allehanda, to publish the picture on August 18. The sketch, by artist Lars Vilks, was used to illustrate an editorial on freedom of expression.
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A few months after a Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, in September 2005 published a dozen caricatures of Mohammed, simmering anger among Muslims erupted.
The cartoons, later reproduced in other European newspapers, triggered death threats, diplomatic strains, a Mideast boycott of Danish products, and protests -- some of them deadly -- in a number of Islamic countries.
The ripple effects of the episode are still being felt, with the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), a 57-member bloc of Islamic states, working to have international institutions outlaw the "defamation of prophets" and combat "Islamophobia."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Well said!
Hey gang—I empathize with many of the comments being made. But we need to retain the higher ground. Whatever many of us have come to believe about the Islamic faith, the use of inflamatory language and demogogory obscures the congency of the arguments.
The heads on the wrong end.
Christian leaders to object and are mocked and vilified by the left and MSM as a bunch of knuckle dragging, mouth breathing, intolerant, unsophisticated rednecks who want to take us back to the Dark Ages and don’t understand or appreciate “art”.
I do agree with the rest. If Christians were to pray 5 times a day and fast regularly, I think we would see a big change in our world.
I understand your position. However, the responses here with respect to this hijacked religion, are the result of a politically correct society that elevates this disgusting religion of fanatics above the good christians here in the USA who have been told they can no longer openingly worship their God....
It did not. Greed and corruption did that. That wasn't Christianity. True Christian fervor would not do that. Read what Jesus taught.
It's sickening that people attribute that sort of stuff to Christianity when it goes against the clear teachings of Scripture. Just because someone does something on someone else's name doesn't mean that it's representative of that person.
But that won't stop alarmists from using that as an example of Christian fervor just to make true Christians look like a bunch of radical extremists.
The founding fathers didn't object to the intermingling of church and state; they objected to the state interfereing with church affairs, or making church membership in a particular denomination a requirement for the citizens, as was the case in England for a while. That's why we have this:
Article I: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
The restriction is on Congress and what it can and cannot do in regards to religion.
The idea that they intended to keep church and state separate doesn't hold water when you read this:
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
The whole basis for the Declaration of Independence is the Bible and the Judeo-Christian concept of the Bible. That's hardly keeping the church and state separate.
It's not how the Amercian electorate wants it. The whole separation of church and state thing has been forced on us by groups like the ACLU abusing the power of the judiciary to FORCE it on us. Every time they see something they don't like, it's lawsuit time. And it's ALWAYS against Christianity and Christian values, unless there's some other angle they're trying to eventually work in to use against it at a later date.
He (she?) said nothing about becoming more like Saudi Arabia, nor "So what you are saying, in effect is, "I wish more Christians were more like those better-brainwashed, violent muslims that riot at the drop of a cartoon."
That is absolutely not what was implied and that's nothing more than slander to make up that kind of garbage and attribute it to someone else.
It's lying about the other person, plain and simple.
starfish is right. When I see Christians praying five times a day and fasting regularly, then I'll admit that they have the same kind of fervor. It's a shame to us that we don't. muslims do it out of fear and oppression; Christians have all the reason in the world to do it out of love and gratitude.
It did, too.
Whether or not it was "real Christianity," or "what Jesus taught," is quite beside the point.
Greed and corruption certainly played a significant role, as did power politics.
But the major factor in the European religious wars was .... (ta daaaa) religious beliefs, differences in same, and people being willing to kill and die for them.
One hopes that, today, we have a better sense of how to deal with religious controversy. We tend to look with horror on idea that religious differences should lead to the deployment of national armies. We do not allow our politicians to relegate religious disputes, and we have a strong aversion to religious leaders who attempt to impose their beliefs on the nation at large.
Speaking from our current vantage point, it's tempting to try and separate the politics of the day from religious belief, but it would be incorrect to do so. Look at the motives and actions of Philip II of Spain, for example, whose political ambitions were informed by his religious beliefs (e.g., defense of Catholicism against the Protestants).
Just checked in to see if a picture of Islamic Rage Boy was posted yet. Nope.
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I don’t know how to post graphics.
I’’ll cc the Man ‘Pookie’.
Gee, pretty soon, all you’ll be able to find when you Google Mohammed is “Mohammed was a Pedophile.” What with all these posts.
Doncha just hate that? < / sarc>
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Mohammed was a Pedophile with a dogs body, the legs of a cat and the wisdom of a slug.
LOL! Thanks, I needed that. FReepers are the GRRREATEST!
You’re the best.
Check Pookie18 thread every morning (search by poster
I used to think the day started with hand picked by Juan Valdez Maxwell House, but for a long time now it’s been PookieToons.
I check occasionally, but still not enough. That was one of my New Years resolutions, as I recall. Great work pookie18!
LOL!
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