Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

FRANCE'S LE MONDE PUBLISHES FRONT-PAGE CARTOON OF MOHAMMED (Yippee!!!)
The Tocqueville Connection ^ | 2 February 2006 | AFP via The Tocqueville Connection

Posted on 02/02/2006 7:11:45 AM PST by Cornpone

PARIS, Feb 2, 2006 (AFP) - France's respected daily newspaper Le Monde joined a European press campaign for freedom of expression Thursday with a front-page cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed and an editorial defending the right to ridicule religions.

The drawing by the paper's long-time cartoonist Plantu featured a head of the prophet made up of the words "I must not draw Mohammed" written repeatedly in long-hand.

"Religions are systems of thought, constructions of the spirit, beliefs which are to be respected certainly, but also freely analysed, criticised and even turned to ridicule," Le Monde said.

"A Muslim may well be shocked by a picture of Mohammed, especially an ill-intentioned one. But a democracy cannot start policing people's opinions, except by trampling the rights of man underfoot," it said.

Plantu told the newspaper that cartoonists and other humourists find it increasingly hard to touch on religion in their work.

"People do not understand to what point -- outside the Catholic Church which we can attack and which is, one has to say, very lenient -- it has become impossible to criticise religious things," he said.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: boycott; cartoons; censorship; europeanmuslims; france; freespeech; islam; jihad; lemonde; mohammad; mohammed; muslim; muslims; rop; terrorists; trop; wot
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 101-120121-140141-160 ... 201-208 next last
To: annalex
Le Monde should be free to print what they want, and we should all condemn efforts to squelch free speech through threats of violence. I applaud efforts to defy such threats of violence.

Market boycotts are different: that's freedom of association. I draw a bright-line distinction between threatening to refuse to buy a product and threatening to kill those who disagree.


Remember Voltaire? Something like "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

121 posted on 02/02/2006 10:48:01 AM PST by Petronski (I love Cyborg!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 117 | View Replies]

To: JBGUSA

No, abrogating one's civilization begets terror. I am not concerned about Islam, I am concerned about the western values. They took a dive with these cartoons.

Censoring them is exactly what a civilized society whould be doing.


122 posted on 02/02/2006 10:50:16 AM PST by annalex
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 119 | View Replies]

To: Juan Medén
Under a headline that read, "Yes, we have the right to caricature God," the paper also ran a front-page cartoon showing Buddha, the Christian and Jewish Gods, and the Prophet Mohammad sitting on a cloud above Earth. The Christian God says: "Don't complain, Mohammad, we've all been caricatured here."

Does anyone have a pic of this cartoon mentioned above?

123 posted on 02/02/2006 10:50:38 AM PST by Reborn
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Cornpone
But a democracy cannot start policing people's opinions, except by trampling the rights of man underfoot

In every country in Europe, including France, you can go to jail for politically incorrect speech and press. Look at Bridgette Bardot.

124 posted on 02/02/2006 10:53:52 AM PST by jordan8
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Petronski

Freedom of speech has nothing to do with ugly cartoons. The newspapers should apologize and laws should be passed in Europe reinstituting censorship of blasphemous or sacrilegious material regardless of subject matter. They had such laws for centuries, -- it is not rocket science.

The same applies to the US of course. Let us recall that Judge Bork called for reinstitution of censorship in America. As always, he is right.


125 posted on 02/02/2006 10:55:03 AM PST by annalex
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 121 | View Replies]

To: annalex
...and laws should be passed in Europe reinstituting censorship of blasphemous or sacrilegious material regardless of subject matter.

Madness.

Let us recall that Judge Bork called for reinstitution of censorship in America. As always, he is right.

No. He's not. He's something of a gun-grabber too.

You might relish the idea of licking authoritarian boots, but I do not.

Sometimes all I can say is wow.

126 posted on 02/02/2006 11:00:40 AM PST by Petronski (I love Cyborg!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 125 | View Replies]

To: Cornpone

yet another essay on islam. Peaceful religion my a$$


http://www.islamreview.com/articles/saveamerica.shtml


127 posted on 02/02/2006 11:05:53 AM PST by ichabod_65
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 126 | View Replies]

To: Petronski

What boots? What "wow"? Censorship has been an attribute of our civilization for centuries. When it lapsed in the 60's, a rule of yahoo thugs ensued. You think "Piss Christ" and "Dung Madonna" just randomly happened? Pretty soon we'll have no civilization worth defending, folks.


128 posted on 02/02/2006 11:08:26 AM PST by annalex
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 126 | View Replies]

To: annalex
What boots?

The boots of the men who arrest those who voice "illegal speech."

What "wow"?

The "Wow, you have no idea what totalitarianism is like . . . you have no sense of history and folks like you would doom us all to repeat it."

129 posted on 02/02/2006 11:20:53 AM PST by Petronski (I love Cyborg!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 128 | View Replies]

To: Petronski

The penalty for defiance of censorship in the West has always been a fine, with closing the newspaper a sanction of last resort. No boots.

I have a very good idea of what totalitarianism is like: I grew up in the Soviet Union. I remember sneaking around with typewritten copies of Gulag Archipelago very well. We understood freedom of speech because we knew why it matters. To ridicule the faith, however misplaced, of a religious minority from under the protection of an atheist state is very much akin to what the Soviet propaganda machine was doing; it has zero relevance to freedom of speech. Are you seriously comparing the uber-establishmentarian Le Monde to a dissident publication?

Decency in the public space is what safeguards freedom of speech.


130 posted on 02/02/2006 11:33:40 AM PST by annalex
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 129 | View Replies]

To: annalex

You want government-enforced speech codes. Someday that government might decide it doesn't like your speech, and that it doesn't feel bound by what the penalties for such have "always been."

You didn't learn very much from Soviet totalitarianism.


131 posted on 02/02/2006 11:37:45 AM PST by Petronski (I love Cyborg!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 130 | View Replies]

To: USF

The cartoons are so offensive because they reflect facets of the truth, and this is what they do not want revealed.

>>EXACTLY!!

Kudos to you, Sir!


132 posted on 02/02/2006 11:46:16 AM PST by bayouranger (The 1st victim of islam is the person who practices the lie.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: Cornpone
"outside the Catholic Church which we can attack"

WTF?

133 posted on 02/02/2006 11:47:07 AM PST by Fudd Fan (Sorry Mr. Franklin, but apparently we couldn't keep it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Last Dakotan
I would not want to be the night lobby security guard.

It isn't the NIGHT guard who would need to worry. If the Islamofascists were going to bomb the place it would be during the day for the 'best effect'.

134 posted on 02/02/2006 11:57:41 AM PST by SuziQ
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

Comment #135 Removed by Moderator

To: Cornpone

Plantu better get a body guard.


136 posted on 02/02/2006 12:04:54 PM PST by defenderSD (¤¤ In a battle of wits against a FReeper, the typical liberal is unarmed. ¤¤)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: HonduGOP
CNN just ran the story with the drawings pictualized.

They censored themselves....despicable.
137 posted on 02/02/2006 12:20:58 PM PST by Blackirish (No Tagline today)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Petronski
Someday that government might decide it doesn't like your speech

You continue to confuse blasphemous insults with speech. It is not, -- it is an affront to decency, nothing more. When the French government protects the newspaper that brutalizes a minority, that is exactly what totalitarianism is about.

Can the constitutional system in the US devolve into totalitarianism? It is doing so already. While Larry Flint's operation thrives under the government protection, Christian crosses are rapidly disappearing from our public space. Pretty soon pulbic religious speech will be stamped out completely, and the government is not in need of censorship to get there.

138 posted on 02/02/2006 12:27:34 PM PST by annalex
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 131 | View Replies]

To: Certain_Doom
Crazy since 1999

Why, what happened in 1999? I could count back much longer than that.

139 posted on 02/02/2006 12:29:04 PM PST by annalex
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 135 | View Replies]

To: annalex
You continue to confuse blasphemous insults with speech. It is not . . .

Of course it is. Don't be absurd.

140 posted on 02/02/2006 12:29:41 PM PST by Petronski (I love Cyborg!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 138 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 101-120121-140141-160 ... 201-208 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson