Now go away you siwwy Mooslim or I shall taunt you again!
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.
Wow, integrity ...nice to see
Since the Founding Fathers and till the 1960's freedom of speech and censorship coexisted very well in America. Longer than that in Europe. Yet culture flourished, political discourse was robust, and religion was not in catacombs. Now we have a complete opposite, but somehow it is, according to you, censorship of ugly cartoons that will really bring totalitarianism about.
Puzzled Parisians gathered 'round the unusual sight. A rare pair of testicles were found in France's capital.
"Mon Dieu!", exclaimed Jacques. "We 'ave not seen zis phenomenon in a, how you zay it? A 'coon's age!"
This may not be entirely true. Checking the newspaper museum also knows as a "newseum" at
http://www.newseum.org/media/dfp/pdf2/FRA_LM.pdf
(**NOTE** This link shows the daily front page. Tomorrow it will show Firday's page...)
It turns out that there is no cartoon and not even a mention of the controversy on the front page...
Maybe I am missing something...
A religion that calls for the murder and suppression of others until they conquer the world, is a religion that should be mocked and torn down by anybody who has a brain to think. By your standard Nazism could be qualified as a religion and treated as sacred.
If a religion can not stand up to criticism and facts it does not need to stand at all, nor does the government need to get involved upholding evil by making it unavailable to speech against it.
It is a good thing our Christian founders understood this, even if you do not.
How refreshing.
My God, Le Monde?!!??
If you want to fight Islam, go right ahead, and I am with you. Not a moment too soon. Just make sure there is enough dignity in the West worth fighting for when you're done with the cartoons.
Would you be calling for the same if the religion were Christianity and the cartoons were of Jesus? Frankly, I find it refreshing that someone in France has some gonads. I just hope that they remain defiant in the face of the usual calls of tolerance from the intolerant.
BTTT!
EXCELLENT.
Thanks for the eye opener.
Of course I would be. I am primarily concerned with the rights of Christians and with the Christian character of our civilization. At the same time, a civilized society cannot define blasphemy but in religion-neutral terms. Blasphemy should be understood as a violation of rights across the board.
Is suppressing free speech a violation of rights?
Not necessarily. If the recipient of the message did not intend to receive it but the message arrived, such message can be suppressed by the law without violating anyone's right.
Such is the situation with censorship. It does not ipso facto violate rights, although, of course, just as a cop might at times violate rights when preventing a theft, so may an censor at times violate rights while preventing a blasphemy.
This thread has a picture of it.
Not necessarily. If the recipient of the message did not intend to receive it but the message arrived, such message can be suppressed by the law without violating anyone's right.
But we're not talking about a private message(ie..e-mail, letter), we're talking about the distribution of a newspaper with cartoons that someone finds offensive.
Such is the situation with censorship. It does not ipso facto violate rights, although, of course, just as a cop might at times violate rights when preventing a theft, so may an censor at times violate rights while preventing a blasphemy
The fact of the matter is, France is secular and as such the idea of blasphemy is foreign. And while were on the subject, why are you outraged by cartoons about muhammed?
Yeah, ridicule religion and religious people all you want. Just don't say homosexuality is bad, cuz that's hateful.
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