QUOTE(RMHED @ Thu 6th May 2010, 11:56pm)
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QUOTE(GlassBeadGame @ Thu 6th May 2010, 11:34pm)
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QUOTE(Kwork @ Thu 6th May 2010, 5:22pm)
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QUOTE(GlassBeadGame @ Thu 6th May 2010, 10:07pm)
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QUOTE(dtobias @ Thu 6th May 2010, 4:58pm)
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The "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" is in direct response to a Muslim group making death threats on the people involved with South Park for doing an episode that lampooned the intolerant attitude of Muslims over that sort of thing, ironically proving the point of the episode; and the cowardly corporate types who caved into this threat by censoring the followup episode (among other things, bleeping out a speech at the end which decried censorship and intolerance).
Of course, to our resident nincompoop GlassBeadGame, the cartoonists are the evil offenders and the censors/death-threateners are the victims.
Yes of course the ones with an open hand extended to the people who are different from themselves are the "intolerant" ones." Not the ones insisting that they need to be unimpeded by the concerns of others, even to the point of going out of their way to offend. A billion Muslims did not threaten South Park and neither did I. Bigot.
The point is defending freedom of speech. That freedom is not now well defended because of a lack of guts in standing up to the threats of religiously motivated goons.
There have been cases where the American Civil Liberties Union defended in court the free speech rights of even the American Nazi Party. If US citizens will not defend the rights of
all free speech there will soon be no free speech. Capice?
Asshole. Muslims are not stopping you, South Park or anyone else from saying anything. Its like Rumsfield bombing Iraq because Afghanistan had no good targets. You are just bulling convenient targets who did you no harm.
The most serious speech that is being chilled around this event is that of American and other Western Muslims and those who might speak up against your bigotry.
How come when I speak out against antisemitism around here I don't get this kind of rancor? Bigots, all.
Just because one can draw a depiction of Mohammed that doesn't necessarily mean one should do so. If your only reason for doing so is to try to cause offence, then shame on you. If your only reason for being offended is to bring about confrontation, then shame on you too.
You guys really don't seem to grasp the concept of free speech. It is not about what you think is
nice, its about speech being free for everyone or else it is free for no one. For example, in the late 1970s, when the American Nazi Parti wanted to march through Skokie, Illinois, the local population (many of whom were Jewish Holocaust survivors) tried to have the march blocked. The American Civil Liberties Union defended the Nazi right to free speech in court even though they thought the march detestable.
http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/strwhe.htmlThe reason the ACLU got involved was because they knew that it is not possible to pick and choose on free speech issues. Either everyone has the right, or else we all wind up without it. Nice is not a deciding factor.