[Reader-list] The Slimes of India's Patna edition reprints, Danish cartoon

[Rahul Asthana]

Koen,
Will try to make a few points here. 
1.The opposition is not against free speech.The
widespread republication gave the perception of an
attack on and ridicule of a belief system.It is no
longer a heretic voice. Hence the outcry.
2.There are many examples of the hypocrisy of people
who are burning buildings for cartoons and would not
say anything when Iran sentences to death 17 year
olds, but in this case it is a straw man.This does not
take away from the fact that there is no reason for
stirring up the emotions of about a billion people.
3.This is not against freedom of speech  and one would
strongly oppose any legal action against the
cartoonists or publishers.But it is in bad taste.Its
something which is not really funny for a lot of
people.
5. Lets look at this from the utilitarian angle.It
sucks from that POV as well.Incidents of this kind 
make difficult for moderate muslims to continue their
work and to reduce the influence of extremists.
4.You (and me too), perhaps dont understand what is
there to get riled up about.But thats where tolerance
comes in. If we think that we are being tolerant when
we talk about LGBT rights or womens rights, thats not
true.Thats because we ethically support them. We can
be called tolerant only if we can live with and
respect something which is against what we can
logically or ethically explain to ourselves. 
6.Being offensive or ridiculing a  religion should be
condemned. Protesting with violence should also be
condemned.The publishers of  cartoons  wanted to make
a point about muslims as against freedom of speech.
The  protestors, on the other hand are making a  point
about the oppresive policies of the monolithic "west"
as against the offensiveness of the cartoons.It is
evident that both sides are displaying a marked
ignorance of each others culture and values.In this
sense this controversy may have a positive outcome if
it can result in greater understanding between the two
parties
Finally, I totally agree with Iram Gufran's
post.Liberals can me most intolerant, however counter
intuitive this may sound.

regards
Rahul
--- Koen Martens <gmc at sonologic.nl> wrote:

> Frankly, the way the muslim extremists worry about a
> few pitiful
> cartoons is beyond me. Get over it already.
> 
> I find what muslim countries do to gay people and
> people that are
> critical about islam much more worrying than what a
> previously
> unknown right-wing Danish newspaper publishes. They
> are murdered in
> the name of allah, now try to defend that and see
> who smears the
> name of the profet more. When islam becomes
> equivalent to murder in
> the eyes of many, shouldn't someone stop and ask
> 'hey where do they
> get the idea'?
> 
> What's more, if i understand correctly there are
> only a few hundred
> of those extremists world wide that go and burn
> ambassies, so i
> don't see why the media must make such a fuss about
> it.. Extremists
> will always do stupid things, making it into a media
> circus only
> validates it in their eyes.
> 
> Besides, wasn't the whole point that the riots are
> instigated by
> arab religious leaders that want to shun away
> attention from other
> matters?
> 
> Now, if this list is a get-together of muslim
> extremists, please
> tell me so i will unsubscribe. I saw some posts here
> which made me
> frown already, but i refrained from replying, but
> seriously, if
> there are any muslim extremists here please let me
> know, i want
> nothing to do with them.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Koen
> 
> reader-list-request at sarai.net wrote:
> > Subject: [Reader-list] The Slimes of India's Patna
> edition reprints
> > 	Danish	cartoon
> > 
> > This seems to me rather mischievious from the very
> start: first print
> > them and then say sorry. What a convenient alibi,
> an apology.
> > S.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Muslims angry at newspaper over cartoons; editor
> apologises
> > 
> >
>
http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?action=fullnews&id=3691
> 
> 
> -- 
> K.F.J. Martens, Sonologic, http://www.sonologic.nl/
> Networking, hosting, embedded systems, unix,
> artificial intelligence.
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