Normblog makes the point that it is pathetic to go around needlessly offending people just for the sake of it, but these cartoons were not intended to offend and are quite innocuous. They are also not that good or that funny, but offensive? Those Muslims that are being threatening about this are not only being idiotic, they are being hypocritical. Middle Eastern media has regularly caricatured other religions and even depicted Muhammad in the past. They are also missing the point, that if they really want to limit the number of people that see these things, you ignore them, not go trying to suppress them.
Only the BBC has so far raised its head above the parapet. If the reason not to publish is that it will cause unnecessary offence then fair enough, but the reasons I see for the UK media reluctance are cowardice, and that is never a good reason.
Publish and be damned, you have a duty to free speech now, just to show you are not intimidated by these religious idiots.
Are you going to actually publish them here? Or just link to someone who has published them?
ReplyDeleteThey're not hard to find. We published one a while back here, and the full set are here.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I'm concerned, provided the intention is not to blacken the name of all Muslims and create hostile stereotypes (as the many anti-semitic cartoons that come out of the mainstream media in the Middle East do), then go right ahead.
There is one good reason not to publish them, though, and that is that they're all bloody awful, and I don't speak whatever language they're done in.
As I understand it, the rule about the portrayal of M is intended to prevent idolatry (among Muslims) and therefore shouldn't have any bearing on people of other religious faiths. Not that it should anyway - these religions have no right to interfere with our freedom of speech.
Ping.
ReplyDeleteAnon: To be honest, you might have noticed I rarely put pictures on here because I can't be bothered to download the file on to my webspace. I haven't got a transfer program at the moment either. I know I'm being lazy. To show solidarity I'll sort it out soon.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime the link I provide, also provides translations and a bit of background about the cartoons. The background and ensuing controversy is frankly much more interesting than the cartoons.
Blogger lets you download pictures. Save them to your hard drive then upload them to Blogger using the little picture icon when you post. No need to transfer them to your own webspace.
ReplyDeleteOh right, cheers! Will have a go.
ReplyDelete