[aldo_14]

I seen a few of those cartoon..

Some of them are really good - like one of two terrorists knocking on the heavens door and getting a reply "sorry, we ran out of virgins, try somewhere else". Now that is funny...and no Mohamed in it eitehr...

Hell, people should learn to relax and undersant comedy and satire.. I too tell jokes that invole Jesus or Peter, despite being a christian. Granted, I don't tell greasy jokes about htem, only more standard ones, but  a arab (doesn't even look like Mohamed- who calimed it was him anyway?) with a turban bomb is satiric and spot on(gets the point over).

Meh...the world is totaly f*** up...

The cartoon was of Mohammad; the newspaper was inviting the cartoonists' 'first thought' depictions of Mohammad.  AFAIK there aren't any / many reliable images of Mohammed, anyways, to compare vs.

I think it's important to understand Muslims have every right to be offended, and to say that; if they feel they're being stereotyped as violent terrorists, etc, then of course they'll protest.  Would you be happy if someone said all Croats were ethnic cleansers, even in a comedy way? Same as I get pissed off at the way Scots are portrayed as violent drunks in the Simpsons, etc.

The issue is in the expression of that offendedness; it's not acceptable to call for religious censorship of the free press, nor is it to launch violent protests that burn down embassies or call for death to people.  Moreso, the minority that are protesting in this way are only reinforcing the caricatured stereotype of violent, intolerant Muslims they are supposed to be opposing.  But we see a problem in that the violence of these extremist protests, it acts to polarize and fracture the sort of 'west-east' divide of cultures, giving a pretext to racism in particular upon both sides.  It's ok to criticise what was published, after all, whilst still supporting the rights of freedom of speech.

[Shade]

Yeah they did pretty much shoot themselves in the foot by protesting violently against being protrayed as violent, didn't they? It has actually had some positive effects back here where it all started. The whole business of radical imams going down to instigate these troubles has seriously marginalized them, and directly led to the creation of a democratic muslim organization which is looking to claim as members by far the majority of the muslims who live here within not too long, depriving those radicals of many of the followers they had 6 months ago. It's always nice when such a plot backfires like that. Karma, I guess

Also, the countries who are backing, actively or by non-action against violence, these demontrations and transgressions, may soon find that they've alienated some of their best friends in the western world. The nordic countries are all heavily involved in aid programs as well as various peace initiatives in the middle east and elsewhere, and this might change if the regimes in question don't reign in the violence. Nigeria actually had many members of parliament burning danish flags, which strikes me as a bad idea considering the fact that they're royally screwed if we withdrew our aid.

[Bobboau]

well if you withdraw your aid you will have invited your own 9/11 and terror will fill your streets like the blood of your infedel kind.

[an0n]

The drawings are all ****ing crap anyway.

Maybe they're just pissed that they never bothered to put any effort in?

[karajorma]

The drawings are all ****ing crap anyway.

Maybe they're just pissed that they never bothered to put any effort in?

 Maybe it's just Danish humour but I didn't see anything remotely funny in the cartoons anyway. That's probably the saddest thing about the whole affair.

It's sort of like spilling rivers of blood to prevent censorship of art and then finding out that you were defending the Crazy Frog.

[BlackDove]

The. story. broke. several. days. before. the. sinking.

To. pre-empt. the. ****. that. was. about. to. happen.

Again, just my paranoid theory.

So, they planned a sinking in order just because a 5 month old story was going to spin up?  That is rather, er, paranoid.

I was thinking something along the lines of people who knew of the impending catastrophe (1000+ people don't die due to glitches) pre-empting the news coverage with the inane "cartoon" bull****, getting the cattle out on the street to burn some flags while the serious **** goes on in the background.

It happens with the American news agencies, like the whole Schiavo matter which was used to distract from a few serious issues that were going on the side.

[StratComm]

So Egypt and/or Saudi Arabia deliberately planned to stage major protests outside of their own borders based on some cartoon foolishness, with the express purpose of combating gross negligance by a semi-independent ferry operator that hadn't even happened yet?  Whether this was done intentionally to hide something more sinister/important is a worthwhile debate, but the ferry incident cannot possibly be involved if only because of the timing.  Who important would have been on that ferry when it sank? Because my impression was that it was almost exclusively working-class civilians.

[IceFire]

I can see this getting very ugly very fast.  This is definately a very large bonfire that is about to have some gasoline poured onto it.  World War I didn't start because of one event...it was a series of small events that when connected together started the whole thing.  I think we're in the middle of that process...maybe mid 1911 or 12.

[Roanoke]

What I wanna know ie where the hell in Afghanistan did they find a Danish flag ?

[BlackDove]

So Egypt and/or Saudi Arabia deliberately planned to stage major protests outside of their own borders based on some cartoon foolishness, with the express purpose of combating gross negligance by a semi-independent ferry operator that hadn't even happened yet?  Whether this was done intentionally to hide something more sinister/important is a worthwhile debate, but the ferry incident cannot possibly be involved if only because of the timing.  Who important would have been on that ferry when it sank? Because my impression was that it was almost exclusively working-class civilians.

Wouldn't think of who but more of what. God knows what the hell they were transporting there, and who had the incentive to get something from it/burn it to ashes. It must have been one hell of a payload for 1000 lives to be worth it.

Again, just paranoid conjecture.

[Shade]

It's a major export now. New business model: Piss off a religion, then export masses of flags to them for burning. In truth though, it was probably home-made, many of the flags I've seen in pictures from various incdents have been quite... poor. They could copy them off our military vehicles there to know what they look like.

[Turnsky]

It's a major export now. New business model: Piss off a religion

that would account for roughly 95% of webcomics these days, mainly anthropomorphic ones 

[aldo_14]

It's a major export now. New business model: Piss off a religion, then export masses of flags to them for burning. In truth though, it was probably home-made, many of the flags I've seen in pictures from various incdents have been quite... poor. They could copy them off our military vehicles there to know what they look like.

Apparently a lot of swiss flags are being burnt by accident......... which is dangerous, because we all know how easy it is to set the Swiss on the warpath.

[achtung]

http://asssalamisteakum.ytmnd.com/

[TrashMan]

The cartoon was of Mohammad; the newspaper was inviting the cartoonists' 'first thought' depictions of Mohammad.  AFAIK there aren't any / many reliable images of Mohammed, anyways, to compare vs.

I though the newspaper asked tehe artist to portray the irrational change in the view most westerners now have towards Islam (that it's a dangerous)

I think it's important to understand Muslims have every right to be offended, and to say that; if they feel they're being stereotyped as violent terrorists, etc, then of course they'll protest.  Would you be happy if someone said all Croats were ethnic cleansers, even in a comedy way? Same as I get pissed off at the way Scots are portrayed as violent drunks in the Simpsons, etc.

No one said they don't have the right to be offended, but they are carrying it WAAAAAAAY overboards.. adn that's an understatement.

Croats ethnic clensers? If you wanted to make a remark that portrays a whole nations as a samll group, you are not entirely precise. 5 croats have been indicted and so far not one has been convocted of ethnic clensing.. So you know, one should actually do it and have it proven before that analogy woul be correct.. Now if you said murderers that would be more "accurate" analogy, as tehre were croats who killed serbs out of sheer vengance.

The issue is in the expression of that offendedness; it's not acceptable to call for religious censorship of the free press, nor is it to launch violent protests that burn down embassies or call for death to people.  Moreso, the minority that are protesting in this way are only reinforcing the caricatured stereotype of violent, intolerant Muslims they are supposed to be opposing.  But we see a problem in that the violence of these extremist protests, it acts to polarize and fracture the sort of 'west-east' divide of cultures, giving a pretext to racism in particular upon both sides.  It's ok to criticise what was published, after all, whilst still supporting the rights of freedom of speech.

totaly agree...
The prblem with people is that they have:
a) very low or no tolerance level (living in a free world you will get offended/insulted from time to time - learn to suck it up)
b) ignorant or primitive (this won't sound nice, but a large portion of the muslim world is really "primitive")

That said, would you call it an offensive act if I go about hte town in a black T-****s with a white svastika (90° angle)?

[aldo_14]

I though the newspaper asked tehe artist to portray the irrational change in the view most westerners now have towards Islam (that it's a dangerous)

No, they were asking the cartoonists to draw their first image of Mohammad; it was IIRc sparked by an authors difficulty finding representative images of Mohammad.  So it's respective of a cultural view in the sense that it feeds into the artists first mental image; obviously it's an amalgamation of the individual and the religion, but it was specifically intended to be that person.

No one said they don't have the right to be offended, but they are carrying it WAAAAAAAY overboards.. adn that's an understatement.

Croats ethnic clensers? If you wanted to make a remark that portrays a whole nations as a samll group, you are not entirely precise. 5 croats have been indicted and so far not one has been convocted of ethnic clensing.. So you know, one should actually do it and have it proven before that analogy woul be correct.. Now if you said murderers that would be more "accurate" analogy, as tehre were croats who killed serbs out of sheer vengance.

You misunderstand; the whole point is that the analogous cartoon is inaccurate, and it is stereotyping an entire group of people in an unfair way. You have a proportionally tiny amount of Muslims who are extremist and terrorists/violent, and you apply that to the entire religion without considering that image may be false, and as such may be damaging - are you saying it's fair to say Islam is a religion dedicated to inspiring terrorism?  I'm not excusing the violence and action seen - I said that before - but I think we need to also acknowledge why moderate Muslims are offended, and not condemn them all as reactionist militants because of a few extremists.  That does not entail, by any means, curtailing press freedom - nor should it.

totaly agree...
The prblem with people is that they have:
a) very low or no tolerance level (living in a free world you will get offended/insulted from time to time - learn to suck it up)
b) ignorant or primitive (this won't sound nice, but a large portion of the muslim world is really "primitive")
That said, would you call it an offensive act if I go about hte town in a black T-****s with a white svastika (90° angle)?

It could be offensive, if taken out of context (IIRC it's the 45 angle swastika that has nazi connotations).  I'm not sure on Buddhist/Hindu constraints on using the swastika.  I think with regards to a/b it is sadly true that many Muslim countries are lacking in either religious freedom/education or long-held democratic tenets of freedom of speech, etc.  It's important to remember, though, that a lot of this can be put down to the impact of 19th century colonialism, so we can't just pretend to hold an unchallengeable moral high ground.

[Grey Wolf]

It's a major export now. New business model: Piss off a religion, then export masses of flags to them for burning. In truth though, it was probably home-made, many of the flags I've seen in pictures from various incdents have been quite... poor. They could copy them off our military vehicles there to know what they look like.

Apparently a lot of swiss flags are being burnt by accident......... which is dangerous, because we all know how easy it is to set the Swiss on the warpath.

The Swiss are a dangerous people. They all have government-issued assault rifles.

[BlackDove]

They have money. Much more powerful weapon than assault rifles or nuclear bombs.

[Black Wolf]

(1000+ people don't die due to glitches)

Yes they do. If you have 1000+ people on a boat/train/massive plane/zeppelin/Deimos Class corvette and you get a glith that causes it to sink/derail over a cliff/crash/explode/get attacked by Shivans, then 1000+ people are going to die. What do the numbers matter if the glitch is unpredictable?

[Krackers87]

WW3 anyone?