2/07/2006
cartoon caricatures: muslims retaliate
the indignation felt by the muslims over the cartoon incident is expected and understandable knowing how they revered prophet mohammed. the spontaneous protests in muslim countries around the world have driven home the message of how sensitive the issue is and should not be repeated. and i think this point is well taken by the western nations. but further violence and destruction of life may negate whatever injustice felt by the rest of the world for the muslims. the muslims must not assume that the incident is a licence for them to take lives or go on a rampage.
the recent incident in sydney should be a reminder to the muslims that there are many westerners who can be as violent as them. there are many rightists and anti muslim groups in western countries that could not wait to retaliate and respond in kind to what the muslims are doing. attacking europeans and their properties in muslim countries may give reasons and justifications for the violent prone to similarly attack muslims and their properties in western countries.
it is not an issue for any party to prove how violent they can be for whatever reasons. hatred begets hatred and violence begets violence.
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7 comments:
OK already with the philosophy mate...
Where do YOU stand on Free Speech?
1 Unconditional
2 Conditional.
Errr... no prizes for guess where I stand :-)
BTW, one of the principles of a free society, and also a priniciple of democracy is that I have a right to tell you that what you believe is SHIT.
I don't have to respect you or your opinions, but I have to respect your rights.
matilah, when have i said my belief is not shit? but i think quite nice smelling.
all the philosophical or political theories starts off with some assumptions that exist only in an ideal state. these assumptions hardly exist or are impractical in the real world. so without them, the theories will be compromised and will not work in many ways.
i could take an extreme view or another idealistic position just to argue with your idealism. but i prefer to look at it from a compromise position, theories with some realistic inputs.
it will be great, not nice, to have a good functional society and with very little govt. let's say singapore with most of the systems working as expected, push the button and everything works, and with govt keeping at a distance, isn't that good?
not your perfect free wheeling market, but more real and functional with some order.
i have gone through those moot situations in tutorials. but gone past that.
Sign the petition supporting freedom of speech.
redbean,
your blog is directed to would-be journalists.
Better make a stand man, ;-)
http://www.petitiononline.com/danmark/petition.html
PS. I never said the free market is perfect. what I say is that even though it may NOT be perfect, that doesn't mean that there is such a thing as an "omniscient govt" which in some way has "powers" to smooth out "imperfections". What gives them a right? WHERE is the objective reasoning supporting such a myth? There is none. All reasoning is arbitrary.
i have signed the petition. i support freedom of speech but not abuse of freedom of speech. i will not agree with the caricatures that depict the prophet in a negative way.
i also do not accept that i must abide by the taboos of another religion. otherwise i too cannot eat pork. i enjoy my freedom and respect their freedom to believe. but they cannot impose their beliefs on me.
Freedom of speech occasionally gets ugly.
And that's too bad.
The alternative, is to horrible to contemplate. Imagine being totally silenced by people who can't simply AGREE TO DISAGREE, AGREEABLY.
Personally out of the 12 caroons, only a couple were half-funny. I know people who have worse (I mean BETTER) one's in their private collections :-)
"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." - George Orwell
hi mabulalahlega,
welcome to the blog. personally i feel that if there is no need to do things that are not friendly to other people. we got to leave other people alone to live the lives they chose and they live us alone.
the cartoons, some of them are in bad taste. that no one can deny. but the violence and the intensity of it is way beyond expectation. they can protest all they like, even scream back. but burning, arson and taking lives are unacceptable.
whatever, freedom comes with responsibility. human nature is such that there will be those who will cross the line.
we can hope that the moderates are able to call the radicals to soften down and back to sanity. or else we can see more bloodbath in europe. there must be many anti muslim radical groups in europe who will rise to the occasion and attack muslim establishments. europe will then be on fire.
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