Anyone up for a spot of Jihad?
It appears that if we publish enough cartoons in our papers we will soon be able to have the stand up fight that the extremist Muslim world thinks they want. Precisely how they think they're going to win is beyond me but I for one don't want to see the end of political cartoons brought about by a bunch of religious fundamentalists.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4672642.stm
In the UK we've a long tradition of satirical political cartoons in magazines like Punch and in our papers and I thought the defeat of this law in the House of Commons was a good sign:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4666908.stm
But so far our own government has not stepped into the political cartoon row as far as I can tell and issued an impolite 'Fuck off you humourless bastards.' which is exactly what should be happening. It's a sad day for Europe when we cowtow to either politicians or religious figures and give them some kind of 'right' not to be lampooned, criticised, questioned, satirised or made fun of. If people wish to believe in supernatural entities, gods, fairies, UFO's or any number of conspiracy theories that's up to them. Laws or not though I've absolutely no intention of giving up my own beliefs or refraining from disagreeing with them and when I feel like it, mocking them. The very idea that some ideas and ideologys should be above question is ludicrous to me.
Todays music is there for a reason... it's because The Life of Brian was actually banned in some countries - Ireland for instance - because it was felt to be blasphemous by people who, for the most part, either hadn't seen it or simply did not understand what it was satirising.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4672642.stm
In the UK we've a long tradition of satirical political cartoons in magazines like Punch and in our papers and I thought the defeat of this law in the House of Commons was a good sign:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4666908.stm
But so far our own government has not stepped into the political cartoon row as far as I can tell and issued an impolite 'Fuck off you humourless bastards.' which is exactly what should be happening. It's a sad day for Europe when we cowtow to either politicians or religious figures and give them some kind of 'right' not to be lampooned, criticised, questioned, satirised or made fun of. If people wish to believe in supernatural entities, gods, fairies, UFO's or any number of conspiracy theories that's up to them. Laws or not though I've absolutely no intention of giving up my own beliefs or refraining from disagreeing with them and when I feel like it, mocking them. The very idea that some ideas and ideologys should be above question is ludicrous to me.
Todays music is there for a reason... it's because The Life of Brian was actually banned in some countries - Ireland for instance - because it was felt to be blasphemous by people who, for the most part, either hadn't seen it or simply did not understand what it was satirising.