A protest by 10,000 Muslims outside the offices of Google in London today is just the first in an orchestrated attempt to force the company to remove an anti-Islamic film from website YouTube in Britain.
It’s called freedom of speech. We are supposed to do that in this country – even if we don’t really. Islam is a nasty, insidious, misogynistic, evil cult and mocking it is the very least we can do. Good for Google for standing up to these bullies.
Organiser Masoud Alam said: “Our next protest will be at the offices of Google and YouTube across the world. We are looking to ban this film.
“This is not freedom of expression, there is a limit for that. This insult of the Prophet will not be allowed.
Yes, it is freedom of expression. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t make it okay to ban it. Unless it is an incitement to violence, there is no limit, there should be no limit. Freedom of speech includes the freedom to insult, offend, be obnoxious and wrong. That’s how the principle works. If Muslims don’t like it, they can refute it and explain to the rest of us just how this “religion of peace” thing really works…
Not that I’m planning on holding my breath.
“Until it is banned we will keep protesting,” he added.
Fine, keep protesting, that’s your prerogative. Meanwhile we will continue to point out that your religion is a nasty misogynistic cult; that’s ours.
What freedom of speech were you thinking of? In the last week we have had three people criminalised for causing “offence”. One a Muslim, who barely escaped a custodial sentence for saying on his personal Facebook page that the some soldiers recently killed in Afghanistan should go to hell. I’d have thought that was fair comment. A mother of one of the soldiers was tipped off about this, went to the guy’s FB page, was obligingly “offended” by it and chumly lands up in court. Similarly a man was jailed for four months for wearuing an offensive T shirt about the police officers killed a few weeks ago and yet another person was sent to jail for posting an off-colour joke about a murdered 5 year old, again on his own personal FB page.
Of course, all this is highly selective. A squaddie who said that the victims of Bloody Sunday were scum and deserved to die would be unlikely to face prosecution as neither is someone who goes out of his way to offend Muslims. Not that I think that the law should criminalise such people. But since the law does criminalise those that say offensive things that outrage establishment opinion I see no reasons why Muslims should not expect the same consideration. What’s sauce for the goose ….
The prosecutions were wrong in all cases, it simply should not be illegal to hold and express views that are distasteful to mainstream community.
Incidently, Barry Thew’s grievance was to do with the fact that the filth killed his son, the details of which are difficult to come by but since we know coppers have free licence to kill whoever they wish with the full blessing of the courts and political establishment, we can believe that it is likely to be the case. There is far more chance of going to jail for upsetting sensitive souls in the UK than for blowing out someone’s brains or beating them to a pulp if in the latter cases one is a copper.
I appreciate that my reference was subtle, however, I did point out the inconsistency in my post. I have also covered two of the three cases you cite over at OoL. My stance remains consistent, none of these cases should have been prosecuted and the Muslim protesters, while they have the absolute right to protest should not get their ban.
The only way you’ll get the general population to understand principles of free speech and why they are important to preserve is to start applying these offence laws universally. The typical moron who reads the Daily Mail nods in approval when the Muslim lad is sent down for expressing his opinions about soldiers serving in Afghanistan. Well let the Dail Mail moron be prosecuted when he says something that offends Muslims. That is ONLY way that the law will change. When the unthinking masses see that they can face jail time for freely expressing their prejudices then there will be pressure for the law to be repealed.
I don’t think Muslims respond like this because they expect the same consideration.
The Muslim religion has always been about censorship of free speach and promotion of intolerance.
We are only starting to learn how to behave like this over the last few years. We are new at this.
Islam has “prospered” by keeping its adherents in ignorance. That is why democracy and the Enlightenment are an anathema to Islam, for rational questioning of Islam will lead to the inevitable conclusion that Mohammed was a thoroughly nasty charlaten who invented his revelations from his fabricated god, allah, to control his people. No rational, intelligent person can be a muslim, it is all about ignorance and subjugation.
He was the L Ron Hubbard of his day. Successful with it…
Despite only producing one book of fiction.
Yes, I forgot that. To be fair, some of Hubbard’s fiction wasn’t bad. He wrote with tongue firmly in cheek.
This is in no way a defence of Islam but you could just as easily lay the same accusations at the door of the Roman Catholic church. Enlightenment of the masses is the bane of any subjugating doctrine. Why do you think the priests wanted to keep the Bible in Latin? Translation in to English destroyed their power.
In the past, & in some sects today, christianity has “prospered” by keeping its adherents in ignorance. That is why democracy and the Enlightenment are an anathema to christianity, for rational questioning of christianity will lead to the inevitable conclusion that Moses was a thoroughly nasty charlaten who invented his revelations from his fabricated god, to control his people. No rational, intelligent person can be a christian, it is all about ignorance and subjugation.
As are all religions, of course.
Correction – what you mean to say (I hope ) was”
“…”religion has always been about censorship of free speach and promotion of intolerance.”
The word “muslim” was superflous – they are all like this.
REPEAL SECTION 5
That is where all this “offence” bullshit is coming from.
This quote takes the biscuit. “One of the speakers, Sheikh Faiz Al-Aqtab Siddiqui, told The Daily Telegraph: “Terrorism is not just people who kill human bodies, but who kill human feelings as well. The makers of this film have terrorised 1.6 billion people.”
Is this not the ultimate in offence seeking?
It is a peach, isn’t it?
A million demonstrators in Hyde park in a few weeks time.
I doubt it.
Quote from the Telegraph article.
The group’s next action was a march Mr Alam hoped would be “a million strong” would take place in Hyde Park “in the next few weeks”, he said.
But, if he does pull it off?
What then?
Nuke them from space….it’s the only way to be sure…
🙂 Absolutely!
There wern’t 10,000 at this one. look at the pics, more like a thousand tops, and bussed in from all over the country, all with nice neatly printed signs and banners too. Who paid for that? If they manage a million (snork chuckle) forget about going for a Curry or a kebab or a six pack of booze at 11pm that night… who’ll be minding the store?
Very oddly, I can’t find this story anywhere else but the Telegraph.
Self-employed businessman Ahmed Nasar said he was worried the video could lead to violence in Britain in the same way as it had abroad. “If you push people too far,” he said, “You will turn the peaceful elements into violence.”
If people resort to violence, Mr Nasar, the fault lies solely with them. If you are so easily offended, perhaps you shouldn’t adhere to such a laughable religion which so obviously is a cult founded by a megalomaniacal charlatan.
Freedom of speech is a tricky one these days, before if you offended someone they’d likely take offence and maybe tell you what they think, resort to some ‘mild’ violence or mentally file you under “a bit of a twat” and let it go. These days though if someone insults someone/something passionate to you in front of a lot of people you’re pretty much powerless to do anything, except ignore them, and sometimes you can’t. So you end up relying on ‘society’ to stand up for you, and I think there may be a little refining to do in the way it has been responding.
That said, the reaction in the “Muslim world” to that stupid film seems to me to have been grossly disproportionate, they’re the only one’s keeping the momentum going, everyone else has long since got bored and moved on.
When the protest is about the online changes of Google, then I’ll join in.