@Rhian, Posted Tuesday, 20 January 2015 1:40:51 PM
I am surprised that no publication has yet published the CH cartoons here in Australia. I imagine a legal test case might then be mounted. In a way I would welcome this as it would clarification the issue here in Australia.

Dear Halduell,

<<I am surprised that no publication has yet published the CH cartoons here in Australia.>>

How can you tell? If someone did in fact publish the CH cartoons in Australia, would you expect them to just tell it to you openly? What if you were a Muslim? or from the government?

---
How does an Arab commit suicide?
- They lift their arm, place their nose under their armpit and take a deep breath.

And how does a Frenchman commit suicide?
- They tell the above to an Arab.

Thank you, Trisha,

We need to constantly remind ourselves of what freedoms have been fought for over the past millennia. Your citing of the work of Kenan Malik is most timely:

https://kenanmalik.wordpress.com/2015/01/08/je-suis-charlie-its-a-bit-late/

Malik has just published a sort of moral history of the world, The Search for a Moral Compass, which I urge all thinking readers to seek out - steal it if you have to :)

Can one speak of progressive-liberal values ? Surely that includes the freedom of expression, the freedom to upturn what others take as sacred, certainly the freedom to annoy and irritate, to make us re-examine what we believe, or think we believe, and improve on it ?

Joe

And what about the truth
Should the truth be illegal if what offends
Or insults is the truth

We all know the historical behaviour of Mohammed
Riding at the head of conquering armies
Armies don't descend on people to give them
Flowers and kisses

Then there is the issue of the poor little 9year old girl
He took as his wife so he could have sex with her

Insulting and offensive to those who wish to revere
Him as a holy prophet but according to historians this is
Documented as historical fact
Should the truth be banned under 18c because there
Are those who wish to ban the truth

There were also those who were offended and insulted
When Galileo said that God did not put man at the centre of the
universe but that mankind actually revolved around the sun
With lots of other planets. The law threw Gallileo in prison
Because he spoke a truth that offended those who held
Unproven religious beliefs.

Cherful,
The truth about Galileo is that he was summoned to prove his theories to the Holy Inquisition, if he could scientifically prove heliocentrism the church would accept it but he couldn't prove any of his theories.
Galileo was then confined for five months of mild discomfort in the tower of the archduke of Tuscany and given penance, he even managed to get a deal from the court to allow the penance to be recited by his daughter on his behalf.
When Galileo was busted again for spreading his unprovable theories he was given home detention in his luxurious villa known as "The Jewel" where he enjoyed every comfort befitting his station.
The Church showed heretics a great deal of tolerance and only really cracked down on dissent when it turned violent or openly seditious, the Inquisitions would hold an inquest into the heretic and then if they found evidence of wrong doing they handed the prisoner over to the civil courts for trial and punishment.
Galileo kept pushing his luck and when a person does that they can expect a response from the state (or in his case the duchy) because the state can't be seen to back down or to let things slide once the courts have made their ruling.
It's not that different to the Human Rights tribunals set up in Canada, the U.K and some European countries, an extra judicial hearing is held and if the accused person refuses to recant or to participate in mediation with their accusers they are handed over to the state for trial and punishment.
Ernst Zundel for example kept pushing his luck, defying court orders and spreading the modern day heresy until finally the state locked him up, same deal with Galileo.

Cherful,
Actually the church in Gallieo's time held to the Aristotlean/Ptolemaic theory of an earth centred cosmos, it's a scientific theory albeit a much older one than heliocentrism, it's not Christian dogma.