I have viewed these cartoons and there is nothing sinister about them, they are merely a send up of a religious figure, something which is not unprededented in this country. We like to have a laugh at our own expense, and even at religion of any/all types, from time to time.

As a Catholic I can see the funny side of Christ being exposed to this form of public entertainment. Some Muslims seem to forget Australia is a free country, and as such should be able to tolerate such minor deviations to the norm.

This could be an extreme small group of Muslims, we are talking about here, some extreme Christian groups are in reality just as loopy as some in the Muslim faith, take A.O.G. OR Morman faith's for example.

As for my own opinion I think we should print the cartoons, see who we have in this country, who are loyal to it, and it's democratic ways, and remove those who are opposed to it, we have made our own enemies without, we now do not need enemies within......

Definitely the worst of the articles on this issue.

The comments regarding Rushdie and nasreen highlight very effectively that the author completely misses the point, not only of the principal of freedom of speech and freedom of the press, but more worryingly of the benefit of criticism of the texts and tenants of religion.

Is the author suggesting that the satanic verses should not have received those awards because of its content? Personally I think it deserved the awards on its literary merit alone, my admiration for the bravery of its subject matter is separate.

Now there is a Muslim with a sense of humour.

Having said that, the adoption of these cartoons as a cause celebre by some of the 'one eyed' posters on this site (coach you crack me up mate), is pushing it a bit far. I would understand this if the cartoons were in any way witty, insightful or even funny, but by and large they are pathetically simplistic and more importantly, make no great point. The paper, and others has the invaluable right to publish them of course, but really people, it’s not as if there anything other than cheap shots. A little below the belt.

As the above posts show, the main achievement of this article (apart from seriously pissing me off) is to confirm the prejudices of the more boring and repetitive members of this forum.

The more I read this article the more annoyed I get at the suggestion that the ‘west’ censor not only their publications, but in the criticism of the support given to Rushdie and Nasreen, the freedom of ideas and association.
It also fails, like the other articles, to answer what I see as a very important question:

Where did all the Danish flags come from?
Where they just lying around? Is the middle east full of flag stores?
If I were felt the need to burn a Danish flag (for my own reasons) I wouldn’t have a clue where to get one.

The Danes were simply lacking in discretion when they published those stupid cartoons. Who would have believed that months later, the sensitivities of Islamics, those sterling characters who behead live prisoners, encourage their young to become suicide bombers,and all the rest of the fun things they do,would be so bruised?
Now we have an Australian polititian , lacking completely in common sense and sensitivity, wears a T shirt reading "Get Your Rosaries Off My Ovaries"
We may be disgusted at the thought that a person so thick should do such a thing but we know it's part of what freedom of speech is. Regardless of the bad taste.
Should we take her to the International Court of Justice ? Or should we accept that there are idiots in this world and the best way to treat them is to ignore them.
Otherwise you can end up being just as stupid.

The UN has more urgent matters than what we can or can't say about religion in our own country.

On the other hand, if we were considering a universal "Protocol of Polite Behaviour", well that'd be fine with me. It would obviously need to deal with the 57 "islamic' (ie faith-based governments) countries (OIC) which gang up politically, militarily and economically on 1 "jewish" (faith-based government) state.

The protocol could also be brought to the specific attention of UN member Iran which yells so impolitely for UN member Israel to "be wiped off the map". Iran might simultaneously explain how it became islamic in the first place rather than Zoroastrian? Or perhaps, why it still persecutes the Bahá'í faith? Or still executes children just like China? Ooh so many examples of 'impoliteness', so little time...

When the UN votes to restrict western members from speaking up or printing (albeit quite crappy) cartoons as they choose for their own citizens within their own borders for their own reasons, then IMHO, it is definitely time to ignore the UN again. The West could simply ask why it has never acted to curb the stream of impolite cartoons gushing like oil out of the middle east.

There are UN members tolerated right now that offically vanish half their population by curbing their freedom of speech and movement every day. These female half-citizens are an urgent matter for the UN not cartoons. The Koran is cited overseas as an authoritative source for "judging" a woman's "role" in society but such subjective, faith-based interference in women's lives (or men, for that matter) is no longer appropriate nor ethical here in the West. Like Zoraster and probably eventually like his overthrower, Mohammed, prophets come prophets go. Women are here to stay.

Leaders from faith-based countries like Iran etc. represent ancient history not governance for the future. We present them with modern dilemmas and they run to their little books to tell us what NOT to do.

There is a formal role for religion in society but not in government, let alone world government.

Comment from a lone Satanic Feminist - With respect sir to your to your belief that printing those cartoons was an insult to Muslims everywhere, and that those responsible need to be taken to task. A cartoon cannot kill innocent people. Bombs, guns, and ignorance kill people. As a Satanic Feminist I am insulted every time I have to hear religious zealots no matter what their faith, preach of the love of their God and then they proceed to kill and destroy those that don't believe as they do. The world we live in today is not any different from the world of one hundred or one thousand years ago. The Holy war continues. I'm tired of the bigotry, violence and death, perpetrated in the name of God. Frankly, yours or any other mans God is nothing but a psychotic voice leading the world down the path of destruction.
Sincerely,
Patty Jr. Satanic Feminist

It's not easy being - I think we all know the answer by now as to where all those flags came from. This "spontaneous" uprising has been on the boil since December. The Arab blogosphere has been all over it in the last couple of days, exposing the hypocrisy in the Arab world. I've highlighted some links in my latest blog post at Ambit Gambit, with a bit of help from Crikey's latest newsletter. The whole thing appears to be a bit of a scam and would probably have confirmed to the perpetrators their belief that we are a lazy and dissolute society without the strength of our own convictions. But it makes it a good opportunity to try to open some conversations, at least with some Islamic bloggers. The flip-side for moderates inside Islam is that it confirms their belief in the essential corruptness of many of their leaders.