Syed Atiq ul Hassan “The creators, promoters and publishers of insulting material which directly hurt and harm society must be accountable and taken to the international court of justice.”

Why?

If we accept the principal of freedom of expression, then no court is qualified to hear complaints about its abuse.

“insulting material” is a subjective evaluation. What is “insulting” to one person is not necessarily “insulting” to another person.

Laws are objective statements which define the limits of action.
Laws cannot be applied to the subjective evaluation of expression.

I would add, there is a world of differences between insulting and incitement.

Greater harms have been perpetrated on us all by those who perceive danger from freedom of expression in others (often to their own privilege) than by those who “express”.

Intolerance to this freedom and attempts to constrain it lead to repression across a range of human activity because the media of communication (expression) has been stifled and censored.
We know the history books and we know what happened when people are not allowed to express freely their own personal view. We know the types of government which ensue from the repression of freedom of speech.

I would prefer to be insulted by the ignorant (and am, I could cite several posters here as example) than risk giving power to anyone to suppress the right of the ignorant to express.

Philo – well said

Philo
I agree with you. Religion should not be banned. I am an agnostic, which is to say, “I don’t know” regarding the existence of God.
Christians Muslims Buddhists Hindus et al. have every right to their beliefs. The fact that I consider religion to be a construct of man’s making, with little basis in reality, is only my opinion.
Other people have other opinions, and they are welcome to them.
However, I also believe that Mankind should grow up a bit after these several thousand years have passed, and get on with the definition of a new way of thinking which preserves the right of all people to their beliefs, but which does not impinge on the freedoms and rights of others.
This is already happening by the way, as attendances in Churches are falling. Unfortunately, our Muslim friends seem to be a bit further behind, as witness their primitive outbursts about a bunch of silly cartoons recently.
They seem to be in a period of arrested development.
Oh well, maybe being exposed to the searing atmosphere of debate and freedom of speech here in the west, might help them to advance a bit.
Our freedom of speech is absolutely sacred to us, as another poster recently remarked. Syed’s attack on it, however mild it is, has not incited us to issue death threats, and burn down buildings, thus proving the moral superiority of our attitude to the one that he espouses.

I suppose you can call this, Self Perpetuated hatred.
The Ideals that Islam is the only living creature on the face of the earth, so we must embrace it, we must not offend it, as the savage beast will awaken. There, that is the crux of the problem in my opinion, just as the Mohammad’s of the day, exonerate your own evil deeds against others and proclaim it in the order of Allah because he said so. Philosophically antitheist corruption. Egoism at its best and plagiarism of others theology. Sounds pathological to me.
Still have not heard a word about the Imams and their three captions of Mohammad that started this mess, Have not heard of any Fatwa’s issued against them, can we guess why? The game is up.

Davo,

Muslims killed by Muslims- unlike you, I try not to put people into catagories. You never mentioned the human beings from the US that murdered hundreds of thousand of other human beings in Iraq. Does this issue embarrass you or are the deaths of so many human beings insignificantbecause they are not your important catagory?

Keith,

Personal insults do not constitute an effective argument- they show that you have none. As to being well-informed, you seem unaware of what had been happening to Iraq- daily attacks from the air by the US and followers- well before 9/11. Neither are you aware that Sadam was armed by the US, as it suited them to keep him in power. I wonder which countries you have lived in. I lived in the Middle East and the human beings there want the same thing that we all want- safety and freedom for their families...to state otherwise is racist. They, as all human beings do, have strengths and weakeness. Unfortunately for that part of the world, the British carved up those countries and put quizlings in power in the 40s....we are now seeing the results of this. The mass of human beings in that area are not responsible for the mess in their governments...they are pawns the same as we are. I suggest you read Edward Said's "Orientalism". Then move on to Illan Pappe's books...people who have lived in that part of the world...one a Palestinian, the other an Israeli. You might read a Canadian journalist's book, "A war against truth"....he was there as the bombs were dropping down.

BOAZ_ david, don't hold your breath waiting for David Irving to come- he isn't allowed to. You try writing about Israel's international crimes, ( documented by the Red Cross, the UN, Amnesty International, Nelson Mandela, the EU, and Ghandi's grandson) and see how far that gets you. Hate mail, personal attacks in the newspapers, and intimidation.

Try waiting for the media to show the latest children killed by the Israelis, 2 in one week a week ago.

What passes for moderation in the Islamic community — “I share your rage but don’t torch that embassy” — is nothing of the sort. It is simply a cynical way to endorse the goals of the mob without endorsing its means. It is fraudulent because, while pretending to uphold the principle of religious sensitivity, it is interested only in this instance of religious insensitivity.

Have any of these “moderates” ever protested the grotesque caricatures of Christians and, most especially, Jews that are broadcast throughout the Middle East on a daily basis? The sermons on Palestinian TV that refer to Jews as the sons of pigs and monkeys? The Syrian prime-time TV series that shows rabbis slaughtering a gentile boy to ritually consume his blood? The 41-part (!) series on Egyptian TV based on that anti-Semitic czarist forgery (and inspiration of the Nazis), “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” showing the Jews to be engaged in a century-old conspiracy to control the world?

A true Muslim moderate is one who protests desecrations of all faiths. Those who don’t are not moderates but hypocrites, opportunists and agents for the rioters, merely using different means to advance the same goal: to impose upon the West, with its traditions of freedom of speech, a set of taboos that is exclusive to the Islamic faith. These are not defenders of religion but Muslim supremacists trying to force their dictates upon the liberal West.

And these “moderates” are aided and abetted by Western “moderates” who publish pictures of the Virgin Mary covered with elephant dung and celebrate the “Piss Christ” (a crucifix sitting in a jar of urine) as art deserving public subsidy, but who are seized with a sudden religious sensitivity when the subject is Muhammad.

I really appreciate the wonderful services provided by the forum owners to everyone indiscriminately but I regret to say that once I posted my comments then I decided not to come again on this forum as there are only same few people, who keep talking nonsense against, multiculturalism, against Islam, Muslim and other non-White race rather than arguing on the issue documented in the article. I cannot see many writer who can write thoughts and views of the other side but if fortunately someone write, like “Syed” they all instead of talking on the topic jump on author’s racial or religious background and start attack on him/her and his faith – Is the freedom of speech – if you claim yes this is freedom of express than sham – you people need to learn from the basic…..

It is shame to see that they don’t have much knowledge about the history of Islam and within the religion buy observing today’s political events in the world they very abusively target Muslims.