Dear Rhian,

Thank You for your kind words and your insight.

I agree if we're not going to defend the most
obnoxious varieties of free speech from those who
would silence it in the most literal sense - then
we don't deserve to have free speech at all.

Dear Jayb,

You should substitute the word "Islamists" with
either "fundamentalists" or "Extremists," becaue
they are the ones causing the problems worldwide.
Not everyone who follows the religion of Islam -
is a fundamentalist or an extremist and to tar
them all with the one brush is simply wrong.

Foxy: You should substitute the word "Islamists" with either "fundamentalists" or "Extremists," because they are the ones causing the problems worldwide.

I find it amazing, given the evidence of the Koran itself that people go out of their way to defend this evil Religion.

Not everyone who follows the religion of Islam - is a fundamentalist or an extremist and to tar them all with the one brush is simply wrong.

No it isn't.
Individually a moslem is allowed to lie to a non-moslem to gain an advantage over them in the long run.
Their Religion insists that they be ready to kill non-moslems any time they can.

I take it Foxy that you won't mind having a bag shoved over you head because if you don't you will offend a moslem & they "might" kill you if you don't. In the name of 'Risk Management.'

Frankly, I don't wish to live like that. Obviously you won't mind.

I find it amazing the amount of people who insist that we should 'back down' to these people. They are counting on "your Politically Correctness" to get their own way & they are laughing at you all the way to the "mosk."

Dear Jayb,

You are beginning to sound like a nutter.
And I get the distinct impression that
you're simply stirring and should not be
taken seriously. How many Muslims do
you actually know - and how do you know
how they practice their religion - and what
bits do they follow. Kindly don't make
assumptions about other people (me included)
that you don't really know - and don't be
guided by what is distorted and newsworthy in
the media. When you talk about the followers
of Islam - you have to be more specific.
Are you referring to the millions in Indonesia,
or India, or China, or Russia, or even the
black African countries - each country is
culturally and linguistically different and so
is the way they practice their religion. They are
not all one group doing exactly the same thing.
Logic should dictate to you. Do all Christians
follow their religion in exactly the same way,
do all Jews?

How many Christians do you think could list the
ten commandments, let alone name the four gospels that
contain Jesus's message, and I bet that most would have
no idea that it was Jesus who delivered the central
Christian statement, the Sermon on the Mount.

Give it a rest old chap - and stop trying to spread
your nonsense on this forum. Fundamentalists exist in all
religions. Try picking on someone else for a change.
Surprise us all.

Foxy: And I get the distinct impression that you're simply stirring and should not be taken seriously

So I shouldn't stir the Islamists. Are you saying that I'm not allowed to exercise 'Free Speech.'

It wasn't too long ago, on here, that the problem was not caused by ordinary peaceful moslems it was the Islamists that were the problem. (think around the time of Iftikha) Now they're not the problem, it's the Fundamentalists. Next, of course, it'll be the Terrorists not the Fundamentalists. & so on & so on. Any excuse at all to defend this vile Religion.

Actually I knew quite a lot moslem men. None of them practice their Religion them selves in normal everyday life, but all of them insist their wives did, in a very strict manner. Strange that. In fact one I ran into in a Supermarket, shopping with his wife, berated her for answering me when I addressed her. It was OK for me to talk to him but not to his wife or for her to answer, "hello". They were just your average everyday moslem.

Incorrectly posted on different thread.

o sung wu wrote;

“'Charlie Hebdo' were ill-advised, in fact manifestly wrong, to publish this satirical material in their magazine.”

I agree for a different reason.

What I will not brook is racial vilification and incitement. Unchecked it has lead to some of the greatest loss of life in the modern era.

CH skirted the boundaries and on more than one occasion crossed it. But what is telling is their apparent hypocrisy. After reproducing the Mohammed Cartoons the publication was taken to court in France by an Islamic body claiming the cartoons incited racial hatred. Their case was strengthened soon after 80 Muslim graves were daubed with Swastikas. The court denied the claim on the grounds of free speech.

However when one of their columnists wrote the relatively innocuous remark about the president's son the editor sacked him.

“A Left-wing cartoonist is to go on trial on Tuesday on charges of anti-Semitism for suggesting Jean Sarkozy, the son of the French president, was converting to Judaism for financial reasons.

Maurice Sinet, 80, who works under the pen name Sine, faces charges of "inciting racial hatred" for a column he wrote last July in the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. The piece sparked a summer slanging match among the Parisian intelligentsia and ended in his dismissal from the magazine.
"L'affaire Sine" followed the engagement of Mr Sarkozy, 22, to Jessica Sebaoun-Darty, the Jewish heiress of an electronic goods chain. Commenting on an unfounded rumour that the president's son planned to convert to Judaism, Sine quipped: "He'll go a long way in life, that little lad."

A high-profile political commentator slammed the column as linking prejudice about Jews and social success. Charlie Hebdo's editor, Philippe Val, asked Sinet to apologise but he refused, exclaiming: "I'd rather cut my balls off."

Mr Val's decision to fire Sine was backed by a group of eminent intellectuals, including the philosopher Bernard-Henry Lévy, but parts of the libertarian Left defended him, citing the right to free speech.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/4351672/French-cartoonist-Sine-on-trial-on-charges-of-anti-Semitism-over-Sarkozy-jibe.html

I imagine many anti-Islam comments here wouldn't pass the muster if couched around Judaism.