I have spent time in Saudi Arabia and it is indeed a very alien place but the West needs SA as an ally and trading partner so we just look in a different direction. Abu Hareth al-Nezari, an senior member of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), has announced: "Some French were not polite with the prophets and that was the reason why a few of the believers, who loved Allah and his prophet and loved martyrdom, went to them to teach them how to behave and how to be polite with the prophets and to teach them that the freedom of expression has limits and boundaries," al-Nezari said in the recording. He also warned that France would not enjoy security unless it stopped what he called a "war" on Islam. So if our media isn't brave enough to publish "offensive" cartoons, articles, books, documentaries, etc. that risk offending Muslims, then they have won, haven't they?
i don't think you need to put italics round the word offensive,, I think all decent people know what it means and would conduct themselves in an appropriate manner.
Yes. But they already had, pretty much. The bully boy tactics work. Islam is the one religion you don't want to make jokes about.
Just to remind you, drawing a cartoon of the prophet Mohamet with a bomb in his turban qualifies for you to be killed. Just wanted to make sure what decent people understand by "offensive".
criticizing there human rights record isn't offensive, the media promoting the criticizing of there dearly held god is and we all know that so why so why do it?. it can only lead to escalation. why are some so blind.
but the thing is you don't know,, no one really knows and for you to claim a certainty that there is no god is just as preposterous as for some one to claim with any certainty that there is one, or which one is the real one,,.. so what gives you the right to judge on others beliefs , let alone ridicule and insult them .
All those years of being a journo and you still haven't learnt when to shut up. Fella, you really come across as a boring arsehole.
That may be true but it's not in the House of Saud's interest to push things too far. They will be aware of what happened to the Shah of Iran and Assad in Syria when fundamentalists gained power.
Watch out for those fundamentalist atheists. They're dangerous. Some come armed with sharp pencils and others, whose leader is some guy called Richard Dawkins, with razor-sharp intelligence.
lets give the people we don't know a bit of respect, having a bit of craic with yer mates is one thing taking the piss out of a stranger is something completely different,
do we / ( they ) really need some crazy guy with a machine gun to teach some respect ?? !! or do we / they all still think that we / they are Richard the Lionheart !!
This appears to be very true. The House of Saud has an understanding with the clerics. They will aid the clerics to impose Wahhabism in return for being left in power. The Wikipedia entry on Wahhabism is quite interesting about this.
Is your view that religion is out of bounds for comedy, or just that Islam is out of bounds for comedy? If the latter, is it because some Muslims are prepared to kill people to show how unfunny they think a joke is? It's a point of view that is perfectly valid (for debate at least). I just want to know what it is.
i already explained a couple of pages back and you replied so you clearly saw it.... but to expand on it, to some their religion is equal to or more important than their race or skin color. yes they chose their religion as is their right and just because you are not of the same faith does not automatically give you the right to criticize of make derogatory statement anymore than if they were not of the same skin color... You chose your wife for example, does that mean i can publicly take the piss out of her? i think all religion to be utter bollocks by the way as is my choice but i would publicly slate it anymore than i would some one from another ethnicity.
The amount of misogynist views and jokes on this forum is just staggering. But no one seems to worry much about upsetting women. Is that because they don't have a record of reacting hyper-violently to it?
