Iran to publish holocaust cartoons
Can anything possibly be more despicable?
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
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6 comments:
Looks like Ahmedinejad and co. are determined to force Israel's hand.
PR,
This is done on a regular scale in Iran and Middle East, so move on.
Regards
I am one of your regular [silent] readers and hitherto a grateful admirer.
Hitherto, because I am quite miffed over your recent petulant gloating - how you were right on the Iran case being refered to the UN.
And how the critics owe you an apology because the State Dept [hardly a body to be emulated, given the Iraq fiasco] "also" condemned the cartoons.
It seems that modesty is an alien concept for you guys.
Either you support the freedom of speech or you don't. Period.
Apropos Hitesh's broadside on Freedom of Speech and the cartoon issue - i think there is a key point being missed by all.
While I believe in FOS and the right of the paper to publish what it did, I also believe there shd have been some editorial check on what eventually made it to print.
There will always be someone wanting to rock the boat but then editorial boards are there to precisely prevent this kind of tomfoolery. Grave misjudgement if you may call it that.
However - the holocaust cartoons are despicable for a different reason entirely. That it happened is a fact. That it went against all human morality and good sense is established. That a defenseless people were systematically butchered is also undisputed.
Hence humanity has to accept that it was a serious abberration and it deserves the respect accorded across the board.
When Islamists complain that they are being subjugated - they miss the crucial bit of the jihadis that are seeking so desperately to level the playing field. The message that they send is - if you have your sophisticated weapons, we have something that you cannot protect yourself against - ergo the suicide bomber. So what happens is that the oppressed is not so oppressed anymore. In fact the Islamists do not want to see themselves as weak and ineffectual - they want to show to the world that they are equal in all respects.
The difference is in the Jews who were truly lambs to the slaughter and the Islamists who want to be treated as anything but underdogs in this conflict. In general human beings would support an underdog and hence the sensitivity to the Nazi outrage. How does on develop an understanding of people who seem to be at odds with whatever seems rational.
Also- with the Islamic faith, we are dealing essentially with a matter of faith. Most of what happened in that period is open to debate. E.g. Islamists themselves are divided over whether Islam spread by teh sword or thru genuine harmless evangelism. Given such a contradictory rendering of history, most people would look at the present representatives of the religion to have some of those questions answered. And this really is teh crux of the matter - Islamists in general and Muslims in particular have not distinguished themselves by their behaviour. What the cartoon episode has brought out in the open is the general disgust at the behaviour of Muslims.
Isn't this a far better way of registering their protest and somewhat justified anger, than burning embassies.
The point it makes is that a right to publish, does not always mean an obligation to publish. Its unfortunate that the Jews get picked on again, but as I mentioned to a friend how does one caricature Danes.
Now whether free speech laws in Denmark would allow this remains contested since Section 140 of the DCC reads: "Those who publicly mock or insult the doctrines or worship of any religious community that is legal in this country, will be punished by a fine or incarceration for up to four months."), they had no reason to exercise the right in this case.
Roll on the Holocaust cartoons... I'm waiting for the cartoons making fun of the September 11th victims and pointing how they deserved to die.
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