Draw Muhammad Day (First Annual)

Muhammad cartoonist defiant after attack

STOCKHOLM — A Swedish artist whose drawing of the Prophet Muhammad offended Muslims said Wednesday he hopes to get another chance to deliver a lecture on free-speech that was interrupted by violent protests.

But officials at Uppsala University said they doubted they would invite Lars Vilks again after police used pepper spray and batons to help him escape a furious crowd Tuesday.

"It's nothing that we're discussing right now, but it's not very likely given how it turned out here," university spokeswoman Anneli Vaara said.

While Vilks escaped the incident with broken glasses and a degree of shock, he said it raised concerns about the freedom of expression at Sweden's oldest and most prestigious institute of higher learning.

"What you get is a mob deciding what can be discussed at the university," Vilks told The Associated Press, adding he was ready to repeat the lecture if re-invited.

"I'm ready to go up again," he said. "This must be carried through. You cannot allow it to be stopped."

What a guy! Good on him, we can't fear these idiots. If we start to get scared and let their weird ramblings control our lives in the face of reason, we all lose.

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Not Even in South Park?

The article below by Ross Douthat of the New York Times has got me thinking about freedoms.

Two months before 9/11, Comedy Central aired an episode of “South Park” entitled “Super Best Friends,” in which the cartoon show’s foul-mouthed urchins sought assistance from an unusual team of superheroes. These particular superfriends were all religious figures: Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, Mormonism’s Joseph Smith, Taoism’s Lao-tse — and the Prophet Muhammad, depicted with a turban and a 5 o’clock shadow, and introduced as “the Muslim prophet with the powers of flame.”

That was a more permissive time. You can’t portray Muhammad on American television anymore, as South Park’s creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, discovered in 2006, when they tried to parody the Danish cartoon controversy — in which unflattering caricatures of the prophet prompted worldwide riots — by scripting another animated appearance for Muhammad. The episode aired, but the cameo itself was blacked out, replaced by an announcement that Comedy Central had refused to show an image of the prophet.

Assembly, Association, Movement, Press, Religion, Speech, Information, Thought

I don't think anyone can deny that a person's freedoms and liberties should be the most important thing to them. Therefore, as well as ensuring our safety and providing basic public services, maintaining those freedoms for every person within our society should be top of any government's list of priorities.

When certain people threaten this principle using intimidation and fear to prevent or scare members of our society from using that freedom, we should all stand up and take note. When people use intimidation and fear to scare people from using that freedom in the name of a God. We should all start to be very concerned.

If some omnipotent being really did create the world in all its splendor and majesty, created all the plants and animals, all the planets, stars and solar systems, do you really think they give a fuck if Trey Parker and Matt Stone make a joke or two about them at their expense!?

In the same way I despise the Fox News in America from instilling fear in its people, I think anyone with an ounce of reason is starting to get very tired of these fear mongering extremist assholes.

If someone told me I couldn't show an image of the Easter Bunny because Santa Claus would be angry and wouldn't give us any presents. Or worse that someone threatened me harm for that same reason, they would be locked up for encroaching on my freedom of thought and speech.

So why are we tolerant of these idiots, solely because they do it in the name of religion.

Hopefully, very soon, we as a society can start to use reason and common sense to stop these pillocks in their tracks.

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Is it Right to Ban the Burka?

A firm believer in women's rights, the only thing Afghan lawmaker Shinkai Karokhail finds as appalling as being forced to wear a burqa is a law banning it.

Now as someone who detests the idea that women should be forced to wear any particular item of clothing to please either their husband or God, I am not blind to the hypocrisy in banning women from wearing it.

"Democratic countries should not become dictatorships and Muslim women should not be deprived from all kinds of opportunities. It should be their choice," said Karokhail.

"Otherwise, what is the difference between forcing women to wear a burqa and forcing them not to? It is discrimination."

However, there has to be a certain level of dress code when entering government or financial buildings, such as banks, for safety and security reasons. If I walked into a bank wearing balaclava then I'd rightly be forced to leave.

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