What are they thinking?

[scandium]

Originally Posted by Excalibur Bane

I'm surprised the whole cartoon fiasco was allowed to happen at all. I don't know the situation, I don't care for politics but if that was my country I would not allow religious fanatics to protest and generally deny people free speech. Nor terroize people because they portrayed some holy figure. Personally, I would have arranged for some very tragic accidents to happen to each and every idiot who voiced an objection to the cartoon. People protesting about free speech and the right to say whatever the hell you like, I never thought I'd see the day.

I don't agree with it either but two things:

1. They were also exercising their own right to protest. Yes, there is irony in people using a democratic right to protest the media exercising its democratic right to print a cartoon but such is life and I don't mind them protesting as it is their right. I disagree with them but that is my right. However when people use their freedom of speech and to protest as a forum for hatred and to incite violence or convey death threats, then that is another thing. That is not freedom of expression but (at least here in Canada) a potential hate crime that can (at least here) and should be proescuted to the fullest extent possible;

2. In this last regard, you yourself, by implying that people should "meet with some tragic style accident" (what do you have in mind, KGB style asassinations?) merely for airing their opinions are little better then the worst of them are.

I just hope all of this hatred (and it is thinly disguided hatred in the best cases, outright xenophobia and racism in the worst) expressed here on this forum, in this thread and the many anti-muslim threads just like it (that myself and others have noticed pop up at least once per day, every day), do not actually express the mainstream views of the supposedly educated and civilized countries we claim to live in. If they do then dark times certainly do await us.