The leftists march against free speech...
Muslims marched in Vancouver...but the march was organized by the group Mobilization against War and Occupation.
Downtown Vancouver was filled with the sound of Islamic chanting on Saturday as hundreds gathered to peacefully protest Danish newspaper cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist.If you want to learn more about this group you can go here...clearly this a coalition of a variety of leftist groups.
Speaker after speaker said the cartoons -- first printed last September in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper -- were designed to belittle and insult Muslims.
Many were angered that defenders of the cartoons were citing freedom of the press as a justification for their continued distribution, both in Canada and abroad.
"We agree in a democratic society such as ours we should have freedom of the press,'' emcee Mohamed Shafiq told the crowd. "However, we should respect the rights of others. There should be a responsibility to manage those rights judiciously.''
The event was organized by the group Mobilization Against War and Occupation.
"This is not a matter of freedom of speech,'' said group spokeswoman Shannon Bundock. "It is a matter of dignity.''
Why on earth have the leftists thrown their hat in against free speech?
posted by GayandRight @ 12:42 AM
4 Comments:
I can't believe all this. It's beyond absurd. Freedom with conditions attached to not offend? Please. Some Muslims had better get used to the nuances that makes the West tick lest they be forever stereotyped - the new Newfies. So, I have a joke, a Jew, Italian, Irish, Polish....
Clearly you don't know much about Islam, try picking up a book instead of googling your education.
As far as 'left wing' and 'right wing' go, that all depends on who is using the terms. Usually dumb people who like to catagorize large numbers of people so they don't have to look at specifics.
You'll note that these people are peacefully protesting, so the question is, why are YOU coming out against THEIR freedom of speech? It's OK for an editor to exercise speech that offends massive numbers of people, but not OK for people to protest it? What kind of cuckoo logic is that?
As for 'left', that is quite funny because if you go down the list, most of the ideas of Islam clearly mirror those that can be called 'the right'.
Muslims made up part of the protests who were against same sex marriage, they sided with buddhists, christians and jews.
For your information, 'sharia', is simply arabic for 'law'. The use of sharia in ontario was protested primarily by womens groups who found that interpretation of law to be very male centred. It should be noted that in that they mirrored many jewish womens groups who have maintained for DECADES that jewish family law is far too hard on women. For example, a woman still needs here ex husbands permission to remarry.
So clearly 'right wing' and 'left wing' simply do not apply to this case. The protestors are not picketing against free speech, they are USING their free speech.
To see how silly your argument is, can you imagine if a national paper decided to use its freedom of speech to say "we're gonna kill all jews, queers and left handed people". Suppose they ran this on the front page EVERY DAY. Don't you think that canadians would be RIGHT to get up and complain? Would people simply say 'well, that's their freedom of speech'. Of course not, people would be up in arms and rightfully so.
Even if you nonchalantly say 'well, that IS fine if they print that-I don't care', how about if ALL the newspapers did it, EVERY DAY? So clearly there is something to be said for responsibility. We don't see nudity in editorial cartoons, and we don't see sex or even graphic violence. Ironically, we almost never see those on american television on prime time, it took new cable stations to bring that in, and that is primarily because christian groups have ALWAYS been very vocal on what was allowed on television.
I never said they shouldn't be allowed to protest. I merely noted that many leftist groups - feminist, etc, support the muslim position.
Feminists are among the most vocal critics of Islam, especially in how the religion has been used to repress women and minority groups. As for the support of the Muslim peoples who are offended by this cartoon, I think "How would I feel if my saviour were portrayed as a terrorist?" If Muslims are protesting peacefully, I am with them. When they turn to violence, I am still with those who practice peace.
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