Western hypocrisy on free speech


A number of commentators have pointed out the double standards and hypocrisy of several western nations in the Danish cartoons affair. The first is that the Danish paper which originally published the cartoons of the prophet had some years before refused to publish cartoons of Jesus because they were "offensive". So it seems that what is sauce for the Islamic goose is definitely not sauce for the Christian gander. Then of course there are all the bans on other "offensive" depictions of Christ like the film The Last Temptation of Christ (still banned in a number of bible belt states in the US - don't forget this is the "land of the free") or art exhibitions of works like "Piss Christ". In Germany there is a strict ban on selling copies of Hitler's Main Kampf and severe penalties on anybody who might wish to express their right to freedom of speech in denying the facts of the Holocaust. Many nations as well as some states in the US still have on their books laws which prohibit blasphemy [I found an interesting satanist website (link now lost) which had a good discussion of current blasphemy laws as they blasphemed against every religion and were proud of it]. They may not be enforced anymore (or only selectively) but they are a reminder that not too long ago Christian western nations behaved towards dissidents much the same way Islamic states under sharia law do today. The demonstrations against blasphemous cartoons of the prophet may be the trigger for much deeper resentments against the west [Jim Lobe Uzma Aslan Khan ] for things such as British and French imperialism in North Africa and the Middle East, the American support for compliant dictatorships such as Saudi Arabia since the end of WW2 in exchange for a guaranteed supply of oil, the overthrow of democratically elected governments such as Iran's in 1953, the uncritical support for Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands and its unwavering protection in the UN, and last and by no means least, the invasion and occupation of Iraq by the US and its "coalition of the willing".

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Posted: Sun - February 19, 2006 at 05:42 PM        

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