Me and these pictures of Mo

I haven't really been able to talk through this cartoon issue with anyone so the debate is being spurted out here.

against publishing them reasons
it's a joke about someone else's cultures not your own - you can always push boundaries in your own culture but to do it to someone else is not as acceptable - for example use of the word nigger.

it's a politically sensitive environment so the charge of incitement is one that's easily leveled against these depictions.

they weren't that funny - this is a very weak reason!!


the problems with stopping people from publishing stuff like this
Christianity is mocked, defaced and their God blasphemed pretty regular. The holy symbols such as the cross are used without any concern for their sacred status or the feelings of those who follow Christ. Are we only allowed to do this because our community is a judo-Christian one? Or is this about a health dose of cynicism and questioning which ultimatly is totally harmless because to anyone with true faith it'd have no importance or significance, religions should have the ability to withstand derision.

self censorship of this sort, based on a perception of political instability, is a danger to democracy as it restricts the possibilities that are available in terms of ideas and arguments - therefore limiting the extent to which individuals can freely choose what they will lend there support to. The promotion and maintenance of Democracy is an absolute moral right.


So bugger - what do I think. Instinctivly I support the publishing although it was a pretty stupid thing to do, given the context. I tend to like stuff that winds people up. But the biggest problem is that the cartoons didn't make me laugh, I'd be defending them whole heartily if they had, this is rather dodgy ground cause humour is very subjective.

Mind you so's everything else - it don't really matter to much, but a lot of people are feeling hurt / angry / defiled / restricted / hateful / frightened. So that's bad news.

Bollocks thought I had the definitive answer to this prob but I don't...sorry I'm less certain then when I started out.