Comments on: Two Big Censorship Issues: Mohammed Caricatures and NASA Stifling Science http://www.anthonares.net/2006/02/two-big-censorship-issues-mohammed.html Chronicling and Commenting on Human Progress Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:19:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2 By: Theaetetus http://www.anthonares.net/2006/02/two-big-censorship-issues-mohammed.html#comment-36385 Theaetetus Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:39:22 +0000 http://www.anthonares.net/2006/02/two-big-censorship-issues-mohammed.html#comment-36385 Few people in the West have any knowledge of Islam's approach to censorship. In Islamic-majority countries, there is official state censorship of all comments on religion. Only government-sponsored clergymen are authorized to speak about Islam. Their comments are thus ultra-orthodox and politically locked into the government's policies. These censorship policies come from the very top of the Islamic clergy at Alhazar University in Cairo where clerics owe their posts to the Egyptian government. The Grand Imam of Alhazar is considered the Islamic equivalent of the Pope. The present one has given permission to "fight" those who have "become enemies of Islam". That nebulous term simply means that anyone whom the Islamic clergy identify as an "enemy" may be slain by any Muslim and that is a good deed to be rewarded in paradise. The top cleric in Islam has thus authorized assassination as means of imposing Islamic censorship on the world. Few people in the West have any knowledge of Islam’s approach to censorship. In Islamic-majority countries, there is official state censorship of all comments on religion. Only government-sponsored clergymen are authorized to speak about Islam. Their comments are thus ultra-orthodox and politically locked into the government’s policies. These censorship policies come from the very top of the Islamic clergy at Alhazar University in Cairo where clerics owe their posts to the Egyptian government. The Grand Imam of Alhazar is considered the Islamic equivalent of the Pope. The present one has given permission to “fight” those who have “become enemies of Islam”. That nebulous term simply means that anyone whom the Islamic clergy identify as an “enemy” may be slain by any Muslim and that is a good deed to be rewarded in paradise. The top cleric in Islam has thus authorized assassination as means of imposing Islamic censorship on the world.

]]> By: Anthonares » Blog Archive » European Racism? More on the Mohammed Caricatures http://www.anthonares.net/2006/02/two-big-censorship-issues-mohammed.html#comment-166 Anthonares » Blog Archive » European Racism? More on the Mohammed Caricatures Wed, 08 Feb 2006 22:06:14 +0000 http://www.anthonares.net/2006/02/two-big-censorship-issues-mohammed.html#comment-166 [...] See my earlier post on this matter for links to the cartoons, as well as to see how my opinions have changed on this matter a little bit. I’m not a religious man, but when I see who is speaking out and why I have to temper response a bit. The violent protests are ridiculous, and they are not entirely about the cartoons either. I don’t doubt they are begun by extremists and fueled by ever-present tensions between western and Islamic cultures. The world is not a simple place, but we should not so readily condemn the responses of a billion people as wrong. Most reasonable people agree that freedom of speech has limits, and I think everyone would agree that it should not be raised as a thinly-veiled justification for racism. [...] […] See my earlier post on this matter for links to the cartoons, as well as to see how my opinions have changed on this matter a little bit. I’m not a religious man, but when I see who is speaking out and why I have to temper response a bit. The violent protests are ridiculous, and they are not entirely about the cartoons either. I don’t doubt they are begun by extremists and fueled by ever-present tensions between western and Islamic cultures. The world is not a simple place, but we should not so readily condemn the responses of a billion people as wrong. Most reasonable people agree that freedom of speech has limits, and I think everyone would agree that it should not be raised as a thinly-veiled justification for racism. […]

]]> By: Tom http://www.anthonares.net/2006/02/two-big-censorship-issues-mohammed.html#comment-155 Tom Mon, 06 Feb 2006 14:56:00 +0000 http://www.anthonares.net/2006/02/two-big-censorship-issues-mohammed.html#comment-155 Well, there has been a number of muslims standing up against what they see is something terrible happening to their own religion. However, their voice is not amplified by the media in the same way that bombs and flag burning is. Plus, a majority in Palestine voted for the terrorist group Hamas to be their leader, so at least in their case it's not just a select few people causing the problem any more. Well, there has been a number of muslims standing up against what they see is something terrible happening to their own religion. However, their voice is not amplified by the media in the same way that bombs and flag burning is.

Plus, a majority in Palestine voted for the terrorist group Hamas to be their leader, so at least in their case it’s not just a select few people causing the problem any more.

]]> By: Anthony Kendall http://www.anthonares.net/2006/02/two-big-censorship-issues-mohammed.html#comment-154 Anthony Kendall Mon, 06 Feb 2006 13:25:00 +0000 http://www.anthonares.net/2006/02/two-big-censorship-issues-mohammed.html#comment-154 I couldn't agree more, those burnings, and the ransacking of some Christian neighborhoods in Beiruit do nothing other than lend credence to the ideas expressed by those cartoons. But the scariest part of it all to me is that the people are angry that Mohammed was represented AT ALL. They feel that it is okay to kill (or at least talk about it) merely because a person draws his likeness and publishes the image. Now, I know that the more moderate elements of the Islamic world condemn the actions of the few who are responding so negatively. But their voices are lost in the cacophony. Moderate Islam has stood quietly for too long while its radical brothers kill and destroy in the name of Allah. I couldn’t agree more, those burnings, and the ransacking of some Christian neighborhoods in Beiruit do nothing other than lend credence to the ideas expressed by those cartoons.

But the scariest part of it all to me is that the people are angry that Mohammed was represented AT ALL. They feel that it is okay to kill (or at least talk about it) merely because a person draws his likeness and publishes the image.

Now, I know that the more moderate elements of the Islamic world condemn the actions of the few who are responding so negatively. But their voices are lost in the cacophony. Moderate Islam has stood quietly for too long while its radical brothers kill and destroy in the name of Allah.

]]> By: Tom http://www.anthonares.net/2006/02/two-big-censorship-issues-mohammed.html#comment-153 Tom Mon, 06 Feb 2006 13:09:00 +0000 http://www.anthonares.net/2006/02/two-big-censorship-issues-mohammed.html#comment-153 Well, I think your opinion on the Mohammed reactions are felt by most of the non-muslim world. The most interesting part is that all of this started because the Danish newspaper wanted to stop self-sensorship, where they had apparently been avoiding this because of fears that the muslim world would react negatively (although undoubtedly they didn't expect this serious of a reaction). As of right now, the Danish embassy has been burned, Australian embassy attacked, four killed, a bomb diffused, and countless other violent acts. The editor of the newpaper in Jordan that reprinted the cartoon was arrested. The thing is, which is going to cause more negativity toward Islam... a cartoon or worldwide violence, flag burnings, protests, and the call for exterminations and executions? Well, I think your opinion on the Mohammed reactions are felt by most of the non-muslim world. The most interesting part is that all of this started because the Danish newspaper wanted to stop self-sensorship, where they had apparently been avoiding this because of fears that the muslim world would react negatively (although undoubtedly they didn’t expect this serious of a reaction). As of right now, the Danish embassy has been burned, Australian embassy attacked, four killed, a bomb diffused, and countless other violent acts. The editor of the newpaper in Jordan that reprinted the cartoon was arrested.

The thing is, which is going to cause more negativity toward Islam… a cartoon or worldwide violence, flag burnings, protests, and the call for exterminations and executions?

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