Thousands of Muslims Protest 'Age of Mockery' At Google's London Headquarters 515
cold fjord writes "A large protest planned by as many as 800 imams was held today at Google's London headquarters to protest the video, 'The Innocence of Muslims,' which is available on Google's subsidiary YouTube. There may have been as many as 10,000 protesters in what is said to be the first of several planned protests. From the story: 'Speeches by more than a dozen imams . . . urged Muslims to honor the name of the Prophet and not to back down in the face of Google's continuing reluctance to act, and were met with passionate cries of "God is Great" and "Mohammad is the Prophet of God" in Arabic. . . One of the speakers. . . told The Daily Telegraph: "Terrorism is not just people who kill human bodies, but who kill human feelings as well. The makers of this film have terrorized 1.6 billion people." A YouTube spokesperson said: "We work hard to create a community everyone can enjoy and which also enables people to express different opinions. "This can be a challenge because what's OK in one country can be offensive elsewhere. This video — which is widely available on the Web — is clearly within our guidelines and so will stay on YouTube."'"
Don't watch it (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not like TV stations are slipping this video in amongst their shows and commercials to trick you into watching it. If you don't like it, don't watch it, and stop trying to force your religious views on others.
Re:Don't watch it (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Don't watch it (Score:5, Insightful)
This is exactly why religion is bad. You take an invisible dude in a toga and put him in control of morality!!!! Well there's your problem. The premise of religion is immoral because it's based upon a lie.
Re:Don't watch it (Score:5, Insightful)
This is exactly why religion is bad. You take an invisible dude in a toga and put him in control of morality!!!!
Close, but not exactly right - the problem is not the "invisible dude in a toga," it's the very much corporeal confidence men who convince people that if they don't do what the confidence man tells them, the aforementioned invisible dude will make their lives miserable. Oh, and the people who allow themselves to be conned thusly; personal responsibility and all that.
FWIW, plenty of people go through life believing in some form of god without ever shoving their beliefs down anyone else's throat. You just never hear about these people because they aren't uptight, pompous dicks.
Re:Don't watch it (Score:5, Informative)
This is exactly why religion is bad. You take an invisible dude in a toga and put him in control of morality!!!!
Close, but not exactly right - the problem is not the "invisible dude in a toga," it's the very much corporeal confidence men who convince people that if they don't do what the confidence man tells them, the aforementioned invisible dude will make their lives miserable. Oh, and the people who allow themselves to be conned thusly; personal responsibility and all that.
FWIW, plenty of people go through life believing in some form of god without ever shoving their beliefs down anyone else's throat. You just never hear about these people because they aren't uptight, pompous dicks.
It's not that they believe(that the invisible man will make their life difficult). they believe that their religious close leader who is telling them to go rioting will make their life difficult if they don't comply with this test of obedience. which for many of them is sadly true.
of course the one who they should brick would be their sect leader that tells them to do such shit instead of taking the high road.
same as with many militia attacks - they're done in order to bolster the power of the leader within the gang. no gangland hits, no fear, no power.
Re:Don't watch it (Score:5, Insightful)
This is exactly why religion is bad...
Actually, the issue is dogma. Any dogma, not just religious ones.
Re:Don't watch it (Score:4, Insightful)
Religion is a special case. With [insert non-religious dogma here], it's often very difficult to convince people to die for your cause, you know... because of death and the will to live and stuff. With religion, you can promise them AN ETERNITY OF BLISS... see how there's a qualitative difference?
Re:Don't watch it (Score:5, Insightful)
Reminds me of a quote by physicist Steven Weinberg:
"With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil â" that takes religion."
Re:Don't watch it (Score:5, Insightful)
You take an invisible dude in a toga and put him in control of morality!!!!
You create invisible dude in a toga so that you can control a population. Who cares if it's based on a lie? It works, and that's all that matters.There is no morality behind any of it, that's part of the trick to divert your attention. However, the practicality has proven itself over and over again.
Re:Don't watch it (Score:5, Insightful)
In this case religious nuts are actively trying to paint everything as terrorism, the slightest perceived insult of their nasty misogynist compulsory religion so that they can claim it as acceptable to react with violence. This protest is all about forcing their acceptance of their religious laws upon the rest of society through direct acts of physical coercion. Either accede to the superiority of their religious laws over the laws of the land or face direct physical attack. They are purposefully going out of their way, to choose to be insulted when their religion is criticised in any way, shape of form and when their crazy people in robes are set above the rest of us rather than tossed in the looney bin or prison as they would nowadays when they run around claiming to speak for god whilst abusing children.
If Google submits to this intimidation then they will have become truly evil and a threat to free speech. Their religion, their problem. Clearly in the case Muslims are well and truly crossing the bounds of freedom of religion in trying to force their religion upon others.
Re:Don't watch it (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, it is. This whole thing only kicked off because an Egyptian satellite channel broadcast excerpts from the video (thier motives should be as much in question as the producers of the video, IMO). Do you really think such a poorly produced, pointless video would ever have gone viral without some mainstream media help?
Re:Don't watch it (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Don't watch it (Score:4, Informative)
This whole "we're offended by this stupid lame ass movie by some random backwards dude nobody's ever heard of" thing has already been pretty provably demonstrated to be bullshit. This is NOT what they were protesting when the diplomat was killed a few weeks ago and most muslims don't even give a shit. Even the Whitehouse was eventually forced to admit that the movie they were blaming this all on actually had nothing to do with it. Even Pakistan's president had said that the film had nothing to do with the protests. But, hey, CNN and FOX tell me that's what the hubub is all about so durp durp.
Re:Don't watch it (Score:4, Informative)
CNN and Fox were both reporting within 48 hours that there was at least some evidence that there was no protest whatsoever in Benghazi, and the entire thing was a premeditated terrorist attack.
Re:Don't watch it (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, CNN was claiming (not reporting) that there was rumor of a terrorist attack. Fox was claiming it *WAS* a terrorist attack within minutes of the story leaking.
As what happens with a stopped clock, it's right once or twice in a while... Fox got lucky, they didn't have any special inside information or know anything. They *WANTED* it to be a terrorist attack, they claimed it was a terrorist attack long before there was any evidence, and now they're gloating about (accidentally) being right for a change and pretending that because their fabricated story turned out to be true, that meant the white house was lying.
Yeah... ok.
Re:Don't watch it (Score:5, Informative)
Umm.. because pretty much the entire right wing gets their news from Fox?
Really... is it that difficult?
Fox was asserting terrorism long before there was any real information available, much less publicly available. It was wishful thinking on their part that turned out to be true.
Re:Don't watch it (Score:5, Insightful)
First, such investigations are seldom public. The administration really has no responsibility to tell us ANYTHING until all the facts are known. Talking about an ongoing investigation is stupid, and I'm pissed that they're doing so.
Second, Romney *IS* exploiting it for political gain. In fact, he said back in March, in that infamous 47% video, that he was searching for an "Iran Hostage Crisis" kind of situation that he would exploit. Here's his exact quote:
Romney: âoeâ¦by the way, if something of that nature (referring to the hostage crises) presents itself, I will work to find a way to take advantage of the opportunity.â
So please tell me how he's NOT exploiting it for political gain, and how he'd never do such a thing.
Re:Don't watch it (Score:4, Insightful)
Since you know so much about this maybe you can enlighten me.
The organizer of this London protest stated " Our next protest will be at the offices of Google and YouTube across the world. We are looking to ban this film.". You clearly know more than him, so what were they actually protesting about?
Or are you too stupid to realize that more than one protest is happening most of the time somewhere in the world.
Re:Don't watch it (Score:4, Insightful)
Did you not pay attention in history class? This sort of thing didn't start on 9/11. It's been going on with the same basic political/theocratic base for many decades now, and fundamentally for hundreds of years. A voice of reason has to come from within. It's not something the west or anyone else 'allow'. It can be silenced (violence, fear). It can be discouraged (dogma, poor education, lack of diversity).
The problem boils down to the usual brew of basically good people naively trying to find their place in life, and a few people willing to persuade and exploite the first in order to shape the world to their liking. It's not a muslim thing. It happens in many places, and to varying degrees (just look at the current US elections for a nice modern example). It's human nature. The only things I know of that we can do to fight it are to educate the naive so they are not so easily led. Education. Not schools, but discourse. Free thought, ideas, speech. Of course there is a fine line between education and persuasion, and that is why absolute free speech is so important. Any restrictions on free speech are a step in the direction of persuasion.
I've heard arguments that "people will be offended" if XXXX. I object to that. I think "people may -take offence-". Like the voice of reason, offense comes from within. It's not something we push on others. It's something people choose for themselves.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Don't watch it (Score:5, Insightful)
This is like the Janet Jackson Wardrobe malfunction a few editions of the "professional pigskin championship" ago.
I was actually watching WHEN it happened and it was under 2 seconds. On a super long range shot. In the middle of a football field.
In short NOBODY in the stands could have identified what happened. Nobody without rewind, pause, and frame-by-frame could see it. It was only news because they made it news, and a bunch of people that NEVER SAW it when it happened made a bunch of noise.
That's the same thing happening here.
Re:Don't watch it (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, the offices of CBS were attacked around the world and people died. Same thing.
Re:Don't watch it (Score:4, Insightful)
It's not like TV stations are slipping this video in amongst their shows and commercials to trick you into watching it. If you don't like it, don't watch it, and stop trying to force your religious views on others.
The thing I fid interesting is that on one hand you have "don't watch it if you don't want to be offended/Free speech Yaaaaaay!!!!" regarding the anti-muslim propaganda while on the other hand .. you have doctrine for castigating any attacks on another people/religion .. so codified that it even has a well known descriptive name "Antisemitism"
I'm not saying that attacking one group is any worse/better than attacks on another group - however I do believe that a lot of people in western countries would have a different opinion if that film on youtube was anti-Semitic.
(and yes I know there are anti-semetic films on youtube, but they are not as well publicized as the film du jour topic of outrage. IE Videos from the Westboro baptist church )
Re:Don't watch it (Score:4, Insightful)
There is a difference between insulting a religion and discriminating against or inciting violence against the followers.
Re:Don't watch it (Score:5, Insightful)
That's the big difference... Nothing about "Innocence of Muslims" encouraged anyone to go murdering Muslims...
Do you see thousands of Jews protesting Sacha Baron Cohen's works or those of Mel Brooks because they can be considered insulting to Judaism? No. A few complain, but no massive outpourings of rage and no one was murdered.
Do you see people rioiting and murdering people because of Piss Christ or South Park Jesus? Nope.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
>> There is a difference between insulting a religion and discriminating against or inciting violence against the followers.
> That's the big difference... Nothing about "Innocence of Muslims" encouraged anyone to go murdering Muslims...
I am a hard-core believer in free speech. I believe that Thomas Paine was entirely justified in advocating terrorism against his lawful government. I do not think Innocence of Muslims should be censored any more than should Rush Limbaugh be.
But the latter was involve
Re:Don't watch it (Score:4, Insightful)
Do you see thousands of Jews protesting Sacha Baron Cohen's works or those of Mel Brooks because they can be considered insulting to Judaism? No. A few complain, but no massive outpourings of rage and no one was murdered.
Do you see people rioiting and murdering people because of Piss Christ or South Park Jesus? Nope.
Add "Life of Brian" to the list of offending things - one that fiercely mocked both Jews and Christians. Nobody gave or gives a flying fuck about Life of Brian - apart from the good fun that we all had watching it.
Re:Don't watch it (Score:4, Interesting)
Unless you saw the initial release you've been robbed of about 20 seconds of python hilarity.
Specifically the end of the first Jewish suicide squad scene. I've got the script book (somewhere) that I bought when the film was first released. It includes the missing seconds, so I know I'm not just imagining them.
Re:Don't watch it (Score:4, Informative)
I have them on DVD :)
Although 'blind biker' was wrong; people were horribly offended by Life of Brian - it was banned by 39 councils and some bishop made a laughable attempt to debate the film with the Pythons.
They ripped him apart, with utter beautiful courtesy, using elegant arguments and a depth of knowledge that exposed his complete ignorance. It was a joy to behold.
So... Jews are not the subject of jokes in the wes (Score:5, Insightful)
So, you are saying that Jews are not the subject of jokes in the west? They are and the greatest jokes are told by Jews themselves, they take the piss out of themselves and their religion for a long time, it is one of the defining qualities of Jews in the west.
And if you want a good anti-catholic joke, look no further then catholics, they know a ton and will happily tell them, they too have plenty of self-ridicule or do you REALLY think any Catholic out there doesn't find it hilarious that beavers count as fish?
Protestants laugh about themselves too you just don't see it because they are to stoic to move face muscles.
There have been countless movies made taking the total piss out of religion and the number of deaths because of them is very very low (I can't say for certain nobody has been killed over movies like Life of Brian).
You do know that the simple joke of Moses coming down the mountain (a Jew) and dropping 5 of the 15 commandments would have Muslims (when someone dials-a-riot) up on arms if it was about Mohammad?
There is a large difference between ridiculling even belitteling a group of people and incitement to hatred. Anti-semitism doesn't say Moses raped goats, it says Jews are sub-human. Saying Mohammed is a pedo isn't saying Arabs are sub-human.
Re: (Score:3)
So, you are saying that Jews are not the subject of jokes in the west?
No .. I'm saying that the intolerance of anti-Jewish propaganda is so ensconced in in western views that we have a special word for it and there is a very low tolerance for such activities. Why are Jews so special[1] that that they need their own term to describe attacks on them, where as other groups do not have an equivalent term?
But it seems in the present climate that insulting muslims is deemed OK and any objection to that is repulsed with cries of "Free speech!"
Anti-semitism doesn't say Moses raped goats
What do you think would happen
Re: (Score:3)
No .. I'm saying that the intolerance of anti-Jewish propaganda is so ensconced in in western views that we have a special word for it and there is a very low tolerance for such activities. Why are Jews so special[1] that that they need their own term to describe attacks on them, where as other groups do not have an equivalent term?
I believe this has only been the case since circa 1945 [wikipedia.org]. The fact that this kind of event could even happen in modern times so disgusted and shocked Europe and the West that there was a huge backlash against it. Before that, mild to moderate antisemitism was somewhat pervasive [wikipedia.org] in western culture.
But it seems in the present climate that insulting muslims is deemed OK and any objection to that is repulsed with cries of "Free speech!"
This isn't true. There is usually heavy criticism of extreme anti-Muslim activities [wikipedia.org]. I will admit that (unfortunately) anti-Muslim sentiment sits pretty high (especially in the US) right now, primarily due to the ac [wikipedia.org]
Re:So... Jews are not the subject of jokes in the (Score:4, Insightful)
Most of us in the U.S. grew up with the old line about sticks and stones, and learned at an early age that being thin skinned only lead to more offense from those shelling it out. We don't have a right to not be offended. How you deal with being offended is the difference between being mature, and being childish.
That said, we do have rights to free speech, and if some jackass wants to make a movie, or put a sign outside a synagogue, his right to do so needs to be protected. But, we have every right to disagree, and point to the jackass an laugh...and no right to physically retaliate.
Re:Don't watch it (Score:5, Insightful)
The thing I fid interesting is that on one hand you have "don't watch it if you don't want to be offended/Free speech Yaaaaaay!!!!
I find the current trend to discount the importance of free speach disturbing. Its interesting to me that it seems more important to supress dissent/alternative views/ideas more important than offending the adherents of what is a mysogenistic and developmentally backwards offshoot of a religion. Just becuase some one is loud (and often violent) doesn't make them right. Just goes to show how dangerous an idea is if people feel the need to supress it. I find the idea of jihad increadibly dangerous. I believe it needs to be supressed.
Re:Don't watch it (Score:4, Funny)
"Your honor, I object!"
"Why?"
"Because it's devastating to my case!"
Re:Don't watch it (Score:4, Insightful)
Child pornography causes a very large amount of harm to children. The video in question hurts some people's feelings. Comparing the two is a vast stretch of the imagination.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I'll Play Your Game (Score:5, Funny)
"Terrorism is not just people who kill human bodies, but who kill human feelings as well. The makers of this film have terrorised 1.6 billion people."
Well, even by the post-9/11-everyone's-a-terrorist [wikipedia.org] definitions, I don't see that but, very well, I'll play your game. Your redefinition of the word terrorist in the English language has killed my human feeling of respect for the English language. I have in my hand a piece of paper written in Crayola crayon that I believe to contain a 4,000 year old text defining English as a sacred language. You see I was drunk one night and I accidentally channeled Zoroaster [wikipedia.org] who is like, way older than Muhammad. And you have killed that spirit inside me. Also, your call for censorship completely kills my internal spirit that there is hope for humanity -- one of the greatest of human feelings. As such you sir are a terrorist by your own definition of the word, enjoy your imminent self-incarceration.
"Organisations like Google are key players and have to take responsibility for civility. You can't just say it doesn't matter that it's freedom of speech. It's anarchy."
Let me guess, you get to define the words "civility" and "anarchy"? Yeah, I get it, some parts of your religion are only compatible if there's one bearded male telling everyone else what to do. It's 2012, you better suppress that shit or you're gonna have a bad time.
Re:I'll Play Your Game (Score:5, Funny)
If you people want to protest like CIVILIZED HUMAN BEINGS then more power to you. However should anyone pick up a stone to throw it at another human being in anger may you be struck down by a bolt of lightning from the hevens.
Re: (Score:3)
I'd wager that if terrorism is killing feelings then those 1.6bn terrorised folk are terrorising the remaining 5bn+ people on the planet with this sort of bullshit.
Honestly, if people like this want to make it a numbers game by redefining terms, their viewpoint is still not justified, even when they've stacked the odds in their favour by redefining those terms and using arbitrary statistics in the first place.
Bunch of hypocrites (Score:3)
Just look at Abu Hamza was able to do: preach violence hatred in the biggest mosque in London for 5 years. Did Muslims ever stop him? No. He was stopped by the police.
Muslims have no moral grounds on which to complain about anything said about Islam because of their inaction relating to Abu Hamza
Re:"It's 2012" (Score:4, Insightful)
One of the things that many people don't realize is that the period of Christian dominance, crusades, inquisitions, etc. was not really about religion per say. It was Politics. The Church was a potent political entity that at times had veto power over issues such as the selection of monarchies and laws. And the atrocities that were carried out were not really due to one's religious beliefs, but more to make political statements and control people. (The Crusades used religion as a pretext, but they were purely geopolitical conflicts.) Martin Luther heralded the decline of the Church as a political force along with the printing press, which allowed the average man (eventually) to read the Bible for himself.
Re:"It's 2012" (Score:4, Funny)
Re:"It's 2012" vs Last Temptation of Christ 1988 (Score:3, Insightful)
I went and looked up "The Last Temptation of Christ" on Wikipedia. The 1988 Scorsese movie drew protests by 600 offended Christians in California. Adjusted for inflation, that's about 800 London Imams. And it wasn't on youtube. The point being that people claiming to represent all Muslims or all Christians don't deserve the ink. This is more about the disintegration of journalism than an attack on Islam or a serious threat to freedom of speech.
"The Last Temptation of Christ's eponymous final sequence
Re:"It's 2012" vs Last Temptation of Christ 1988 (Score:5, Insightful)
And how many things did the christians burn? How many people did they kill? Oh that's right, nothing and no one.
Also free speech as I define it only truly exists in the US so I'm not interested on what other countries did.
Mohammad walks into a bar... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Mohammad walks into a bar... (Score:5, Funny)
This posts only shows prejudice and ignorance of the Islamic faith. Muslims don't drink when they can be seen by others.
Re:Mohammad walks into a bar... (Score:5, Funny)
Anonymous Coward writes Mohammad walks into a bar. The explosion kills 9 and injures 23 others. Allah Akbar.
Infidel. Your joke of The Prophet has caused religious furor. I am on a jihad to expose your Anonymous.
May Allah forgive me for I must use anti-muslim tools like Facebook and Youtube to look up your profile.
I have pledged that after I have completed destroying you I will cleanse myself of these demon tools. Until then they are quite useful for you expose yourself to me like a Coward.
But this does not concern us. I can break my own laws to serve God as long as the ultimate justice is done. I will even drink your liquor and sex your womens to fulfill my destiny but I will always hate it and make it known. And then when I destroy an evil life I will be clean even when my own life is done.
Because I thought it was all okay in my head, and I found some cool circular reasoning, and then ignored all the facts, suspended reality, lied to my parents, lost all that I cherished, and if there really was a God he would have sent me straight to whatever Hell is for the amount of evil I wrought in His name.
I will just ignore what all those Christians went through for the past two centuries in realizing that killing in the name of God is always killing in the name of Man.
My next video will be (Score:4, Funny)
Refuse to be Terrorized (Score:5, Insightful)
This goes for all peoples, including muslims: Refuse to be Terrorized! [schneier.com]
You're not terrorized by anything unless you choose to be.
When will these imams (Score:5, Insightful)
Protest videos of "unbelievers" being beheaded?
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Right now in London (Score:4, Insightful)
Also in London, a 14 year old girl fighting for her life after a Muslim put a bullet in her brain because she wanted to go school.
Lets count the number of British Imams condemning the Muslims who attacked her, lets count the number marching on the streets in protest.
What more needs to be said.
Re:Right now in London (Score:5, Insightful)
Also in London, a 14 year old girl fighting for her life after a Muslim put a bullet in her brain because she wanted to go school.
Lets count the number of British Imams condemning the Muslims who attacked her, lets count the number marching on the streets in protest.
What more needs to be said.
That most generalizations are false, including this one.
Unless you're also expecting every Christian to come out and publicly denounce every abortion clinic bombing, every child-molesting preacher, every douchebag protester at military funerals with signs reading "God killed your son," demanding every Muslim in the world denounce the sins of the small number who actually engage in negative behavior just makes you come off as a childish moron with absolutely no understanding of society or human nature.
Re:Right now in London (Score:4, Insightful)
What I expect is that a "peace-loving religion" would not allow someone to preach hate an violence in a mosque. But they did, and we are not talking about a single event in a small mosque in a small town.
Abu Hamza preached hate and violence in the biggest Mosque in London for 5 years, Muslims did not stop him from preaching his message of hate (eventually he was arrested). The inaction by muslims shows that hate and violence are part of Islam.
so... (Score:3)
They'll use their freedom of speech to say that others shouldn't have it. Lovely!
This is idiotic. Again, I am not one of these "LOLZ! Look at the RELIGION OF PEACE" people around here, but this is where one says that if they don't like what was said that they should make their own video and refute it. Currently too man MAINSTREAM Muslims want my Internet to be censored to THEIR tastes. It needs to be a given a BIG FAT NO.
Terrorism of feelings? (Score:5, Insightful)
Terrorism is not just people who kill human bodies, but who kill human feelings as well.
I find this extremely offensive, not only because they're trying to control what other humans can think, but also because they dare to compare the mental outrage at an idea to the physical killing and torture of humans. These things are not even remotely comparable except at a philosophical level.
...
After calming down a bit, it seems evident to me that these people are simply unable to cope with the cognitive dissonance that their one true belief may not be so true after all.
It's your belief; deal with it yourself. Don't expect everyone else to change their lives because you can't handle opposing thoughts.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Thank's Google! (Score:5, Insightful)
Now, it may not have been strictly a corporate belief in free speech; it may have been a self-interested decision that if they start caving into demands like this they'll end up severely crippled in a few years... but I'm ok with that as a motivator.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
Maybe I missed it... (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe I missed it but I don't recall 800 imams congregating in London to protest about the shooting of a fourteen-year old girl by Taleban psychopaths.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malala_Yousafzai [wikipedia.org]
Re:Maybe I missed it... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Maybe I missed it... (Score:5, Interesting)
Neither does Youtube nor the people making the film.
They are just as afraid of the Taleban (Score:3)
as any teenage girl is.
The simple fact of their protest is this, Google won't kill them or their families for protesting Google's actions or inaction.
Re:Maybe I missed it... (Score:5, Informative)
Hypocracy or stupidity? (Score:5, Insightful)
No wonder they're being ridiculed.
Re:Hypocracy or stupidity? (Score:5, Insightful)
An open society lets the foul air in, as well as the fresh air.
When dealing with these folks, just remember not to be so open minded that your brains fall out.
Personally, I think that these Muslim folks are wearing out their welcome in western civilizations. They want to repeal our right to free speech, that many of us hold so dear as an integral pillar of what makes our societies so great.
Where were these idiotic imams before? (Score:3)
Why didn't they protest the taliban for trying to kill a 14 year old girl?
Why didn't they protest when a Christian girl was set up and charged with blasphemy? And that imam who set her up is now free on bail, why aren't they angry about that?
Sorry their silly protest has no credibility, they didn't protest when it really mattered.
Re:Where were these idiotic imams before? (Score:5, Informative)
To be fair, there have been many protests against the Taliban over the attempted murder of Malala Yousufzai. In Pakistan, especially, outrage against the Taliban has led to large, angry protests.
Re:yes, but (Score:5, Interesting)
Perhaps that's equally important -- those demonstrations are made by individuals using their own moral compasses and NOT being told what to do by their Islamic leaders.
Coming down on Malala's side isn't exactly brain surgery, but if this is any sign of a Pakistani surge in secularism and thinking for one's own self, I'll take it!!!
Everything is offensive (Score:3)
Our modern societies are composed of thousands of cultures, ethnic groups, religions, sub-cultures and cults.
Anything you do will offend someone.
It's unlikely people are going to learn to live without being offended either. In this uncertain world, values and beliefs are sometimes all we have.
And so the conflict will continue, renewing itself constantly.
Definitions (Score:3)
Wikionary is handy for a definition of -ism [wiktionary.org]: Ultimately from either Ancient Greek (-ismos), a suffix that forms abstract nouns of action, state, condition, doctrine; from stem of verbs in (-izein) (whence English -ize), or from the related suffix Ancient Greek (-isma), which more specifically expressed a finished act or thing done.
Therefore terrorism would be a noun that describes a finished act of terrorizing. Or, the completed act of creating terror.
Terror can be defined [wiktionary.org] as intense fright, fear or dread.
What the film The Innocence of Muslims did was to lampoon [wiktionary.org], ridicule [wiktionary.org] and belittle [wiktionary.org] the actions of the founder of Islam and the beliefs of its followers. There is a difference.
Conflating one with the other does the worst disservice to the people in the world who live in fear and dread because of the violent reactions of others who disagree with or disapprove of them in one way or another.
Saying "You're ugly and your mother dresses you funny" is not the same at all as saying "you will wear what I tell you to wear or I will murder your family, just like I murdered that other family".
Trying to equate the two is more offensive than that stupid video.
What's the Arabic translation of "Striesand" (Score:3)
Because I think these folks need to learn about certain effects.
What they should do (Score:5, Funny)
Split opinion (Score:4, Insightful)
On one hand, so long as they are peacefully protesting and not advocating violence against people until the video is removed, then they are well within their rights. No, you don't have a right to not be offended, but if you are offended you have the right to peacefully protest the offending material.
On the other hand, despite their protests being valid, they don't get to redefine the English language. If you offending someone, that doesn't make you a terrorist. If it did then we'd have to pretty much classify everyone as terrorists, since I'm sure everyone at least once in their lives says something that would offend at least one person. Terrorism is making people afraid to exercise their rights and/or stand up to the terrorists for fear of being harmed. Nobody is afraid of protesting against this video. Granted, I haven't watched the video, but from what I've heard it in no way makes threats against people who would disagree with it. It just makes a claim which offends some people. So they can go ahead and protest against it. That's their right. They can make websites decrying it and countering any points the video attempts to make. So long as they do it peacefully and not by threatening the lives of anyone involved, I'll support their right to protest whether or not I agree with their viewpoint.
No core problem (Score:5, Insightful)
With their demostration - if it was peaceful.
And they should be allowed to demonstrate. Such is a fundamental of this society.
But its not lost on me, nor should it be lost on_anyone_else - that their demostrate and represent everything that would unhinge that democracy, and its many hard fought battles. No, you don't get to silence opposition to your 7th century religion, and its crimes. No , you don't get to stifle and limit freedom of expression, just because it challeneges your religion. No, you don't get to impose your 7th century barbarism by trying to be a 5th column. The removal of religion from state took many decades in this society. Efforts to swing your religious desires into politics, and then into religious dictatorship are obvious, and must not be allowed to succeed. Ever.
'Submission' as muslims is your right. If you wish to be so fucking stupid and submit to this garbage - thats a personal choice you can take as you wish. But I *never* submitted to it, and I will not be submitted to it, not even by proxy, not by PR, not by propaganda, and not by 3000 idiots with stupid beards, pygamas, and/or Ninja outfits and retarted stupid idiocy whining outside of Youtube/Google buildings.
This is a secular state. If you do not like it, please feel free to go and live in one of the now many islamic shithole states that plaster this globe. But here is the fun part. Most of you live here because you did not like it there very much. Thats a freedom you very much have as much as standing round outside of a google building offending me deeply.
Oh, sorry, I should not mock your ability to be deeply offended every 5 minutes by everyone and everything. But I did. Whoops.
Thank You Google (Score:5, Insightful)
I just wanted to take a second out of my day, to say thank you to Google. To anyone who works there, who can influence Google, who knows an employee - please pass on my personal thanks for this staunch defence of free speech, in the face of what is probably the single most intimidating anti-free-speech group and protest the world has seen in my lifetime.
What you are doing is very worthy - and really stands to highlight the "Do No Evil" motto that Google is famous for, but that some people have (rightly or wrongly) started to bring into question recently.
Media providers must take their place in the defence of free speech - in the days of investigative journalism they actually tended to be more aggressive about this - and Youtube and other similar providers are absolutely vital in allowing the discourse and social interaction that we need as a community to grow and become better people.
Thank You,
Pathetic (Score:4, Insightful)
Terrorism is not just people who kill human bodies, but who kill human feelings as well. The makers of this film have terrorised 1.6 billion people.
What a disingenuous bunch of crap. Someone questions their invisible friend and they call it terrorism? Hurt feelings are the same as killing innocent people?Someone who would say something like that has the emotional maturity of a 4 year old. I can handle someone criticizing my beliefs but apparently all the followers of islam are so emotionally fragile that they can be traumatized by a book or a comic. Pathetic.
By your own rules (Score:4, Insightful)
"Terrorism is not just people who kill human bodies, but who kill human feelings as well. The makers of this film have terrorised 1.6 billion people."
If one's feelings are so delicate and fragile as to be killed by an impersonal video then the feelings need to be strengthened. Is the Muslim religion so weak that simply ridiculing it will ram it? I don't think so. Radical Muslims that riot and kill people over a video do no service to their religion. It only shows how intolerant man can be toward their fellow man. It shows how some Muslims are easily swayed by imams who are more interested in their own power than the good of their religion.
I am not usually one to use the word "terrorism" but lets apply "killing feelings" level to some aspects of radical terrorism.
"Women shall not go to schools on pain of death or disfigurement" Terrorizing half the population
"Convert or die". Terrorizing all non-Muslims.
"Leave Islam and Die" Terrorizing all Muslims.
By their standards they are terrorizing everyone in the world.
More Deaths (Score:3)
A showdown between free speech and Muslim sensitivities about their prophet is well under way. One side is going to have to give eventually.
Historically, in the Western world, something like this - the posting of the 95 thesis - led to hundreds of years of war and revolution before people decided that imposing their religious dogma on others is a futile quest.
Maybe... (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe if they spent just as much effort to organize and protest against the Taliban and fundamentalist Islam, then it would be easier to dismiss such videos in the first place.
Anyone who has listened to or read Sam Harris knows that Islam has some very basic problems at the core of its doctrine that its present-day followers have overwhelmingly failed to address. To speak up about this is not to be Islamophobic. It's to state factual aspects of a religion that is not, despite claims from its moderate adherents, the "religion of peace." Because if it were peaceful, THESE PEOPLE WOULDN'T BE PROTESTING GOOGLE. They'd be doing everything in their power to excommunicate and weed out all the extremist mullahs and imams that call for death for apostasy, and violent jihad. The fact that we see protests against Western freedoms rather than Islamic oppression tells you everything you need to know. Moderates cannot just keep repeating "but we're peaceful and we're offended!" It's YOUR religion to claim, so CLAIM it. But don't go around to non-Muslims and pretend as if you're doing your duty, because the fight is not with us. It's with the extremists in your midst that threaten to pull your religion in THEIR direction. Unless, of course, you moderates agree with them, in which case you're not really moderate at all, and it's all just an act.
Non-story. (Score:5, Interesting)
Someone, somewhere, every day, protests somewhere in London about something.
Every Wednesday for years, motorcyclists gathered by the thousands on London streets to protest about the parking facilities for them in Central London (an inherently over-populated and over-crowded place where you will NEVER park sensibly). Nobody really cared.
This might have made the telegraph but I've seen no mention of it in any other media. Hell, the BBC has next-to-no news on it today and it's not on their website.
And, literally, every single day some group will protest in London. Hell, we have areas of London parks SET ASIDE for people to soap-box from and protest, it's that common. What did make the news today? Two girls handcuffing themselves in St Paul's Cathedral at protest of the churches support for the banks that brought the economic crisis.
Any mention of Muslim protest? None.
It's a non-story. Really. And, more importantly, 99% of the Muslim people in the capital (let alone the country or the world) might be condemning such protests for all I know.
People will literally protest about anything in London (and even come to London to protest, not realising that it makes your issue seem small in comparison to all the other protests that commuters have to walk through every day), from the devolution of Scotland to the petrol prices to the way that someone looked at them last Thursday. It means nothing.
You want my attention to this issue that offends you? Start negotiating, not dictating.
They think it just started? (Score:4, Insightful)
Deal with it. (Score:3)
Hurt feelings... (Score:4, Interesting)
It seems Muslims, like a lot of Americans, don't understand what terrorism is. Terrorism isn't hurting someone's feelings. It isn't some lone gunman going on a rampage. Terrorism is an organized violent movement, targeting civilians, in order to intimidate the population into affecting desired policies.
There's a lot of moral equivalency being thrown around. Those assholes have a lot of audacity taking to the streets in protest considering that Malala Yousafzai was shot for speaking out against extremists. They can't bitch about hurt feelings or the even West in that case. That was a Pakistani girl speaking up about local problems. But then I suppose they'll blame "liberal" Western influences.
I'm reminded of how a lot of these guys keep dredging up ancient history, the Crusades, to justify their aggression towards the West. What relevancy does that have to anyone? Europeans have long since moved on. The West can't be blamed for violence that occurred 800 years. Nevermind that both sides in the Crusades were equally belligerent and it could be argued that Muslims started it all. Middle East had profoundly influential centers of learning until Muslim aggressors showed up and decimated it all, no thanks to evil Europeans.
By all standards we have more to be upset about than they do.
To be fair... (Score:4, Insightful)
The title really should read "thousands of fundamentalist Muslims." Christian fundamentalists are constantly boycotting and protesting this or that in an effort to punish companies for not loving their version of Jesus enough, but we would never generalize them as the ~3/4 of Americans that self-identify as Christians. The idiots protesting Google over a Youtube video are culturally stuck in the past and refuse to accept that the world is changing, just like Christian conservatives.
When a jesuit priest mocked the Hindu Gurus... (Score:5, Interesting)
He is a revered figure in Tamil Nadu. He is credited with bringing printing press to the region, compiling the first dictionary, the first thesaurus, first compedium of numbered collections (like four directions, four seasons, seven notes, five senses, etc), and the rhyming dictionary. He also wrote hymns in Tamil. Wrote extensively about the mores and customs of the land to help the other missionaries who would follow him.
Whatever happened to the satire of Hindu swamis? It lives on. Still very much in the circulation. I heard most of those stories from my grandma as bed time stories. A culture that is so self assured and so self confident it was able to laugh at a good joke. It is not a surprise, despite his great literary achievements and reverence, in his core mission of religious conversion, he hardly made a dent. Less than 1% of the Tamils converted to Christianity in his times. Even now Christian population is just 2 or 3 % in Tamil Nadu.
Imam's golden opportunity (Score:3)
Say what? (Score:4, Insightful)
"Terrorism is not just people who kill human bodies, but who kill human feelings as well. The makers of this film have terrorised 1.6 billion people."
Wrong. True terrorism involves stripping the victims of their choice. They have no choice but to be terrorized. Nobody in the West sat down with guns to your heads and forced you to watch the video. As with most things, you have a choice to be offended or not, to watch, or not. Stop being stupid, don't watch it, and don't be offended. Pretty simple.
Re:Stop all this fighting. (Score:5, Funny)
No, I'm the real messiah!
You're not the messiah, you're a very naughty boy!
Re: (Score:3)
No, I'm the Messiah, and so is my wife
Re:First Pedobear (Score:5, Interesting)
When people claim to be a representative of god we don't hold them to the norms of the day - they should be showing us the true morality of their god. In the words of Stephen Fry (on a different religion and about slavery, but it's the same point): "what is the point of the Catholic Church if it says we couldn't know better because nobody else did, then what are you for?" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGFS_hkHfCc [youtube.com]
Sure if he's just an average man for his time we can't really expect him to do anything but what is normal for his time. However, that also means he has no special claim on morality or wisdom so we have no reason to accept any of his religious and moral claims.
Re:First Pedobear (Score:5, Informative)
whereas it was normal politics for the time and culture... how ignorant.
Actually, it was anything but normal for the time and culture.
Records from Ancient Israel, Greece, Cartage (former Phoenicians, who originated north of Israel) and Rome all indicate that getting married at age 12 for a girl was considered very young across the Mediterranean. The whole area -- courtesy of Greek and Phoenician colonists, Alexander the Great and later the Roman Empire -- formed a broad cultural unit spanning from the Atlantic to Ethiopia and Mesopotamia. Mecca was, in the 7th century, at the limit of this cultural unit: it was an important trading outpost on the camel route to current Yemen, which supplied Europe with Incense, and it had significant Christian and Jewish communities.
Consequently, there is little if any evidence that anyone in the area would consider it normal to wed a 6-year old or to shag a 9-year old. On the contrary, cultures in areas some might call "backward" today would suggest that the earliest appropriate marriage age for a girl then, before, or later, be it Mecca, in the middle of the desert, or anywhere else, broke down to whether a girl is of breeding age or not.
Re: (Score:3)
Slavery was normal in the past. Women without rights was normal in the past. Little boys "serving" soldiers was normal in the past. Killing someone for allowing herself to be raped was normal in the past.
Trolling much?
Please read the following carefully:
Firstly, if you (or another AC, I have no means to differentiate among you) are going to deride Mohammad for acting in ways considered normal at the time, you should deride EVERYBODY that adhered to, or even tacitly supported, those customs. Singling out a single person just because he happened to get famous is disingenuous.
Secondly, while I agree that, on the aggregate, things are much improved nowadays, some things are getting worse.
Mass warrantless surve
Re: (Score:3)
This protest may be peaceful, but it's far from civil. It's a protest against free speech rights for non-Muslims. It deserves all the mockery we can heap upon it.
Re:Perhaps Christians can set an example (Score:5, Insightful)
How many were killed? (Score:3)
How many were killed over that movie?
Well?
Re:Dear Muslims, (Score:5, Informative)
And more recently, a 14 year old girl is shot in the head by the Taliban for daring to campaign for women's rights [firstpost.com] (where else, but in Pakistan).
Dear self proclaimed 'peaceful' Muslims, where the fuck were you during these episodes orchestrated by your co-religionists in the name of your wonderful religion? Where were the masses of allegedly moderate Muslims protesting at the gates of the embassies of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia for aiding and funding these terror groups?
What? The ENTIRE NATION OF PAKISTAN took a day of prayers in response to this episode. There were protests against it across Pakistan. Prayer leaders condemned the attacks. Schools were closed. Rallies against the attacks were held in all the major cities. I don't know how you missed that.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19913201 [bbc.co.uk]
Re: (Score:3)