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."'"
First Pedobear (Score:1, Informative)
I will never honor a pedophile having sex with a nine year old girl after marrying her at six. Truefax.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aisha
Muhammad was scum. Do not glorify him.
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:Maybe I missed it... (Score:5, Informative)
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: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:Maybe I missed it... (Score:5, Informative)
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: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: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: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 involved in the long and broad US public media hate speech that helped create support for our doctrine of preemptive defense. A doctrine that resulted in tens of thousands of Muslims being killed. The sitting President at the time said that God had told him to do it, and many of our congresspeople said that they prayed for guidance on the matter. Our active troops were asked by their command structure to pray for President Bush.
> 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.
"The Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are the realization of Zionist values. Settlement of the land is a clear expression of the unassailable right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel and constitutes an important asset in the defense of the vital interests of the State of Israel. The Likud will continue to strengthen and develop these communities and will prevent their uprooting." - 1999 Likud Charter
Our leaders may use the religion angle differently, in a fashion more tightly coupled with politicial nationalism, and ultimately employing our flag troops. We may use secular cultural differences as often or more often than we use religious doctrine to garner support for the use of force. We may even be more justified in our actions. But it is disingenuous to deny that religious and cultural intolerance is a significant component of popular support for our use of deadly force.
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: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.