I'm appalled and sick to my stomach by the
comments made by users in
georgia10's diary about free speech. I joined the Dkos community because people here are respectful and tolerant of others.
I chose Dkos because you're not like Ann Coulter. You're not Michelle Malkin. You don't allow Pat Robertson to say that it's OK to blow up Foggy Bottom. You don't allow hate speech, although you protect Freedom of Speech.
You hold the media accountable when the media lies. You hold elected officials and leaders accountable. You're activists and leaders.
But as a Muslim---very moderate and liberal in many ways, far from a fundamentalist, I'm irate, disgusted, and literally appalled by the insensitivity shown to Muslims today.
These are just a few of the comments that I'd expect to read on a Xenophobic blog....DKos is the last place I'd expect to find it. I'm embarrassed and disappointed.
I've read the excellent commentary here- and chose to replace it with my daily readings of the N.Y. Times, WaPo and other sources. But when people in our community start acting like the wingnuts we oppose, then it's time to go?
Let's remember, even Kos has banned users and limited speech. Hate speech isn't protected in liberal democracies.
You can read the comments here:
Thanks very much. (none / 0)
Muhammed. What is he/she/it? A person, a ghost, an ideal? Fuck him and the scooter he rode in on........."
by pasternek on Fri Feb 03, 2006 at 03:53:58 PM EST
If word got out that they were all out of virgins (4.00 / 4)
that would be good thing right?
(ps. no snark intended, just think less people being blown up in general is a good idea)
by nater on Fri Feb 03, 2006 at 02:01:18 PM EST
Irony? (none / 0)
As in "Who would mohammed bomb?"
Please Don't Bite the Newbies
by kraant on Fri Feb 03, 2006 at 01:58:53 PM EST
Unfortunately (none / 1)
some of these children strap explosives on themselves and blow us up. But, I would do a cartoon on that anyway.
Bring them home. NOW
by Arlyn on Fri Feb 03, 2006 at 01:39:30 PM EST
See (3.00 / 3)
They really do hate us for our freedoms...
by p j s on Fri Feb 03, 2006 at 01:45:04 PM EST
Yeah Except... (4.00 / 3)
"It is like giving in to a child throwing a tantrum." - tiponeill
Yeah except these guys throw bombs not tantrums.
Free Speech: I have the right to call anyone's wife or girlfriend a bitch and a whore. That doesn't mean that her and her man will not beat the shit out of me because it was free speech.
by Chingon on Fri Feb 03, 2006 at 01:44:16 PM EST
When the mob sends a letter... (none / 1)
you had better listen. Aren't these same military types the ones in charge of secret prisons, secret wire taps and torture camps?
I am not sure which would scare me more a bomb threat from an angry mob on the other side of the world, or a "protest letter" from a guy that runs a secret torture camp.
by kcguy on Fri Feb 03, 2006 at 02:15:00 PM EST
rolling eyes (3.75 / 12)
"...If Muslims in Denmark and other Western European nations don't like freedom of speech and freedom of the press, then they can leave. Sorry, but it's just ridiculous to expect everyone in a free country to limit themselves to only what a specific fundamentalist religion says is "allowable".
The protesters need to be told quite sternly to take a big dose of "get over it". This is beyond ridiculous.
by Spryboy on Fri Feb 03, 2006 at 01:26:18 PM EST
IF it is worthy of a War (none / 0)
Then it must be fought and must be won.
I prefer a war of ideas on paper, if Muslims prefer a War of Sweat and Blood then so be it...." [more content left out]
by libertynow on Fri Feb 03, 2006 at 03:22:19 PM EST
This is a check (none / 0)
that was going to be cashed by the West in any eventuality. I'd rather not be caught napping and if Middle-East meets West because of a few cartoons, then so be it.
by Tlaloc on Fri Feb 03, 2006 at 01:54:28 PM EST
I sure God aka Alah (4.00 / 2)
is getting sick and tired of Religion!
You would think Mohammad has taught his followers that old refrain "sticks a stones will hurt my bones but cartoons will never harm me"
Disabled Viet Vet ret. My snark is worse than my bite
by eddieb061345 on Fri Feb 03, 2006 at 01:30:30 PM EST
Islam just got... (4.00 / 5)
... Maplethorped. They have to understand free speech is nothing to fear, but something to be cherished. Until then, fuck 'em.
hink
by MrHinkyDink on Fri Feb 03, 2006 at 01:31:20 PM EST
Screw Mohammed and Jesus (4.00 / 6)
If they can't take a joke about how psychotic there followers are then they can fuck off. The cartoon that shows Mohammed with a bomb in his turbin is good satire. Just as WWJB? (What would Jesus Bomb?) is satire pointed at Christians, and rightly so. Jesus isn't coming back and neither is Mohammed. And if either of them did come back do you really think they would be proud of all the destruction there religions have caused. I hope not.
Message to you religious psychos: Go kill yourselves, Leave the rest of us out of your Hatfield and McCoy feud.
by nater on Fri Feb 03, 2006 at 01:33:32 PM EST
I find it ironic (4.00 / 2)
that these countries send their kids to the USA to go to college, but at the same time they can't hand the freedoms we teach here.
"A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward." FDR
by Belltowner on Fri Feb 03, 2006 at 01:35:20 PM EST
Is it hate speech (none / 0)
to point out the absolute failure of the Muslim religion to integrate its peoples into the ways of the modern democratic world?
Its misogyny? Its homophobia? Its anti-semitism? Its practice of the last slave trade on the planet? The corrupt Middle Eastern regimes?
You are worried about hurting their feelings? How very PC of you.
Fuck them. They walk hand-in-hand with the most corrupt Fundies in our midst.
I refer you to an interesting collection of articles about the failure of Islam and the nature of the West's conflict, or, more appropriately, Islam's conflict with the West.
by pissed off hippie on Fri Feb 03, 2006 at 03:58:52 PM EST
Update [2006-2-3 19:19:24 by Raiyan]:: Thank you for your comments. Many have written that the hateful comments made in gerogia's diary were probably by trolls. I certainly hope that, and that's why I said DKos was "hijacked." It's the small percentage that hijack the majority. But if you go read Gilliard's post (good post)
here, you'll see the anti-Islamic vitriol I'm speaking about in the thread. Perhaps it's ignorance. Maybe it's not just at DKos, but on other liberal/progressive blogs. As a
professor wrote in the thread, even in liberal colleges and universities, there's a lot of misunderstanding about Islam. And although to some people it was just a cartoon, to a billion people, it was hate, racism, and blasphemy. Depicting any Prophet as a terrorist is wrong. And in Islam, all illustrations of Prophets are forbidden. And worse, the cartoons were re-printed in France and Germany
after the Muslim world responded with anger. The press merely wanted to show it's defiance. But in the end, it only reinforced all of the negative stereotypes of Islam.
p.s. If you're looking for a decent site to learn more about Islam, you can always go
here.
Update [2006-2-3 21:54:54 by Raiyan]::Good article from today's Philadelphia Inquirer that I wanted to share.
here.
But it was not the caricature of Muhammad by a Danish cartoonist that triggered protests across the Muslim world in recent days. It was the way in which the prophet was depicted, wearing a turban that appeared to be a bomb.
Update [2006-2-3 22:14:58 by Raiyan]: Take a read: The Guardian
But the right to freedom of speech equates to neither an obligation to offend nor a duty to be insensitive. There is no contradiction between supporting someone's right to do something and condemning them for doing it. If our commitment to free speech is important, our belief in anti-racism should be no less so. These cartoons spoke not to historic sensitivities, but modern ones. Muslims in Europe are now subjected to routine discrimination on suspicion that they are terrorists, and Denmark has some of Europe's most draconian immigration policies. These cartoons served only to compound such prejudice.