Danish cartoons and freedom

No, because that would deny them the right to voice their opinions. The West is (rightfully) demanding that others respect its values and laws; in doing so they must themselves respect them as well.

 

Why beat around the bush.I simply got right to the point.Let people make all the noise they want.It is their right to do so.When they step beyond that in a dangerous manner,ya gotta split a few mellons.

 

hes from chicago what can you expect lol

 

If they send one of ours to the hospital,we send one of theirs to the morgue.That's the Chicago way.

 

Under current British law we could have arrested every protester with a 'kill them all' type placard for inciting hatred / violence / whatever. Lots of questions were asked as to why the Police did not do so.

 

What I meant was that I have no intention to get physical before they do, but threatening to kill anyone is a serious offense, and I think it's only fair to throw all such protesters in jail without pardon.
Threatening anyone is an offence by Dutch laws, not to mention threatening with serious physical injury, or even death.
If I would tell someone cutting in line to step back or I'll break the finger he just flipped me, he could get 200$ from me in court easily.

Exactly!
It is allowed to voice your opinion, BUT! only when that does not limit or harm another persons freedoms.
I'd say threatening to kill all who laugh at those comics, or all infidels/christians/atheists can be considered quite the attempt to limit my freedom.

 

I can't help but wondering what would have happened if native Europeans had a protest, with banners saying "Islam, prepare yourself for the next Holocaust!".

Do I sense a double standard here?

 

You would not be the only one if you did...

 

I think that's one of the mayor differences;
Western culture--> talk
Islam culture--> act
(yes I am aware of muslims in western countries etc., but we're working with those names now anyway)

 

Extreme right-wing demonstrators are still allowed to demonstrate, aren't they?

 

Roel, do you hear western country's asking for the musloms to be knocked off the face of the earth? And if we talk about doing anything we get in trouble.

 

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Yes, they are allowed to demonstrate, but they certainly are not allowed to call for murder during their rallies.
As Ricky already pointed out, every muslim calling for violence could have(and should have) been arrested.

 

I know according to our Constitution, while we have freedom of speech, dangerous or inciting speech is not allowed.

 

I never said they weren't. But, as Tom pointed out, inciting speech is not allowed and has nothing to do with the freedom of expression.

My point was merely that the media, the politicians and a large portion of the public would have reacted in a different manner if a group of ethnic Europeans had made similar incitements.

 

There was a good article in our local paper about our local council of Mosques - they are against the cartoons that depict Muhammed as a terrorist, and wold like to have such things as a boycott on Danish produce etc to show their displeasure.
Obviously, they are 100% against the more violent message that is more often seen...

Anyway, I have a couple of observations about the whole thing:

Denmark's most famous exports are beer & bacon - both of which are forbidden to Muslims anyway.

Muhammed himself was not above spreading Islam by force, though in fairness it was by open warfare rather than by terrorism etc - I can understand the anger at having your venerated prophet unfairly depicted as a terrorist.

 

I have little doubt that if Muslim fundamentalists had the means to fight the West in open war, they would. However, since they are but a fringe group with limited manpower and resources, they just can't do this, and so they feel a need to resort to terrorism to "destroy the west".

It is interesting to note that while many Muslim countries actually have the military strength to attack small Western countries, they don't. I'd consider this evidence for the assumption that the extremist Muslim opinions heard nowadays do not represent the views of many Muslim governments, or at least that those governments still have enough common sense in them not to promote national self-destruction in the struggle against the infidel.

 

This 'event' has been handled in many different ways by the the different European countries. I would say that France handled it a lot better than Norway. Worst off has to be Sweden, they even shut down websites containing the caricatures there.

 

These goverments, despotic as they are, are often the only thing standing between us and the rage of the Islamists. Look at Pakistan, look at Algeria where the Islamists won a democratic election only to be overtrown ( and good for us and democracy as well ) by a military coup.

But they don't have the military strenght to attack any western country, no matter how small, simply because any attack would be repulsed by a forcefull coalition. They know that.

 

In Finland one right wing organization published those pictures in their websites and now they are under investigation by our local security police.

 

This is a fact that one has to remember when speaking about the muslim world.
Organize free and fair elections and in almost any muslim country the islamists will win....
Hamas is just the most recent example.