| Enter the
Cartoon Contest |
Excerpts From the esteemed Mr Bean’s protest speech:
“Every Joke Has A
Victim” (full
text)
plus
“Cartoonists,
Islam, and The Freedom of Expression.”
|
Also, here are just a few of the vile
Anti-Semitic Cartoons
from the Arab world’s press.
Where is the outrage???? The calls for
death??:Can you spell |
From
Mr. Bean's "Every Joke Has a Victim":
From a comedian's point of view, you cannot make a joke about a belief or a practice without characterising it in human form. Every joke has a victim and with a religious joke, it is bound to be a practitioner, even if the target is the practice…
In my opinion, freedom of expression is being allowed to cause trouble, or create discomfort, or offence, as long as your words or behaviour are not threatening.…
I wish the oxygen of free expression to be available to all but it is not enjoyed by all and where its availability is most poor is often within religious communities …Those who are most keen to stifle the free expression of others are often those who do not enjoy true freedom of expression themselves. And therefore fear it…
Ridiculous, outmoded or hateful religious practices need to be criticised and exposed. But because you cannot criticise practices without implicating the practitioners, practitioners are bound to be caught in the crossfire and in my opinion, they should just accept that. If the exposure of hateful or ridiculous religious practices generates dislike of that religion's followers, they should accept that also and not seek legal immunity. They cannot renounce responsibility for their practices.
"As for the Muhammed cartoons, my
reality does
not include the admonition not to depict Muhammed, I have no trouble
with the
12 cartoons. I do however take issue with the response of the Muslims
to them.
Come on, guns and bomb threats? Let me remind the Muslims reading this
that you
have NOT taken over the world yet. And because the violent ones
continue to
kill in the name of Allah, their actions ARE accurately depicted in
those
cartoons. Your anger and desire to squelch all other voices only makes
them
more believable.
I,
as a Christian, have no trouble with finding humor in my own religion.
I
have poked fun at many things in my religion that are obvious flaws in
it due
to the humanity that carries out that religion. The funny things are
true
although exaggerated. In my opinion the 12 cartoons are true because
they
editorialize not just the believers actions, but the very religion of
the Prophet
himself.