Headphones on 6/2/2006 at 01:24
Taleban smashed up those stone Buddhas in Bamiyan like 5 years ago. As I recall the Buddhist response was a sort of "Why should you care? They're inanimate images of a god you don't believe in. Why so angry?"
Maybe, to the people involved, deific images have more power than we're crediting them with? Well, obviously they do!
(Carbon - Leaving faces blank is an aniconic-offshoot surely? I wasn't really trying to be definitive. Just trying to stress caligraphic/arabesquing emphasis of Islamic art. I probably phrased myself like I knew something I didn't though, so soz.)
TheGreatGodPan on 6/2/2006 at 18:53
Quote Posted by Convict
Why do you think that neo-trotskyites want to spread liberalism in the Middle East?
Fixed that for you. And since when did neo-conservatives become associated with the business community? They're generally intellectuals, which is why their influence is so out of proportion to their numbers.
tungsten on 7/2/2006 at 05:23
To me, these protests have a very similar stink to them as the chinese protests against Japan: the protesters don't even know against what they are protesting. I guess it's some a.. behind the scenes that pull the strings and start the flames. There was one protester on BBC that said appologising is not enough anymore, Denmark should execute the cartoonist. My first reaction was yeah, we do that, if you stop your traditions that we don't like (women's rights, executions ...). Then I thought: what is that guy talking about? It's not one cartoonist, it's a series of cartoons that you immediately recognise as being from different artists. So this guy has never seen the pictures, nor has he been informed what they were about. Someone must have told him "how bad it was".
So if you'd be too offended by looking at the evidence, then at least choose an honest source to tell you, and not some idiot who uses you as a political tool!
SubJeff on 7/2/2006 at 19:58
Quote Posted by tungsten
To me, these protests have a very similar stink to them as the chinese protests against Japan: the protesters don't even know against what they are protesting.
More like you don't know what you're talking about.
northeast on 8/2/2006 at 07:08
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
More like you don't know what you're talking about.
Really? The protests against Japan (all of it) which were about a history book created by a private company? Not completely similar, but there is a resemblance.
tungsten on 8/2/2006 at 07:40
What I meant was the similarity in how they seem to be orchestrated by some "politicians" behind the scenes, but at first appear as spontaneous demonstrations.
PS: the problem with the Japanese book was less that the private company wrote it but that some board approved it as school book (which at least is some official source of worry.
Quote Posted by BBC
European papers have defended their decisions to publish on free speech grounds.
An Iranian newspaper cited the same justification as it launched a competition, asking artists to submit cartoons about the Holocaust.
(
here.) here.
Dear Iranian newspaper, can you please explain what you think is similar between the Prophet and the Holocaust? I don't seem to find many connections.:ebil:
Fragony on 8/2/2006 at 14:42
Surely a little bit of cultural understanding would have avoided all this. The Danish shouldn't have made those cartoons, and France shouldn't have had electricity.
Rogue Keeper on 8/2/2006 at 15:05
I'm too late in here, so just few brief words:
Sometimes I think our society is so overly liberal that it's different factions are almost forgetting we should be keeping some respect to each other. Offenses ingite conflicts. Freedom of speech and freedom of expression is usually praised as the most valuable thing, but shouldn't people think first before they open their mouth? Freedom of thought leads some individuals to quite alibist views of the world.
What is acceptable and what is not, depends on what society we live in.
So what we have here : making fun of the Pope and Christian icons always causes a big hype in Christian society.
And God forbid someone would be making hard-edged humorous cartoons of Jehovah or Jewish religious icons in western media - since majority of them are owned by Jews, the unfortunate soul would be alleged of racism, nacism, and fueling of religious hatred and I don't know what else...
Then one thing is to make jokes of the institutional church and it's leaders and another thing is to make fun from icons which some people hold sacred. If I was a Muslim, surely I would be offended.
Screw it. If people weren't offending each other it would save them from lots of trouble, but then, we can't have Heaven on Earth so easily, right...
Renault on 8/2/2006 at 15:18
Quote Posted by tungsten
To me, these protests have a very similar stink to them as the chinese protests against Japan: the protesters don't even know against what they are protesting.
Given the fact that a group of protesters just tried to attack a U.S. Military base (yes, that's a U.S. MILITARY BASE), I have to agree with this. We have to consider the intellgence level of the people we're dealing with, and at the same time wonder why they aren't getting any form of guidance or leadership from whatever group they come from.
But I agree that the greater majority of these people are just stupid, mindless followers, worked up into a frenzy. You could probably ask them to jump on a boat to go invade the U.S., and they'd comply.
