Why the Mo-toons are bad – a reminder
Nick Cohen in the Observer mentions this month’s “World Press Freedom Day” (which he calls “a wretched failure”), where Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Britain reminded everyone why exactly the Danish cartoons of Mohammed were unacceptable.
She denounced
…the tendency in the West to say “We insult our own, so we can insult yours, too.” Well no. We do have a problem with that and we demand respect
There you go. “Respect”. Demanded.
Cohen also reminds us of the Council of Europe hearings to be held next week on whether freedom of expression should exclude the right to offend religions. He isn’t too optimistic that the forces of oppression will lose out.
UPDATE: MWW reader Stuart makes a thought-provoking comment:
Thought folk might like to know that at about the same time the High Commissioner was expressing that view, the Chairman of the Pakistan Senate was over here (Isle of Man) for a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference and he thanked locals for their response to the Pakistan earthquake. From my sums, we gave an average of £3 per islander to appeals, and I guess that would be about average around the UK. If the High Commissioner wants to talk about ‘respect’ to Muslims we don’t know, that seems a better guide than whether or not Brits want a few naff cartoons banned.
Yeah, cos of course, the press, often state press, in the middle east, don’t enjoy regular anti-semetic toons…
This pandering to loud voiced hypocrits is starting to make me really bloody angry.
Thought folk might like to know that at about the same time the High Commissioner was expressing that view, the Chairman of the Pakistan Senate was over here (Isle of Man) for a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference and he thanked locals for their response to the Pakistan earthquake. From my sums, we gave an average of £3 per islander to appeals, and I guess that would be about average around the UK. If the High Commissioner wants to talk about ‘respect’ to Muslims we don’t know, that seems a better guide than whether or not Brits want a few naff cartoons banned.
Always nice when people show gratitude for help provided in a time of great crisis. The High Commissioner is either totally brainless or suffers from selective memory loss. What a bitch!