mediawatchwatch.org.uk

Sue Blackmore, the author of the Comment is Free article linked two posts below this, has some interesting things to say about it in the comments section of Richard Dawkins’ website.

Firstly, the reason the news reported in her comment was old is because the article was written two weeks before it was published. The topic was considered so controversial that the editor of CiF had to personally approve it, and several phone calls and emails were exchanged before it was finally posted.

Secondly, the article which Sue originally submitted contained this link to the 12 Motoons, but when it appeared on CiF the link had been replaced with this one – a Guardian story about them.

The editors at CiF are so scared of offending Muslims that they won’t even link to the Motoons, let alone publish them.

24-year-old Adbul Muhid, a halal meat inspector from east London, has become the 4th Danish Embassy motoon protestor to be convicted. He was found guilty of soliciting murder today at the Old Bailey.

Muhid, who at the time wore a “Soldier of Allah” (shouldn’t that be “Allan”?) jacket, was said to be one of the ringleaders of the protest last February. He led the crowd chanting “bomb, bomb the UK” and produced placards bearing slogans such as “Annihilate those who insult Islam”.

He had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Sentencing will be passed down in April, Allan willing.

UPDATE: Muhid has a previous conviction for smashing a bus shelter in Walthamstow market “which was displaying an advertisement which he said offended his religious beliefs”.

Prof Sue Blackmore talks about the Crucification story in Comment is Free. She is a bit behind on the news, which is understandable because she is not a religious-censorship-obsessed blogger, but her sentiments about the case are spot on.

A Cambridge student is in hiding because he dared to print one of those infamous Danish cartoons and have a laugh at Islam’s expense. Yet if offended Muslims want people to stop laughing at them, this latest incident will only have backfired.

Go read. And never, ever, stop laughing at religion.

For those who are looking forward to the official verdict on the Charlie Hebdo Motoons case as much as we are, better update your calendar. According to Actua BD, the French comics news site, the date has been put back from March 15 to March 22.

The Church of England General Synod last week heard various Revs and Bishops decry the state of the media in the UK. TV, cinema ratings, computer games, and lads’ mags all came under fire.

Even Strictly Come Dancing was criticised, not for the fact that the choreographers for that show seem to derive most of their inspiration from the Kama Sutra, but because it “exploits the humiliation of human being for public entertainment”. Edmund Marshall, a lay member from Wakefield, said

To me as a Christian, the ethos is to seek and save those who have been losers

God help them.

The British Board of Film Classification was slammed for giving 18 certificates to films such as Intimacy, Baise-Moi, 9-songs, and Destricted – all deemed by the Rev Richard Moy of the Lichfield to be “hardcore”.

To their credit, however, the Synod did reject a call for the government to investigate programme standards, voting instead to set up a research project to investigate the influence of media on behaviour.