>on the radio news this morning they were reporting that the cartoon had been reporduced in newspapers in italy, spain, and many others. the editor lost his job in france. the paper is owened by an egyption so they have been speculating about that all morning. also there was a cartoon with jesus and muhammad sitting on a cloud commenting about all the uproar which sounds funny but i havn't seen it. there are already boycotts of danish products, companies and services in some islamic countries and i presume that this will spread to bans on other countries products as they reproduce the cartoon. i presonally think that this goes against any form of free speech or free press and no religous group has the right to be upset about satire, there have been many depictions of jesus in cartoons in various publications over the years but as far as i know no christians ever surrounded a compound firing into the air in protest like what is happening now.
>Slán
>~M

My point exactly Mark. Remember the hoo-har over Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses"? Immediately there were throngs of people in the streets protesting it, given that a) as it had only just come out they didn't have a copy, b) even if it were out they wouldn't be able to get hold of a copy, c) as it was written in English, in Roman alphabet, it's highly unlikely that it could be read by the vast majority. Then there was the fatwah declared on his life.

This is the worst kind of censorship and these people were protesting and rioting just on the words of a few in position of power (who themselves probably had no idea what was in the book) who drummed them up to it. A movement governed by mass hysteria. The whole thing makes me mad.