Cartoons

jiimmy · Guest

Scruffy, all members of the radish are different people, we don't share an ideology so please try and respond to each person individually and don't confuse our opinions.

The diabolical misuse of power article didn't go into the printed radish this week. All articles are posted on this website before sunday midnight so that people have time to react and engage so we can make sure that people have a chance to comment on what goes in. This is a good system, you took issue with John's innacurate piece and he's rewriting it.

The thread asking for bad stories about the guild was pretty roundly criticised as i remember. In fact i think in many of these threads there have been numerous calls for everything said to be constructive and positive. However, we have no control over what other people say. We have no party whip! If someone wants to ask for bad guild stories and write an article about it then they can. If someone wants to ask for bad radish stories and write an article about it they can. It's a free forum and we have no control over it (apart from choosing the titles of the threads, obv.) If articles get written then the editing team of the printed radish will decide what goes in based on whether it lives up to their idea of what their page should be.

I think you are still feeling very defensive and sort of self-obsessed here. Guild politics are only one part of society out of many that people may want to praise or criticise.

Andy · Armchair Activist

Hi folks, i haven't read through the whole thread but i think that it would be a TOTAL mistake to print those cartoons.

At a time when Muslims are being villified, and the BNP has now decided that its strategy for the local elections is to 'make May 4th referendum on Islam day', you need to stand out AGAINST racism.
(Yes I know Muslims can be of any race, but in the uk, right now, 'Muslim' is a racial category. An atheist socialist asian friend of mine has been searched 3 times on the London underground, they told him it was cos he 'fits the profile' ie brown skin)

The cartoons show Mohammed with a bomb for a turban. This is a clearly Islamaphobic racist image, conveying the notion that all muslims are suicide bombers. Publishing it would serve no good purpose, and would make it harder for Muslims and non-Muslims to engage in real discussion about free speech, justice, whatever.

Free speech is not an absolute unqualified right, to be exercised mindlessly whatever the context. There are restrictions on it that we generally accept in areas such as child pornography, incitement to racial hatred and so on.

You need to CHOOSE not to publish. It's not censorship, it's responsibility!!
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If we all spat together we'd drown the bastards.

ibby · Guest

Again, for the third time! lol - I have posted on the other threads, but just so that you do get a muslim response to what is essentially an attack on muslims/islam.

I'm glad to see you guys at Radish have the sense to realise that this is not a fight to preserve freedom of speech - but moreover, a chance to villify muslims. Whether intentional or not, it is doing exactly that.

Actually, now I'm not so sure about even fighting to preserve freedom of speech, as there probably is a bit too much of it here in the UK; after the BNP leader got let off for many of the charges which he was accused of, when he clearly stated in the program he would be jailed for saying those same things in public. Sheikh Abu Hamza has been imprisoned without actually lifting a finger, for murder I believe - then I don't see how the BNP leader has not been imprisoned, for clearly stating he has a war against Islam in particular, and used many other adjectives to describe muslims and described what he would have done to them (us).

These cartoons are inciteful - and if there were any genuine point of discussion in terms of creating intellectual debate, I would genuinely consider entering into dialogue; but with these cartoons, it is absolutely futile.

As I said before, anti-semetic pictures would not be accepted, e.g. denying the Holocaust? That is a sensitive topic for Jews, and should be respected. The Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) is more important to us than our own parents; and to insult him, is worse than insulting our parents and moreover, is insulting everything we believe to be pure and correct - namely, Islam; as he embodied the religion in his actions.

ibby · Armchair Activist

i signed up now! just to confirm (like anyone cares?) I am the same ibby as the guest posting previously on this topic! Smile

[above, and elsewhere]
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The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr.
He who leaveth home in search of knowledge, walketh in the path of God.
Love of the world is the root of all evil

Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)

ruthie · Meeting Facilitator

nick_b · Street Demonstrator

er...no. just had a look now, and can only find descriptions of them on wikipedia. to be honest, not great with technological stuff, so may be missing something, or they may have been removed. but i want some credit for my extensive searching. it was really very committed of me i felt.

ruthie · Meeting Facilitator

absolutely, i didn't mean to belittle it. do forgive
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the best things in life aren't things ~ Art Buchwald

John W · Guest

Freedom of speech should be upheld.... only if you adhere to the fundamantal rule...... 'don't be d**k'!

ciaran.mooney · Indymedia Hound

Evening All,