Looking back over the conversation I can see you’re right. I misunderstood what Haberdash was trying to say so I withdraw the point. If you could chalk it up to posting while decaffeinated I’d appreciate it 
Like what? What not only can’t be said, but hasn’t been said many times about Islam?
That’s your barometer? People regularly tour the country and go on TV saying the most vile, hateful things about Islam, but because no one has made a comedy musical about Muhammad then “when it comes to Islam, we lost our freedom of speech rights a long time ago”?
As a side note, here’s my own favorite Muslim humor site. It’s basically a Muslim version of The Onion. Some of my favorite articles there include Convert with Lazy Eye Has Trouble Lowering His Gaze, At Least One Eye Going to Burn in Hell, Muslim Nerds Translate Quran to Klingon, Handsome Imam Will Give ‘50 Shades of Grey-Area’ Sermon This Friday, and 10 Steps to Getting a Second Wife.
And yet the threats they face haven’t caused them to pull back from their words and comments about Islam. Just the opposite, really.
Charlie Hebdo Cartoonists Distance Themselves from Texas Event: ‘No Comparison’
I guess PEN America will have to take away their free speech award now, huh?
Yes and for Hirsi Ali, she lies a great deal about herself for her self promotion particularly to the islamophobic americans. I do not think even the Al Qaeda care much about her. She does good business.
No problem at all, you made a valid point!
There’s quite a good reason why we don’t get a lot of comedy about Muhammad. It’s not funny. And the reason it isn’t funny is explained more amusingly in this clip from Holy Flying Circus but in short, it’s hard to parody the life of Muhammad when the life of Muhammed isn’t widely known (and the people who do know it are those least likely to find the parody funny). Jesus, sure - you don’t remotely have to be Christian to know pretty much everything about the life of Jesus, given the cultural ubiquity it has achieved in Western society. But Muhammed? Not so much. Might as well do a musical on the wacky antics of the Sasasian Empire or Catullus or Leonel Power. You’d end up having to teach the audience the background before you could do the jokes, and who wants a lecture when you’re having a nice evening out at the theatre?
What is far better known about Islam is the current trend of religious extremism, something which is mocked excessively these days in ways from the ridiculousto the sublime.* Wacky Middle East terrorists have been a staple of movies for a long time now, and there seems to be little sign of that stopping.
Of course, if you do want some Prophet-themed humor there’s always Jesus and Mo. Mind you, as the title implies it’s not just Islam’s ox getting gored there.
*Seriously - if you haven’t seen Four Lions, I highly recommend it. And AFAIK no one has tried to murder Chris Morris because of it.
Dropping “fatal protest” into Google turns up the following hits. (Several of these stories are repeated in different venues with the same result.)
President, indigenous groups at odds over fatal protest in Ecuador
Tibetan dies in fatal protest
Beijing censors news of fatal protest
Fatal Protest of Income Inequality Largely Ignored by Mainstream Media
You got this guess utterly wrong. Not one of the Google hits on the first two pages returned from “fatal protest” has a story condemning or even disparaging the protest in which a participant died and the phrase “Fatal protest” was employed n the headline.
So, in answer to your question: No. You are wrong.
Didn’t that dude in Iran what calls himself Aya-something issue some Fat-something against that other dude who wrote a book about Muhammad?
It’s reassuring that Iran’s secular tolerance rests in his enlightened hands.
Ayatollah Khomeini?
You know he’s been dead for twenty five years now, right?
Indeed, and it is a travesty that France doesn’t fully value free speech. I have been on that boat since it left the docks.
However, my point was that the distinction between the threat of law enforcement and that of radical Islamists with guns is infinitesimally thin. There is a de facto censorship of certain elements of Islamic criticism up to and including mere depictions of Muhammad.
Against the will of the writers, Comedy Central forced South Park to censor Muhammad and Fox forced Family Guy to do the same.
The only guy in jail for the Benghazi attacks is an American filmmaker who made a film critical of Islam.
If you want to argue that, Constitutionally, there is no imposition on the Second Amendment, that may well be true. But, facing the steel tip of a machete, what true freedom exists?
If you missed it the first time, watch this short clip. It brings this issue to a head, and applies not just to radical Islam.
Did you mean to say “First Amendment”? The one that’s about freedom of expression, rather than about firearms ownership?
[QUOTE=Stringbean]
But, facing the steel tip of a machete, what true freedom exists?
[/QUOTE]
If what you’re trying to say is that threats of violent reprisals by Islamist extremists often have a chilling effect on freedom of expression even absent legal censorship, sure, nobody here is disagreeing with that.
And nobody here is disagreeing with the position that it’s a bad thing.
Indeed. It’s as if his cold, ghastly hands are still pulling the strings.
But I’m sure Iran’s a bastion of tolerance under Khameini.
Yes sir that’s what I meant. I’m having an off day it seems.
An Egyptian living in America. And he wasn’t put in jail for the Benghazi attacks or for making a film critical of Islam, but for breaking the terms of his probation (using aliases and using the internet without the approval of his probation officer) after being convicted of bank fraud.
But, other than that, Stringbean got it right. :rolleyes:
What part of the observation that Iran, as a predominantly Shi’ite Muslim country, does not object to visual representations of the Prophet sounded to you like an assertion that Iran is a bastion of tolerance and liberal thinking in every way?
Honestly, Stringbean, you’ve got an excluded middle there so vast that a camel team couldn’t cross it.
The middle ground is that Iran is a semi-tolerant Islamic theocracy, whose former leader once issued a death warrant for a guy who wrote a book critical of Islam, and whose current leader has advocated the destruction of Israel and genocide of all Jews.
Where you place that on the pendulum of Western tolerance is your prerogative, but I don’t think A’isha using that one example as something as a counter to the reality that Islamic radicals will threaten violence for depicting Muhammad in America is of any real value.
Perhaps you may disagree, but it is what it is. We cower to threats of violence because they are real. When a publication like Charlie Hebdo does not cower, we should all stand and applaud, regardless of whether they are culturally sensitive or not in what they depict. They display a sordid bravery that you and I cannot.