How can a flag be offensive?

[thatguy]

Not including the Nazi swastika or racial hate flags, I'm talking about a country's flag.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/newshom...lled-offensive

Reports that an ex-soldier was told to remove an Australian flag because it was "offensive" have outraged residents of a Brisbane street.
Aaron Wilson told 7News he erected the 5m flagpole in honour of his father, who served in Vietnam.
But he said Logan City Council told him a neighbour had made a complaint that it was offensive and too close to the street.
"I find it astonishing that anyone could find the Australian flag offensive," Mr Wilson told the Courier-Mail.
"My family and friends have served for the country and the very least I can do is have a flag to show my appreciation for Australia.
"I thought the council had better things to do with their time than persecute people for putting a flag up."
The council has denied ordering Mr Wilson to take down the flag. Councillor Pam Parker said the Courier Mail's report was incorrect.
"It's a simple building compliance issue to ensure the pole has a permit and is safe for not only the property owner, but neighbouring residents and pedestrians," Cr Parker said in a statement.
"All we want to do is ensure the structure is safe and secure and we're happy to help the property owner do this. Council encourages all residents to fly the Australian flag."
The council plans to amend by-laws to ensure Mr Wilson's flagpole can remain.
"I am offended that somebody should complain to the council about the Australian flag, and whoever they are should hang their head in shame," Cr Parker told the ABC.

To be sure, this isnt about him erecting a flag pole, its about someone ringing the bloody council, and claiming the Australian flag is offensive.
So, How can a country's flag offend someone? Especially if you reside in the country of that flag.

[wilpuri]

Even a finger can be offensive when correctly positioned.

[Mong]

Stuff like this happens in Australia all the time. They banned people taking Australian flags to a music festival because it might upset the muslims. Go figure...

[mongrel]

Stuff like this happens in Australia all the time. They banned people taking Australian flags to a music festival because it might upset the muslims. Go figure...

Radical Muslims at a Oz Music festival, you are having a laugh. Think about it.Has to be made up. Source please.

I don't believe it.



Happens fairly often in the UK, that is because flags are treated as advertisements and require planning permission. But, and I can only speak for London, St George's flags seem to be immune.

[Turnus]

Radical Muslims at a Oz Music festival, you are having a laugh. Think about it.Has to be made up. Source please.

Yeah...source?

Here is your source.

And the PM's response.

[mongrel]

Here is your source.

And the PM's response.

Well that is bonkers.

Mind you it says that the flag was banned because of the behaviour of of hooligans more than anything else. The post seems to have spun the facts.

The authorities are to be blamed for being stupid, not the Lebanese. Based on what the article says I cannot see that they or any Muslim group had any say in the matter. The violence at the Australian Open was between Aussies and Serbs/Croats, who for all intents and purposes are Christian.So my original point remains, what has this got to do with Muslims?

http://www.theage.com.au/news/tennis...709717953.html

This seems to be the same kind of thinking that made the St George's flag unpopular with English authorities because of it's association with football.

[Каие]

Here is your source.

And the PM's response.

It's seems it was banned;

• young white men accosted fans and demanded they pledge allegiance to the national flag.
• concert was six weeks after race riots at Cronulla, a Sydney beach, where surfers, draped in national flags, attacked young Lebanese-Australians.

So it wasn't Muslims, Lebanese westerners are mostly Christian and was banned because foreigners were being forced in pogrom style outings by hooligans to swear allegiance to the flag then beaten for not doing it. Australia has always had race problems. [It doesn't even mention Muslims, you came up with that all by yourself]

Not because they were Muslim, as you first claimed and not because they asked for it. If I was you I'd concentrate on getting back your flag from being used as a tool for racism, and reuse it as a tool for nationhood...instead of blaming Muslims for your woes.

[Turnus]

It's seems it was banned;So it wasn't Muslims, Lebanese westerners are mostly Christian and was banned because foreigners were being forced in pogrom style outings by hooligans to swear allegiance to the flag then beaten for not doing it. Australia has always had race problems. [It doesn't even mention Muslims, you came up with that all by yourself]

Not because they were Muslim, as you first claimed and not because they asked for it. If I was you I'd concentrate on getting back your flag from being used as a tool for racism, and reuse it as a tool for nationhood...instead of blaming Muslims for your woes.

If that was directed at me, I hope you realise that that was my first post in this thread, and I was merely informing you of what happened. In any case, the flag can hardly be reckoned a "tool for racism" after one isolated incident. Nationalism in Australia, if at all existent, is extremely sparse. In fact, the greatest irony is that the ABC (along with the greater part of the media), funded by the state, takes great delight in diminishing the achievements of our country, while any possible mistake or crime (whether historical or fictional) is publicised again and again. As others have said, racism is not very present in Australia at all, while on the other hand self-loathing is rampant.

[Каие]

Stuff like this happens in Australia all the time. They banned people taking Australian flags to a music festival because it might upset the muslims. Go figure...

Yeah...source?

[\Vazul's Ghost/]

Stuff like this happens in Australia all the time. They banned people taking Australian flags to a music festival because it might upset the muslims. Go figure...

Yeah but everyone showed up to that concert wearing flags of australia as capes and painting the flag on their bodies just to refute them. The government is a bunch of uber politically correct s on all scales, but the people aren't. mostly.

[Oswald von Wolkenstein]

Does he find the Flag offensive because he drank Foster's?

I mean that would at least explain it.

Otherwise, deport the bastard, if he doesn't like the flag of the country he's living in.

_____________

[wilpuri]

Does he find the Flag offensive because he drank Foster's?

I mean that would at least explain it.

Otherwise, deport the bastard, if he doesn't like the flag of the country he's living in.

_____________

But what about his freedoms and rightses?

[Oswald von Wolkenstein]

But what about his freedoms and rightses?

I meant the bastard who was taking the complaint seriously -- not the complainer

[wilpuri]

I meant the bastard who was taking the complaint seriously -- not the complainer

So, the residents of the Birsbane street derscribed in the article?

[Mong]

Does he find the Flag offensive because he drank Foster's?

I mean that would at least explain it.

Otherwise, deport the bastard, if he doesn't like the flag of the country he's living in.

_____________

no one drinks fosters in Australia... we ship the camel piss off to you... HOW CAN YOU DEPORT A CITIZEN OF YOUR OWN COUNTRY?

[KaerMorhen]

Thanks to the Heavens above we don't have such problems here in Poland. I can't imagine any sane person to shout rantings against waving Polish flag in Poland, especially if such idiot is immigrant or foreigner.

[Oswald von Wolkenstein]

Thanks to the Heavens above we don't have such problems here in Poland. I can't imagine any sane person to shout rantings against waving Polish flag in Poland, especially if such idiot is immigrant or foreigner.

That's because your women are better looking. No one is looking at the flags.

[KaerMorhen]

That's because your women are better looking. No one is looking at the flags.

don't get to close they might be dangerous too...especially it THEY are pissed off at you

trust my experience

[Fianóglach]

Sounds bloody stupid, a bit like telling English people they can;t wave St. George's because it's now apparently racist or offensive to fly the flag. If someone has nothing better to do than sit around being offended by the national flag, obviously the men who fight under that flag are doing their job properly. As such idiots can only exist in a secure peaceful nation.

[wilpuri]

Sounds bloody stupid, a bit like telling English people they can;t wave St. George's because it's now apparently racist or offensive to fly the flag. If someone has nothing better to do than sit around being offended by the national flag, obviously the men who fight under that flag are doing their job properly. As such idiots can only exist in a secure peaceful nation.

I recently read about an incident where an Englishman was threatened with fines by the police if he did not remove the St. George's flag, which he had on display in his rear window. In England.

Such idiotism can only exist in a nation that is no longer a nation.