West's double standard on 'freedom of expression'

[Poet]

A Muslim boy is convicted for "derogatory, disrespectful and inflammatory" remarks

A teenager has been found guilty of posting an offensive Facebook message following the deaths of six British soldiers in Afghanistan.
Azhar Ahmed, 19, of Ravensthorpe, West Yorkshire, was charged with sending a grossly offensive communication.
He told Huddersfield Magistrates Court he accepted the message had been "unacceptable" but had denied it was "grossly offensive".
The judge said his comments were "derogatory" and "inflammatory".
The six soldiers were killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) in Lashkar Gah on 6 March in the deadliest single attack on British forces in Afghanistan since 2001.
Sgt Nigel Coupe, 33, of 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, was killed alongside Cpl Jake Hartley, 20, Pte Anthony Frampton, 20, Pte Christopher Kershaw, 19, Pte Daniel Wade, 20, and Pte Daniel Wilford, 21, all of 3rd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment.
'So upsetting' The offensive message, which said "all soldiers should die and go to hell", was posted by Ahmed just two days later on 8 March.
Ahmed told the court he was only trying to make his point that many other deaths in Afghanistan were being ignored and added he had no idea it would cause so much upset.
He said he replied with apologies to many people who commented on his Facebook page and when some told him they had lost relatives in Afghanistan he realised how serious it was.
"That's when I realised it was unacceptable for them to see something so upsetting and distressing, to write something like that," he added.
District Judge Jane Goodwin said Ahmed's Facebook remarks were "derogatory, disrespectful and inflammatory".
He will be sentenced later.

So you deliver lecture on tolerance and importance of 'freedom of expression' if it is about insulting the most respectable figure of second largest religious community, but when your war criminals are insulted or someone puts question to truth of the facts and figures regarding "oh so sacred holocaust" you punish them without any delay?

[Manuel I Komnenos]

I think you should consider that in the first case we are talking about religion which is something completely vague, and in the second we are talking about human beings who were amongst us until a few months earlier.

[Jom]

If you had framed this debate in another fashion, I may have been more interested, because I feel very uneasy about someone being convicted for posting that all soldiers should die. Unfortunately you had to make it a petty attack on the "West". What you've failed to realise in constructing this clumsy attack, is that the "West" is made up of more than just one country, and that this conviction probably wouldn't have gone ahead somewhere like France or the Netherlands.

Yet another debate ruined by petty partisanship. Perhaps you could amend your OP and thread title to something less ridiculous so we can have a proper debate about the erosion of freedom of expression in the UK.

[Poet]

I think you should consider that in the first case we are talking about religion which is something completely vague, and in the second we are talking about human beings who were amongst us until a few months earlier.

That's funny. You are not one to decide what is most sacred to others. Human life gets respect from religion and religion cannot prevail without followers. Your post made my point more clear that West has double standards in this regard.

If you had framed this debate in another fashion, I may have been more interested, because I feel very uneasy about someone being convicted for posting that all soldiers should die. Unfortunately you had to make it a petty attack on the "West". What you've failed to realise in constructing this clumsy attack, is that the "West" is made up of more than just one country, and that this conviction probably wouldn't have gone ahead somewhere like France or the Netherlands.

Yet another debate ruined by petty partisanship. Perhaps you could amend your OP and thread title to something less ridiculous so we can have a proper debate about the erosion of freedom of expression in the UK.

No Sir! You took offense from this post, this makes me true. Double standards is an issue with all West in this regard. Another example is the international political system which you have designed. The SC for example, the veto power for example, it's all an effort to cover the open bias and burning desire to bring all humanity under your arrogant rule either by hook or by crook. The immunity which Israel enjoys and the hatred and revenge which Iran faces. So you are wrong.

[Jom]

That's funny. You are not one to decide what is most sacred to others. Human life gets respect from religion and religion cannot prevail without followers. Your post made my point more clear that West has double standards in this regard.



No Sir! You took offense from this post, this makes me true. Double standards is an issue with all West in this regard. Another example is the international political system which you have designed. The SC for example, the veto power for example, it's all an effort to cover the open bias and burning desire to bring all humanity under your arrogant rule either by hook or by crook. The immunity which Israel enjoys and the hatred and revenge which Iran faces. So you are wrong.

China is on the security council, as is Russia.

This just shows how stupid it is for you to try and construct an attack against the West through a story that is entirely unsuited to it.

[Tiberios]

No Sir! You took offense from this post, this makes me true. Double standards is an issue with all West in this regard. Another example is the international political system which you have designed. The SC for example, the veto power for example, it's all an effort to cover the open bias and burning desire to bring all humanity under your arrogant rule either by hook or by crook. The immunity which Israel enjoys and the hatred and revenge which Iran faces. So you are wrong.

How is one court case from Britain proof that there are issues with the entire Western world Poet?

The West is not one country and laws vary, sometimes greatly, from country to country.

[Seether]

What you've failed to realise in constructing this clumsy attack, is that the "West" is made up of more than just one country...

He will never realize that, Jom, because in his mind it is Islam and Muslims against a sinful world full of infidels. A lot easier to lump all infidels into an easy to scapegoat term, hence the "West" and his nonsensical usage of it.

You are not one to decide what is most sacred to others.

Yeah, only the "true believers" of Islam get to do that, right? Afterall, the "true believers" believe a book is more sacred than a human life. You want to talk about double-standards, there you go.

[Tiberios]

First of all, this doesn't prove Western double standards. It might prove double standards in Britian, but it's a massive generalization about an entire countinent with different countries. Laws vary from country from country.

That said, the statement was idiotic but I don't believe it should have landed him in court.

[Sisko]

Does that mean then that people fighting in the ranks of the Taliban and the Mujahideen deserve to die and go to hell as well?? They are technically soldiers too are they not? Just on the opposite side!

[Gatsby]

Dont worry Poet, we should get this seen to at our next meeting.

[Jom]

Oh and he wasn't convicted because he's Muslim, either. I just noticed that other sneaky attempt of Poet's to turn this into some sort of West vs Islam debate.

Again.

[mongrel]

A Muslim boy is convicted for "derogatory, disrespectful and inflammatory" remarks



So you deliver lecture on tolerance and importance of 'freedom of expression' if it is about insulting the most respectable figure of second largest religious community, but when your war criminals are insulted or someone puts question to truth of the facts and figures regarding "oh so sacred holocaust" you punish them without any delay?

The thread is doomed.

The West doesn't have a common standard on "freedom of expression" any more than Muslims do.

[Simon Cashmere]

Freedom of expression is guaranteed in the US, not in the UK. And not in Australia either.

We like to think that we believe in it as a concept, however...in Australia, there is no right to freedom of expression. There is no law guaranteeing it. In fact there are a huge number of laws that are against freedom of expression, mostly multiculti support laws. Fortunately they are seldom used, only to make an example of the most prominent outspoken critics of the multiculti.

[John ''True Grit'' Wayne]

I think our own Tos shows you can offend a country but not the person.Name calling is insulting.So the soldiers were being attacked/provoked etc.We cant have people showing up on dead peoples pages and saying fuuuuuuu..But we can say the Muhammad guy was a pedo and make a film about it.If we were to send the video by e mail to a muslim or post it in the post then that is harassment and bullying.Films about Jesus having sex with a prostitute Mary Magdalene and also The Life Of Brian have existed and also Madonna's like a virgin video existed and we did not burn anything down.Religion has too much power over people it makes them act violently sometimes.I always believed being a christian or Muslim would make a person calm and peace full but it has had the opposite effect through history.Crusades and Jihads and blood spilled for old books and story's and fables are fubar

[SuperTechmarine]

I think our own Tos shows you can offend a country but not the person.Name calling is insulting.So the soldiers were being attacked/provoked etc.We cant have people showing up on dead peoples pages and saying fuuuuuuu..But we can say the Muhammad guy was a pedo and make a film about it.If we were to send the video by e mail to a muslim or post it in the post then that is harassment and bullying.Films about Jesus having sex with a prostitute Mary Magdalene and also The Life Of Brian have existed and also Madonna's like a virgin video existed and we did not burn anything down.Religion has too much power over people it makes them act violently sometimes.I always believed being a christian or Muslim would make a person calm and peace full but it has had the opposite effect through history.Crusades and Jihads and blood spilled for old books and story's and fables are fubar

Atheism can be used in the exact same way.

[mongrel]

.Films about Jesus having sex with a prostitute Mary Magdalene .....did not burn anything down.

Factually incorrect. A Parisian cinema was burned down.

, Poet- I love how you crop up every couple of months to post crap like this, dance in the thread for a while and then disappear once you start to get face-rolled by rational people. .

The definitive answer

[John ''True Grit'' Wayne]

How?Very few Atheists are in charge of country's is there's any?Name them as I do not know any so how can you say Atheists are the same?
We do not do crusades or Jihad or go mad over a video.We do not cover up pedo priests like the Pope.Look at the religious mad men pulling the strings in Iran look at the people of Africa and South America being killed if they did not believe.
The Nazis were not Atheists.It was a Christian country so the Germans were mainly god fearing people.

[SuperTechmarine]

How?Very few Atheists are in charge of country's is there's any?Name them as I do not know any so how can you say Atheists are the same?
We do not do crusades or Jihad or go mad over a video.We do not cover up pedo priests like the Pope.Look at the religious mad men pulling the strings in Iran look at the people of Africa and South America being killed if they did not believe.
The Nazis were not Atheists.It was a Christian country so the Germans were mainly god fearing people.

*Cough* Stalin *Cough* *Cough* Anti-Theist massacres *cough* *cough*

[Lord Baratheon]

*Cough* Stalin *Cough* *Cough* Anti-Theist massacres *cough* *cough*

This nonsense again.What 'Atheist' massacres are these. Stalin did not kill because of his atheism, he killed because he was evil and was driven by an ideology. Religion IS an ideology , atheism is not. When taken at its proper meaning means a person without belief in gods . would'nt you find it bizare if 'a-political' was described as a political position.If stalin did murder Christians ( and they rank low on his list of victims) it was because they posed a threat to him and his personal ideology.

Now as for the other nonsense that somehow Atheism is related to Communism.It is true that Marx was an atheist but not primarily because he thought thee was no evidence for belief in gods but because he thought of it as a instrument of the ruling elite to decieve the masses.Did you know that I an atheist am not a communist

and as for you poet your bias becomes petty clear when you openly display your support for that snake galloway

[SuperTechmarine]

This nonsense again.What 'Atheist' massacres are these. Stalin did not kill because of his atheism, he killed because he was evil and was driven by an ideology. Religion IS an ideology , atheism is not. When taken at its proper meaning means a person without belief in gods . would'nt you find it bizare if 'a-political' was described as a political position.If stalin did murder Christians ( and they rank low on his list of victims) it was because they posed a threat to him and his personal ideology.

Now as for the other nonsense that somehow Atheism is related to Communism.It is true that Marx was an atheist but not primarily because he thought thee was no evidence for belief in gods but because he thought of it as a instrument of the ruling elite to decieve the masses.Did you know that I an atheist am not a communist

and as for you poet your bias becomes petty clear when you openly display your support for that snake galloway

George Galloway speak the truth! You have been brainwashed by your governement!