Muslims struggle with the concept of Free Speech

Steeler [Crawler2] · Post by **Steeler [Crawler2]** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 8:06 am

Again, when you place limits on free speech and freedom of expression, before you know it, you don't have any freedom.

CASABLANCA, Morocco - The editor and a journalist at a Moroccan news weekly that published jokes relating to Islam were convicted Monday of insulting the religion, court officials said.

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The court gave three-year suspended sentences to Driss Ksikes, editor of Nichane, and to journalist Sanaa al-Aji, court officials said.

Both were barred from any journalistic activity for two months and the independent Arab-language magazine was suspended for two months. They were fined $9,280 each.

The sentence was milder than the three to five years in prison that prosecutors had requested.

The journalists would not comment as they left the courthouse. Lawyer Taoufik Benyoub said they would appeal the verdict.

But Ksikes last week told The Associated Press that the 10-page article was meant as a thoughtful examination of Moroccan popular humor.

"We just wanted to explain what Moroccans laugh about," Ksikes said.

Prime Minister Driss Jettou ordered Nichane banned on Dec. 20 in response to complaints posted on an Islamist Web site, Khorafa.org, and complaints from the Kuwaiti government about the article. Ksikes and al-Aji were swiftly tried for insulting Islam, a crime in Morocco.

Morocco's National Press Union condemned the trial.

The trial and a government-supported libel suit against another magazine, Le Journal Hebdomadaire, have led to concerns that the North African kingdom may be backsliding on moves in recent years to relax long-standing restrictions on the media.

Paris-based watchdog Reporters Without Borders has said that the government, by punishing Nichane, was seeking to burnish its Islamic credentials before parliamentary elections this year that the Islamist opposition Justice and Development Party is expected to win.

qardasay · Post by **qardasay** » Mon Jan 15, 2007 1:01 pm

the West is (race-sensitive) too

Steeler [Crawler2] · Post by **Steeler [Crawler2]** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:45 am

Only hate speech is forbidden. And it has to be with intent to incite.

In some western countries it is forbidden to deny the holocaust, but of course, I think those laws are bullshit too.

Cawar · Post by **Cawar** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:48 am

Do you have life other than dedicate yourself for answering any where you hear the word muslim??

man relax and enjoy life...sometimes.. Laughing

Steeler [Crawler2] · Post by **Steeler [Crawler2]** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 3:28 am

Cawar
Don't worry, I enjoy life plenty.

Come on, the Islamists deserve to be hassled. And you know it. Fockers are all trying to tell the rest of us how to live. Fock that.

Cawar · Post by **Cawar** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 3:38 am

It just is mind boggling why it irritates you that much...ok you like to poke fun at few guys...but c'mmon...exageration is bi.ch..man..

Steeler [Crawler2] · Post by **Steeler [Crawler2]** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 3:40 am

I'm taking up the slack for the rest of you, who think like I do, but for some reason don't verbalize it. It's as if all of you are afraid when some idiot pulls the Islam card. Like criticizing Islam is off limits. Somalis have balls when it comes to everything but that. No sack at all.

Cawar · Post by **Cawar** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 3:43 am

Fok you...you are full of it..and you know it..

Islam is infact off limits...but NOT muslims...who gave you the idea that you can have a free ride with this BS???

Keep onething in mind(and always)...that for any muslim no matter how off line he or she may be.... Islam is off limits..period.

Steeler [Crawler2] · Post by **Steeler [Crawler2]** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 3:51 am

Cawar
That's your problem. Islam may be off limits in your mind, but not in mind.

Walk this dog. Muslims claim Islam is infallable. Muslims claim that Islam is a way of life an a legal - political code. So, once a leader has established himself, and uses Islam to justify his actions (easy to do) it becomes impossible to criticize the leader - because he is working in the name of Islam. You criticize him, you criticize Islam. You say "No, not so", but the reality is, and always has been, that Muslim political leaders use Islam to maintain political control by claiming that criticizing them is criticizing Islam itself.

Political Islam is shit. It is an obsolete system that is no longer appropriate for modern times. The sooner all of you get your heads around that, the better off you will be.

Lastly, either you have free speech or you don't. You can't limit freedom of expression when it comes to your own socio-political system. That's no free speech at all.

Cawar · Post by **Cawar** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 3:56 am

YOu have to read some history about islam and Islamic leaders...

YOu cant criticize kulahaa?? thats wht you want to believe...but any one including the phrophet has been challenged..and questioned...dont talk about what you have no knowledge of..

I dont pretend to be a military expet when in fact I am not eventhough I might have heard a thing or two along the way..so show some common sense in not acting as an all know type of man..

Thats whats wrong with you and quite frankly with those wahabi/extremist muslims..

Steeler [Crawler2] · Post by **Steeler [Crawler2]** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 4:13 am

Cawar
Look at how Islam is PRACTICED, not at the ideal in your head.

Mohammed was challenged when he was weak. By the time he took Mecca, nobody dared challenge him anymore.

Political challenges in the Islamic world after that were always bloody affairs. There were no peaceful transitions where one Khalif gave up power to another just because someone else was better qualified or more popular.

Islam is a system of absolutes, in a world where absolutes have no future. It's time has come and gone. It was enlightened by the standards of the 7th century. It is no longer the 7th century.