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Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
Julian Assange is finally free ! Tue Jun 25, 2024 21:11 | indy
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The Losing Battle to Get Public Sector ?TWaTs? Back in the Office Thu Jul 25, 2024 19:06 | Richard Eldred Years on from Covid, Civil Service 'TWaTs' (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday office workers) are harming productivity and leaving desks empty. The Telegraph's Tom Haynes explains how this remote work trend affects us all.
The post The Losing Battle to Get Public Sector ?TWaTs? Back in the Office appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
?Prepare to Go to Jail,? Judge Tells Just Stop Oil Art Vandals Thu Jul 25, 2024 17:00 | Richard Eldred Guilty and about to face the consequences, two Just Stop Oil activists who hurled tomato soup at a Van Gogh masterpiece have been told to prepare for prison.
The post ?Prepare to Go to Jail,? Judge Tells Just Stop Oil Art Vandals appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Hundreds of Thousands Are Ditching the Licence Fee ? And It?s a Crisis for the BBC Thu Jul 25, 2024 15:00 | Richard Eldred With an £80 million revenue drop and growing calls for a licence fee boycott, BBC bosses are struggling to prove that Britain's biggest broadcaster remains worth the cost.
The post Hundreds of Thousands Are Ditching the Licence Fee ? And It?s a Crisis for the BBC appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The Democratic Party Clown Show Continues, With Giggles Replacing Bozo Thu Jul 25, 2024 13:00 | Tony Morrison Biden's sudden exit and the canonisation of his hopeless VP is a dismal chapter in American politics ? one that will further erode trust in the democratic process, says Tony Morrison.
The post The Democratic Party Clown Show Continues, With Giggles Replacing Bozo appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
?Climate Change? Used to Justify Government?s Record ?Investment? in Renewables. Cui Bono? Not the T... Thu Jul 25, 2024 11:05 | Richard Eldred The Government is using the excuse of 'climate change' to justify the largest taxpayer 'investment' in wind and solar farms in British history.
The post ?Climate Change? Used to Justify Government?s Record ?Investment? in Renewables. Cui Bono? Not the Taxpayer appeared first on The Daily Sceptic. Lockdown Skeptics >>
Voltaire, international edition
Netanyahu soon to appear before the US Congress? It will be decisive for the suc... Thu Jul 04, 2024 04:44 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N°93 Fri Jun 28, 2024 14:49 | en
Will Israel succeed in attacking Lebanon and pushing the United States to nuke I... Fri Jun 28, 2024 14:40 | en
Will Netanyahu launch tactical nuclear bombs (sic) against Hezbollah, with US su... Thu Jun 27, 2024 12:09 | en
Will Israel provoke a cataclysm?, by Thierry Meyssan Tue Jun 25, 2024 06:59 | en Voltaire Network >>
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Cartoons and Caricatures - an anarchist take on the cartoon row
Just as the cartoons simplified and obscured the reality of Muslim attitudes, the media coverage caricatured and simplified the debate. The real world was much less black and white then the media portrayal. Jllands-Posten was eventually revealed not to be a brave defier of censorship but a source of anti immigrant rhetoric, whose owner had campaigned for Muslims to be expelled from Denmark and who had, in 2003, refused to publish cartoons depicting Christ on the grounds that they were offensive! On the other side it emerged that hardline Danish imams had toured the cartoons around the Muslim world for months, and even added their own! By now we are all familiar with the cartoons commissioned and published by the Danish magazine Jllands – Posten which aroused such anger in the Muslim world and in Muslim communities worldwide.
Published at a time when Denmark is in the process of a debate over immigration the reaction to the cartoons seemed to exemplify the so called ‘clash of Civilisations’ between Islam and the West. In the red corner: a European magazine standing in the tradition of the Enlightenment and defending the right to free speech. And in the blue corner: backward superstitious Muslims, the beheaders of hostages and the oppressors of women. As the debate spread things seemed to become even more polarised. Dick Cheney took the opportunity to remind us of the dangers of Islamo-fascism, European consulates and embassies were attacked in the Middle East and radical Islamists took to the streets of London calling for non believers to be executed.
However just as the cartoons simplified and obscured the reality of Muslim attitudes, the media coverage caricatured and simplified the debate. The real world was much less black and white then the media portrayal. Jllands-Posten was eventually revealed not to be a brave defier of censorship but a source of anti immigrant rhetoric, whose owner had campaigned for Muslims to be expelled from Denmark and who had, in 2003, refused to publish cartoons depicting Christ on the grounds that they were offensive! The ‘defenders of free speech’ in Ireland – people like Kevin Myers and a collection of hacks from the Sunday Independent turned out to have no sense of either irony, history or their own hypocrisy. These same people were often the loudest and most strident supporters of the anti republican Section 31 censorship when it was in force in Ireland. They are also the most vocal cheerleaders of the various wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and potentially Iran… curious eh?
On the other side it emerged that hardline Danish imams had toured the cartoons around the Muslim world for months, and even added their own! They were welcomed by the religious right and Muslim governments. Undemocratic states in the Middle East used and encouraged the protests in an attempt to legitimise their dictatorial power. Questions began to be asked about how demonstrators managed to set fire to embassies in countries like Syria where anti government protestors are regularly arrested, tortured and ‘disappeared’. In a move which reminded us of ‘freedom fries’ the Iranian president declared that ‘Danish pastries’ were to be renamed ‘flowers of Mohammad’. Possibly he hoped that this shallow populist gesture would distract from the fact that his government was at that time engaged in a ferocious crackdown on striking bus drivers in Teheran. Setting up an illegal independent trade union and defying the paramilitary police oppression the struggle by the bus workers of Teheran shows that the Muslim world is not some homogenous block but that it does in fact contain a diversity of views.
Not all the protests were orchestrated or whipped up by the religious right or state tyrants. The cartoons were racist and offensive – they stereotyped Muslims (and especially Arabs) as suicide bombers and lunatics. In the context of the ‘war on terror’ and the debates in Europe over Islam and immigration it’s not surprising that a community under attack took offence to something which would have been better ignored.
However we should also be clear that religious ideas, like any others, are fair game for critique, criticism and attack. In Ireland we have fought and are still fighting against the religious right for basic freedoms such as divorce, birth control, the acceptance of homosexuality and the provision of abortion. These are things we demand, and it doesn’t matter whether or not they conflict with anyone’s religious beliefs.
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