I've been pondering this for a while, because you know I have that knee-jerk reaction to christians getting all offended. Therefore I try to sit on it and be objective. As is usually the case, this situation is a lot more complicated and has just as much to do with politics as it does religion. Kathy Griffin's Jesus Remark Draws Fire from Christians
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences said in a statement Monday that it will censor Griffin’s “offensive remarks” when the event will be broadcasted this Saturday on the E! channel. The remarks will also be edited from official Emmy Awards broadcast the next day on Fox.
While Donahue was pleased that TV Academy “reacted responsibly,” he still called on Griffin to apologize for her “verbal assault on 85 percent of the U.S. population.”
“The ball is now in Griffin’s court,” he said. “The self-described ‘complete militant atheist’ needs to make a swift and unequivocal apology to Christians. If she does, she will get this issue behind her. If she does not, she will be remembered as a foul-mouthed bigot for the rest of her life.” (I find this remark particularly humorous and hyporcitical)
However, on the other side of the camp, the President of American Atheists is backing Griffin’s freedom to express herself as an atheist and said that the League and the Academy were censoring speech by atheists.
"It's permissible to make religious comments at the Emmy Awards and other public events as long as they do not criticize or threaten the self-appointed 'Religion Police," said Johnson. “Atheists cannot make an honest and forthright statement that their success came from developing their talents and working hard."
And last year, Rosie O’Donnell, former co-host of ABC’s The View, had made remarks comparing “radical Christianity” to radical Islam.
In Gaza City today, the Associated Press reports, "armed militants angered by a cartoon drawing of the Prophet Mohammed published in European newspapers surrounded European Union offices and threatened to kidnap foreigners as outrage over the caricatures spread across the Islamic world."
In Pakistan, "more than 300 students demonstrated , chanting 'Death to France!' and 'Death to Denmark!' - two of the countries where newspapers published the drawings. Other protests were held in Syria and Lebanon, while officials in Afghanistan, Iran and Indonesia condemned the publication.
Islamic tradition bars any depiction of the prophet, who believed that such images could lead to idolatry, and it is deeply offensive to most Muslims when that prohibition is violated.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai condemned the images, calling the publication an "insult ... to more than 1 billion Muslims."
Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State of the United States of America has accused Iran and Syria of organizing many of the recent protests in Iran, Syria and Lebanon.[58]
The Western media dubbed the series of demonstrations organized in February 2006 by certain Middle Eastern governments and radical clerics as the "Cartoon Intifada".[59]
On September 9, 2006, it was announced that the Muslim boycott of Danish goods had reduced exports to the Muslim world by 15.5%, costing about €134 million.[60] However, the Guardian newspaper in the UK also reported, "While Danish milk products were dumped in the Middle East, fervent rightwing Americans started buying Bang & Olufsen stereos and Lego. In the first quarter of this year Denmark’s exports to the US soared 17%."[61]
Honestly, the only difference I can see is that in the US, the other side of the debate is allowed to speak before they are shut down for being "foul-mouthed bigots". The same christians who are putting on the sack cloth and ashes as martyrs to the cause of their persecution, are the ones who were silently subsidizing the people who were doing the exact same thing to muslims. If they thought they could get away with it, they'd be out chanting "death to atheists" quicker than you could say "I never read the New Testament".
This is the thing that totally pisses me off about christians and their whole philosophy. Since they believe they are the "One True Religion", anyone who isn't them are heretics and infidels. Therefore any persecution they receive is their own fault for being wrong and thusly deserved and not to be condemned. And as in this case, to be encouraged. The fact that they believe this way doesn't in any way, shape or form make them bigots, though. ::cough::bullshit::cough::
at 11:13 AM :: ~#~
