The Right to Offend

[Thorne]

I think I would have to say that it would take a hell of a lot more than what you showed to offend me. None of those pictures came even close. And, like TYWD, I thought the "last supper" pic was rather clever.

What really does offend me, though, is how much people around the world seem to want to bend over backwards to avoid offending those who have proven to be offensive to almost everyone. Yes, in this instance I am speaking of those radical members of Islam who have no compunction against ridiculing other countries, other flags, other religions, but who will immediately beat their breasts in pained outrage if you reciprocate.

So portraying Muhammad with a bomb for a turban was offensive to them? Tough shit! Seeing people dancing in the streets because thousands of people died in the WTC was just as offensive to me! Do caricatures of your religious leaders make you mad? Too bad! Bombs going off in buses makes me pretty pissed off, too. Don't like people criticizing your religion? Stop sentencing rape victims to harsher penalties than their rapists!

The Bible and the Koran, I believe, are in agreement here: Ye shall reap what ye shall sow.

[Moonraker]

See below

[Moonraker]

Seeing people dancing in the streets because thousands of people died in the WTC was just as offensive to me!

If you see them as enemies and they see you as enemy, why are you offended or suprised if they celebrate a "victory". I'd be more concerned than offended. Concerned that people I want to be friends with celebrate my suffering!

[Thorne]

If you see them as enemies and they see you as enemy, why are you offended or suprised if they celebrate a "victory". I'd be more concerned than offended. Concerned that people I want to be friends with celebrate my suffering!

I never said I considered them enemies. Terrorist organizations, yes, they are enemies to all. But these were, apparently, ordinary people who were demonstrating their hatred for us by celebrating the deaths of innocent people. And not just Americans. There were people from all over the world in those buildings.

Neither did I say I wanted to be friends with them. I prefer a "live and let live" policy, for the most part. What concerns me, and saddens me, is that this country (USA) is generally among the first to jump in and offer assistance, both physical and monetary, whenever a disaster happens anywhere in the world. Yet it seems that far too many people around the world revile us anyway. They say that charity begins at home. Perhaps it's time for the US to pull back from International aid programs and contend with our own problems. Let the rest of the world go hang itself.