Burning The Koran

[Loyalist]

Some holy man in the U.S. has taken to burn copies of the Koran and now is putting their prophet on trial.
As this has done is to inflame the feelings towards U.S . people and therefore put its people in danger overseas.
I for one feel that this is charging the freedom of speech to far.
What say you ? :thumbdown

 

[Accountable]

I disagree. We can't start curtailing speech for fear that someone somewhere might decide to use it as an excuse to do something they likely would have done anyway.

 

[Loyalist]

I disagree. We can't start curtailing speech for fear that someone somewhere might decide to use it as an excuse to do something they likely would have done anyway.

Two people have already been killed because of it and countless others injured and its only going to get worst.
He's not just using his freedom of speech, he's putting lives at great risk. IMO

 

[retro]

Two people have already been killed because of it and countless others injured and its only going to get worst.
He's not just using his freedom of speech, he's putting lives at great risk. IMO

It doesn't matter... he's not directly causing anyone to react violently. He's exercising his right to free speech, as protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution. I may not personally agree with what he's doing, but there's no question that he has every right to do so.

 

[Loyalist]

It doesn't matter... he's not directly causing anyone to react violently. He's exercising his right to free speech, as protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution. I may not personally agree with what he's doing, but there's no question that he has every right to do so.

Are you in favor of the " Westboro Baptist Church " protesting the funeral of those troops killed overseas ?

 

[Accountable]

Two people have already been killed because of it and countless others injured and its only going to get worst.
He's not just using his freedom of speech, he's putting lives at great risk. IMO

Correction: Two people have been killed by murderers who shunted their responsibility onto an act by a complete stranger half a world away. Big font doesn't make big truth.

 

[Accountable]

Are you in favor of the " Westboro Baptist Church " protesting the funeral of those troops killed overseas ?

I'm not, but I gave over 20 years of my life defending their right to do so, so that you will have the right to express yourself as you see fit without someone shutting you down because they found you objectionable.

 

[retro]

Are you in favor of the " Westboro Baptist Church " protesting the funeral of those troops killed overseas ?

I don't like what they do, but they have the legal right to do so.

Why is this so hard to understand?

 

[Azazel]

​

 

[retro]

The pastor who burned the Quran is an idiot. Some Christians seem to think it's okay to burn the Quran but not okay for anyone to burn their precious Bible.

If the pastor hadn't burned the Quran, there wouldn't have been so much anger and outrage and those people would likely still be alive. IMO, the pastor contributed to their deaths.

The pastor had zero control over what those murderers chose to do. They would've found some other excuse to kill people even if he hadn't burned the thing. You're basically making the same argument as blaming gun companies for murders that were committed with weapons they manufactured. Hint: it's a fucking ridiculous argument.

 

[Accountable]

The pastor who burned the Quran is an idiot. Some Christians seem to think it's okay to burn the Quran but not okay for anyone to burn their precious Bible.

If the pastor hadn't burned the Quran, there wouldn't have been so much anger and outrage and those people would likely still be alive. IMO, the pastor contributed to their deaths.

Are you against burning the American flag as well?

 

[retro]

Doesn't change the fact that the pastor is a moron.

He may be, but it doesn't change the fact that he has the legal right to do what he did. Nor is he to blame for people choosing to murder others because of what he did.

 

[Siphorous]

Freedom of speech is a valuable right and rightly so, but what about incitement? Not everything can be brushed under the 'freedom of speech' thing. The pastor had innumerable ways to show of his disagreement with fanatics/terrorists but sadly chose a way that was invariably going to incite some sort of reaction.

I don't buy into the gun argument either - I don't know a lot about gun companies over there but of one thing I would hope is the case is that they are not inciting potential/actual customers to violence...

 

[Peter Parka]

Anyone who abuses freedom of speech by using it to incite hatred should have it taken away from them imo. People not getting killed or having the funerals of their loved ones ruined is far more important than a few biggotted morons having freedom of speech.

 

[Peter Parka]

Like those bastards from the Westboro Baptist Church. They protect at funerals and are a sick group of people.

They tried to come over here but out government banned them from entering the country.:thumbup

 

[HK]

You get your freedom of speech presumably so long as you're not violating any other laws. I'm sure there are people out there who disagree very strongly with our opinions, but we'd be shocked if we weren't allowed to express them, because we think we're the more civilised ones.

I agree with retro, there are a lot of people out there with very disagreeable opinions. If it was okay to use them as an excuse to murder other people then we'd be in deep shit. Talk about not taking responsibility for your own actions. I don't believe that incitement is a serious enough reason to kill someone. If it didn't happen directly in front of you then your reaction to that event is premeditated and considered because it takes time to reach you and time for you to react. If it's considered, then you've got more than enough time for your brain to think 'hey, maybe I shouldn't do this'.

 

[Tuffdisc]

Some holy man in the U.S. has taken to burn copies of the Koran and now is putting their prophet on trial.
As this has done is to inflame the feelings towards U.S . people and therefore put its people in danger overseas.
I for one feel that this is charging the freedom of speech to far.
What say you ? :thumbdown

Its really not excusable to kill someone over the burning of the Koran. IMO, anyone burns books is a fascist who doesn't allow their freedom of speech/beliefs

 

[Accountable]

Anyone who abuses freedom of speech by using it to incite hatred should have it taken away from them imo. People not getting killed or having the funerals of their loved ones ruined is far more important than a few biggotted morons having freedom of speech.

Even if the gov't decides that the speech is inciting hatred against them? Should freedom of speech be "taken away" then as well? I'm pretty sure we could comb through OTZ posts and find lots of members arguably guilty of inciting hatred.

 

[Accountable]

No. I think it should be legal to burn any flag - I don't get outraged when someone burns the Australian flag. To me it's a cheap and nasty piece of material.
But just because I think it should be legal, doesn't mean I think you should do it - it is disrespectful.

It was disrespectful to burn the Quran and I would feel the same way if it were a Bible.

I'd had this whole rant typed out then noticed you typed "legal" not "illegal" & had to start over.
"Nasty" is an odd description, but okay. Where do you draw the line at defining "disrespectful" speech worthy of being outlawed? That's an awful broad term.

 

[Kyle B]

I believe freedom of speech should only be curtailed if someone is directly causing danger, such as yelling fire in theater, or inciting danger, by telling somebody else to do the same.

The Florida pastor was completely within the boundaries of freedom of speech. The deaths that occurred were not at all his fault, he didn't force the killers to take lives.