Luis wrote above:
[[ Drawing pictures of Muhammed are offensive to all Muslims, even to those Muslims who are actively fighting Islamic extremists. ]]
Quite frankly, Luis, that's just too g**d***ed bad.
If islamics don't like it, tough. Let them go back to dar al-islam and stay there.
[[ You are trying to define the parameters of other people's religious beliefs based on what you find acceptable and proper. I wouldn't allow Muslims to do that to me and my religious beliefs. ]]
Again, if muslims have religious beliefs that are so sensitive that they cannot tolerate the precepts of Western Civilization -- with the most precious of those precepts being the concept of free speech -- they don't belong here and WE shouldn't tolerate their presence here.
The problem with islam is that it consists of a system of "beliefs" and enforced behaviors that extend far beyond those that can be quantified as [simply] "religious". islam is a political system of control cloaked behind a burqha of "religion".
As such, it should be the duty of those in The West to literally "pull off the burqha", and reveal islam for its true nature.
I don't have any qualms about insulting islam.
I find it disgusting and degenerate.
As Winston Churchill once wrote:
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“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities — but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.“
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Why should we respect something that wants to destroy us?