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No Gandalf, I had to qualify my view on whether it was an attack on freedom - strangely enough, with whether it was an attack on freedom.

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Sure, but not everything is about freedom Gandalf. I know you only just became the standard bearer for freedom of speech, but you should try not to get carried away. You are allowed to oppose things for other reasons.

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People are not going to stop building houses because they get broken into occasionally. People will however stop drawing Muhammed cartoons and making books and films that mock Muhammed because of the targetted attacks on those that do. It is the targeting that is significant. If there are only 20 significant new works mocking Muhammed each year, and five deaths because of them, then the odds are not that good for someone considering joining that group of 20. Soon it will be down to 15, then 10, then 5, then nothing.

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Not say, people who dislike being raped and sexually assaulted en masse in a country that is otherwise very liberal?

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Do you think the Muslims will follow suit? They have had 1400 years, including a so-called "golden age" where they ruled the western hemisphere. They have pretty much nothing to show for it. The modern oil rich Muslim countries have managed to buck the common trends associated with wealth seen everywhere else in the world and have devoted their excess energy to becoming even more socially backwards. We did not expect the Vietnamese to become less Vietnamese in order to contribute to our society, but Islam is not a race.

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How about today Karnal?

polite_gandalf wrote on Jan 15^th, 2016 at 12:28am:

Lemme put it this way.

If a feminist who is also a performing artist and street theatre performer went to Auburn and Lakemba with a film crew and made a day of protest by holding up a placard with a clever slogan about universal human dignity and went around ripping off niqabs and hijabs while carefully and scrupulously avoiding injuring the women themselves - I would donate money to such a ballsy suffragette. Wouldn't you?  She would be fined - but that's a small price for Westernising Islam.

What about ripping of the swastika arm bands of nazis on the street? A good thing. Or do you think that nazi arm-bands are inviolable?

There is no place for the niqab and the hijab and the burqa in the West. If the wearers get a bit humiliated or ridiculed - well, that the rough and tumble of of free exchange of ideas.  If they can parade their beliefs in the public square, those who oppose their ideas are equally allowed to express their views in the public sphere. As long as nothing but their egos are harmed, it's all part of free and fearless exchange of ideas in the public sphere, isn't it? There is nothing special about Muslim women going around in anachronistic garb claiming special privileges. Muslim men subject Wester women to much worse ordeal that the rare niqab removal.   

Let the niqabis and hijabis reign in their men first.

Then we can talk about the rare and isolated instances of hijab-snatching.i

Soren wrote on Jan 15^th, 2016 at 7:06pm:


You see? You’re not racist. Backward tinted women’s egos aren’t a race.

Do you know what you are, dear boy?

You’re a pacifist. Blessed are the peacemakers, eh?

I blame Islam. Snatch them.

Oh, old boy, you are naughty. Who evaded the important question of what Orthodox Jewish ladies wear on their heads?

Not to worry. I did a little Google. The answer?

Wigs.

Yes, Jewish law requires the covering of ladies’ hair. Your modern follower of Leviticus likes to wear a nice bob, in Aztec copper, scarlett red, or platinum blonde.

Stylish.

Meanwhile, your backward tinted Muselwoman wears a ridiculous coloured scarf or a big black burqa to highlight her submission. How utterly, utterly pathetic.

Pointing this out isn’t racist, of course, Islam is not a race.  it’s speaking out in support of ladies everywhere.

Do you know what you are, dear boy?

You’re a feminist. You’re a champion of women’s rights.

Snatch them.

Good point, dear boy. Free speech is under threat. I hadn’t considered that.

It’s the headscarves, isn’t it?

Good grief, if only they’d switch to wigs.

You’re right. That sort of thing would never happen if they wore wigs.

There’s nothing wrong with hairpieces, old boy. Our finest entertainers and sportsmen use them, you can’t even tell.

Sir Reggie has a good man in Cairo. Ask for his card.

Ah yes, the good old eternal principle - like snatching headscarves off old ladies at the Auburn.shops, all for the feminist cause. Most Voltairean.

Could we pay some nice person to do it, dear boy? I don’t want to.put my job at risk. I have a mortgage and mouths to feed, you know.

Look, let’s just say we’ll do it and leave it at that. That should work.

It’s the principle that counts, shurely.

Karnal wrote on Jan 15^th, 2016 at 10:05pm:

Exactly - it's the princilpe. Do you have any, PB?  Of course you don't. 
Other that being a PB , no matter what the circumstances.