[Peace-discuss] Cartoons

[Janine Giordano]

Bob said, " I have no sympathy for the folks
that are rioting and burning, but am disgusted that the DI
has gotten into the fray by republishing stuff that is seen
as obscene by many Muslims. But then I believe they are behind
the Chief as well, so should I be surprised?"

Yeah, that's an interesting question of whether or not offensive material
should be republished--for a particular purpose of pubic notice and open
critique. This is an interesting issue that I suspect the ACLU deals with
often---I, for one, really appreciate knowing what these cartoons that we
are all talking about actually look like. I don't personally like the idea
of opposing something on the grounds of hate-speech simply by taking the
"media's" word for it that these cartoons were so horrible. Seeing them, I
can have something to say. I have appreciated Ken Cuno and Behrooz
Ghamari-Tabrizi's explanation for why these are so offensive. Their
assessments lead me to wonder whether or not it matters how *intentionally*
hateful these cartoons were. Part of me believes (or wants to believe) that
these were made in real ignorance, and a climate of excessively racialized/
politicized religion. As Ghamari-Tabrizi's article implies, whether
consciously malicious or not they are part of an old system of
discrimination. But, in terms of responding to the incident here and now, I
wonder if we should consider constructive ways of theorizing/categorizing
hate speech from pathetic stupidity coming from a subculture of bigoted 
individuals. Is every racist/ close-minded remark a product of its culture, 
or is it possible that we have some bigots in Denmark? (Because,... we don't 
have to go all the way to Denmark....)

janine


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bob Illyes" <illyes at uiuc.edu>
To: <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2006 3:46 PM
Subject: [Peace-discuss] Cartoons


> Thanks for the news, David. I have no sympathy for the folks
> that are rioting and burning, but am disgusted that the DI
> has gotten into the fray by republishing stuff that is seen
> as obscene by many Muslims. But then I believe they are behind
> the Chief as well, so should I be surprised?
>
> Bob
>
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> Peace-discuss mailing list
> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
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