Posted by
arandomguy on Thursday, October 26, 2006 11:57:37 PM
This is an important victory for Free speech, as well as just an interesting bit of news. Remember the Danish cartoon hullaballoo earlier this year? Seven Danish Muslim organizations sued the publisher of the cartoons for Libel, claiming that the cartoons implied that all Muslims were terrorists.
This comes from the court that ruled on the case. "But there is no sufficient reason to assume that the cartoons are or were intended to be insulting ... or put forward ideas that could hurt the standing of Muslims in society."
And they are absolutely correct. A Muslim Imam, however, said that the organizations will appeal the case to a higher court, because they still believe it is libel. I have another question, that is more of a legal question than a political one. Can libel be pursued against a religion? I don't think so, though I am not sure (any lawyers reading this will be able to answer my question I'm sure). I know you can libel a person, and perhaps an organization. But is it possible to libel a religion?
And if so, wouldn't libel against Christians and Jews occur on a minute-by-minute basis within the Islamic countries? Yet, you don't see any Christians or Jews suing because of libel. This however, is the quote of the week to be sure. This quote comes from Ahmed Abu-Laban, an Imam from Copenhagen who has been instrumental in bringing this lawsuit to court. He says:
"Freedom of speech has been the issue from the beginning. It is seen differently in Europe than we see it."
I'll say.