Je Suis Charlie ...

I was just going to question that myself, as well as the notion of radical Atheists.

They target them when they need a decorator.

That was pretty much my point, that anyone using religion to attack Gay people or any other group for that matter, do not represent any denomination which Ashdocs comments seem to suggest the actions of Radical Islamists do.

All i know is that Richard Dawkins clubs baby seals .

ok , i will come back into this thread just for one more post because i want to correct my mistake .
i withdraw the name i gave and suggest a new one---gayland .

fifty years down the line if we are both alive we will have known the answer .

while i fear my predictions will come true , i hope i am proved wrong and it is you who is proved correct .

Give me a break. Thinking a gay country would be called Homostan is not offensive. We call ourselves "homosexuals", as well as a lot of other vulgar names at times.

In fact, if there was ever a real gay country, it would probably be named something much, much worse.

It would probably be called the United Dicks of Amenica. Something like that.

Homophobe

***wonders if 'Amenica' was a typo. If not, it might be funnier than I'd originally thought.

Well Ashdoc, one thing I can guarantee and that's that I won't be here in 50 years time! so, I'll pull age rank and say, trust me I'll be right. Have a drink on me in 2065

No, it wasn't.

An appellation accepted within a group can still be considered offensive when used by outsiders.

There are some really sad, bigoted comments from Ashdoc in this thread - and some silly ones. Why on earth would someone want to rename London Londonstan???

In 1999 there was an Australian Christian missionary and his two sons attacked by a group of about 50 people in India - their car was set alight and the mob prevented them from escaping. The three of them were burnt alive - the children being 10 & 6. Does this act by Hindu hardliners represent the thoughts of all Hindus - just like Ashdoc seems to claim that the actions of radical Muslims represent all Muslims?

Do the actions of Catholic priest around the world and their treatment of children represent the beliefs of all Catholics?

We had a hostage situation in Sydney about a month ago where two people were killed. It was carried out by someone claiming to represent ISIS. After this event a memorial was set up where people could leave flowers and pay their respects. The number of Muslim Australians that visited that memorial when I was there was amazing - and they were there because they felt, like non-Muslim Australians, that this was an attack on their city and it certainly didn't represent their religion.

The world has a problem with criminals claiming that they are acting on behalf of a religion - it doesn't have a problem with Muslims. Go to Malaysia, a Muslim country, at Christmas sometime to see all of the Muslim families taking photos of their children in front of Christmas trees. That is what truly represents the vast majority of people who follow that religion.

In some cases, it might really be offensive. But I don't care. A lot of times it's just humorless, crazed crybabies who like to scream "HOMOPHOBIA!" "HOMOPHOBE!"

I think Ashdoc is probably much more exposed to (semi-)radical Islam than most of us here and therefore has more biased and extreme views on the matter because of his personal experiences with the religion.

I'm going to be very honest here. I'd probably be the exact same way if I lived in a country where a large part of the population (the Islamic part) wants to impose their religious values and habits on the more secular part of society, for instance when it comes to women's rights (which Ashdoc referred to), rights for LGBTs, etc.

I don't agree with what he's saying, but I think it's important to understand his views through his perspective.

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Cobpyth's Movie Log ~ 2019

dead accurate !!

muslims divided my country ( India ) and created pakistan in the midst of the most horrific massacres---probably a million died . that pakistan ( a creation of indian muslims ) does not have normal relations with India , but is in perpetual hostility with India .

Indian muslims have been suspected to co operate with pakistan whenever it mounts a terrorist attack on India .

muslims refuse to accept modern secular laws in respect to marriage and insist on maintaining their right to polygamy at a time when other religions in India have accepted modern secular laws . they even forced the government to reverse the court judgement giving muslim women equal rights .

I could go on and on....

You can load up this webpage and then right click on the page and then 'translate using Bing' (or I think Google can translate too). It is not a perfect translation but about 90% accurate and gives a pretty good idea of what the writer is trying to say.

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You have to think like a hero merely to behave like a decent human being.

I live in Seattle Wa. which is home to the activist/writer of Savage Love, Dan Savage, who is gay himself and writes about sexual/gender identity issues. He consistently uses terms like queer or freak when referring to gays and breeders when referring to straights. When I first read his advice column 20 years ago I was shocked at how frank he was in his language and his discussion of human sexuality issues and applauded his honesty and level-headed views on life. But of course he uses terms like 'queer', 'homo' and 'breeder' to grab the readers' attention and force them to deal honestly with their own feelings and prejudices.

When events like what has happened in France take place, and it will happen again somewhere, it forces people to look closely at our own feelings, prejudices, and laws - to re-examine our cultural ideals and values, something that closed societies, autocratic and dictatorial systems abhor. The first thing to go in these type of societies is the printing press and comedians.

Je Suis Charlie!

Another cartoon from the late Tignous published in Charlie Hebdo, a more moderate one, but how true

very true DM

I used to read another French satirical newspaper when I lived in France in the mid 70s - the near 100 year old Le Canard Enchaîné which I think has more investigative journalism than Charlie Hebdo? anyway at the time Franco was in his death throes, so Spain was on the cusp of change and Pinochet was well into the swing of his regime of torture and murder, in reading about these world events in Le Canard, it was instrumental in awakening my interest in world politics which has lasted all this time.

This video came under my attention shortly after the events and I can not but agree.