[Sticks]

Originally Posted by kirklancaster

Are you for real? 12 innocent people brought violent death upon themselves, and immense heartbreak upon their grieving partners, children and parents, because they published a cartoon?

"People's sacred beliefs"? Their is NOTHING more sacred than HUMAN LIFE.

"Respect and restraint"? LISTEN to yourself. What RESPECT and RESTRAINT have these murdering cowards ever shown ANYONE who does not yield to their threats, does not conform to their ideology?

I am disgusted to hear these words issue from a Brit while 12 innocent people lay butchered in Paris.

First of all I said they brought it on themselves NOT They had it coming, which some apparently have said. Those two are not the same!

Suppose you go up to a wasp's nest and hit it with a big stick. If you get stung, you will have brought it on yourself, not that you had it coming.

Going back as far as the 1980's and the Satanic Verses, it is well known that by offending Islam, violent reprisals will be metered out. It happened in Denmark over cartoons of their holy prophet, where British Newspapers showed respect and restraint by refusing to publish them.

This magazine was fire bombed in 2011, so they should have learned from that, not to insult Islam, they persisted in their unfettered "Freedom of speech" clichés and this was the result. It was predictable this would happen so what what were they thinking?

That magazine should not have published those cartoons. By doing so they provoked this action.

For those going on about "Freedom of Speech", sometimes they forget, even in the UK, it has limits.

On this very forum, text speak is not permitted by forum rules, you could argue that is an unacceptable curtailment of freedom of speech, but in practice, we all accept and abide by that rule.

In the wider environment, we have laws against incitement to hatred, based on race, gender, religion and orientation. Those claiming the trump card of freedom of speech are quick to condemn anyone who is not politically correct. It cuts both way!