Thursday 21 November 2013

"Why can't we admit we're scared of Islamism?"

Tracey Emin's work (Photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty)
Let's face it — we only challenge religions that won't hurt us, 
and governments that won't arrest us. 
-- Nick Cohen
From the Speccie a last week.
The money shot:
.... it [the Danish Court] acted as if criticism of religion — a system of beliefs which individuals should be free to choose and others should be free to criticise — was identical to racial prejudice, which all thinking people condemn because no one can choose his or her ethnicity. The white ‘liberal’ judges therefore ruled that the Iranian-born artist was a ‘racist’ and gave her a criminal record for condemning honour killings and clerical misogyny — proving yet again that the interests of women always come last.
When I asked what she thought of the Danish legal system, I did not receive a long lecture on freedom of expression.
‘I think it’s fucked,’ she said.