Cardiff student paper publishes cartoons
At the foot of the Omar Khayam article comes the news that the Cardiff University student newspaper published the cartoons and then apologised for it. Gair rhydd (“free word” in Welsh) won the Guardian’s Student Newspaper and Magazine of the Year award in 2005. Now its editor and two of its writers have been suspended. Its website is down at the time of writing.
UPDATE: The BBC now reports that the magazine has been withdrawn and pulped, although about 200 are thought to remain in circulation. The same report says
It is thought Cardiff University’s student union paper Gair Rhydd is the first UK publication to use the image which has caused global protests.
Actually, The Freethinker, the UK’s secular humanist monthly, published two of the cartoons back in November (the fizzy-bomb-head one was on the front page). But this year’s Hajj trajedy hadn’t occurred by then, and the Saudis hadn’t yet felt the need to kick up a distracting stink.
Freedom of expression until someone holds a (virtual) gun to your head is not free. Whoever suspended these men is fearful. Free speech should be respected – even if a lot of people get offended by it in this way. Religion is still ONLY an idea and does not deserve unquestioned or unquestioning respect. Blair’s bill was only narrowly defeated but even in the new form, it goes too far.
Even Lord Carey is equating religion with race now – the idiot!
BBC News is reporting that the paper has been seized and pulped: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/4689442.stm
Interesting that one of the comments in the BBC story is from the Uni’s Centre for Islamic Studies (main sponsor….?), who seem to have been one of the bodies demanding the Uni’s strange action.
Curious way to study a subject at graduate level – ban criticism, just say it’s bad and don’t talk about it,etc. – have they been taking a leaf out of Tehran’s education book. Wonder if the students spy on the tutors too, like the ones who led to the prosecution of the medical professor in Pakistan a year or two back!
Christ! Cardiff University. Had a friend who used to work there. Their Human Resources Department(and hence the ones with the power) were such anal dumb-asses it was amazing people actually stayed there.
And although, to an extetnt, the dual English-Welsh text that is required throughout Wales is commendable, it does become a bit of a farce when you have to make up welsh words for technical medical terms that are pretty way out in English.
Welcome to the world of Ultra PCness. I’m soo glad my immigrant parents made me learn english. This ridiculous sensitivity is setting up even more cultural barriers. Notions of freedom and liberty are obviously not at all viewed in the same way in a muslim culture. It would be be great to hear the Islamic studies centre talk about honor killings or the burning of bibles in Saudi Arabia or complete lack of religious freedom in all Muslim countries.
i suggest you read this article, before complaining about religion..think of it this way, if we were all God-fearing people, there would be no corruption on this world
Graham,
Well done.
“god-fearing”.
Yep, you got straight to the point there, even though you probably don’t even begin to realise it. Fear. Why on earth would I want to live in “fear” of some all-powerful and capricious (albeit entirely undetectable at the same time) deity. Fealty through the threat of punishment? Do you seriously believe that anyone who isn’t terrified of your shock-and-awe deity is incapable of being honest?
Interestingly, the punishments currently on offer don’t seem to have dissuaded many “god-fearing” folk from committing all sorts of offences..shall we start with paedophile priests? how about philandering televangelists? maybe those who beat homosexuals, or abortion clinic staff?
So what’s your mythical “god” going to do to keep ’em in line in future? raise the thermostat on your “mythical” hell?
Please bring some intelligence (and evidence) to your next post.
Thanks.