Teacher In Teddy 'Insult' Faces 40 Lashes

[Lovelorn]

Big difference Choc.

1) In the U.S., an artist who creates a controversial piece, centered on religion, may be criticized by some religious leaders and politicians, but there's is no way for the U.S. govt. to prosecute him/her. Thank you 1st Amendment.

2) I'm not familiar with the God Is Dead t-shirt case. I assume it took place at a public school. Well, like it or not, schools are not free speech zones. Many schools can and do ban messages that might be considered inflammatory. Would you really want kids showing up at school with shirts saying "Fuck you," "White Power," "Suck it," or some other crazy message? Either way, a student might get punished but he/she will not end up in jail.

Big differences between Sudan and the U.S. .. Thank Allah!

Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. We live in a nation where an artist can create a Jesus out of chocolate (sculpture) and it causes a HUGE uproar.

Or

We can discuss the kids who wore the "God is Dead" t-shirts and almost got expelled from school.

So before we go lashing out at how "crazy" other religions are in this world - let's look at what we do.

Sorry - this will be the same reply that I gave another poster:

You missed my point. My point is that WE take offense to people who we see as disrespecting our religion. Yes, they have more "passion" about the
end result. I was not comparing apples to apples. I stand by my original post - Their Country, Their Laws. If you want to venture into a country with strict laws then you should be prepared to pay the piper. Period.

No arguably the big difference between the US (and western society in general) and Sudan. Is that the US is the product of a post-renaissance, post-enlightenment society. While the Sudan (its political issues aside) is the product of a ultra-orthodox 'literalist' interpretation of Islam. It is a country and a religion that has never experienced the renaissance, the enlightenment, the reformation, the counter-reformation etc. Leaving it and its fellow ultra-orthodox adherents firmly stuck in the theological equivalent of the middle ages, what we see on tv is the corresponding mind-set in action.

It's really no different than western europe in the 15th & 16th centuries, when we thought the world was flat and we burned people alive for heresy. Some society's have moved on, some have not (for a variety of reasons). The largely secular west generally no longer believes in literal truth of the bible, Islam on the other hand is based around the literal truth of the Qur'an. Neither point of view (or culture) is reconcilable with the other.

L.