Saturday, February 11, 2006

'Freedom of expression' in Europe - Double-Standard?

Do you think this picture should be banned? Do you find it offensive?
Well, last year, this ad was banned in Italy (by Milan authorities) and in France:

France's Catholic Church has won a court injunction to ban a clothing advertisement based on Leonardo da Vinci's Christ's Last Supper. The display was ruled "a gratuitous and aggressive act of intrusion on people's innermost beliefs", by a judge. (BBC)

Maybe that's why some Muslim organizations in France also sue the newspapers that published the 'Danish Cartoons' . As in the case of the cartoons, we decided to post the controversial picture in order to be fair and so you can judge for yourself.
Personally I think the ruling against the clothing advertisement was a shame and I think we should allow all of it to be out there. However, the idea that there might be double-standards in the way we view and treat different religions in a democracy is even more shameful. We ought to show some coherence.


PS: Stupidity knows no (religious) boundary - on case you didn't know, in 1988
a French catholic fundamentalist group launched molotov cocktails inside the Parisian saint Michel movie theater to protest against the projection of Martin Scorse's Last Temptation of Christ.

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