President signs Criminal Justice and Blasphemy bills into law

[Didimus]

I would read from that that they like concentrating on what will get viewers from their likely audience. Details of legislation won't get viewers. The fact that westerners are blaspheming will

Unless I missed something i thought the issue was that Al-J would report on an any attempts to test the law throught a Danish cartoon type stunt.
And I do think singling out AL-J as the medium through which such a story would be mediated to what in Gulf war days used to referred to as the Arab street left room for some misunderstanding - if a Danish style controversy arose it would be in every newspaper news channel etc and not just Al-J which in turn is not the only source of news in the Arab world

[femmefatale]

Unless I missed something i thought the issue was that Al-J would report on an any attempts to test the law throught a Danish cartoon type stunt.
And I do think singling out AL-J as the medium through which such a story would be mediated to what in Gulf war days used to referred to as the Arab street left room for some misunderstanding - if a Danish style controversy arose it would be in every newspaper news channel etc and not just Al-J which in turn is not the only source of news in the Arab world

Exactly!

[manna]

Surely the bills will be challenged at a later date in the European Court of Justice if the Lisbon Treaty is ratified: we will have to abide by the Charter of Human Rights and I think I'm right that the Criminal Justice Bill contravenes the charter.

Ahern is just looking for kudos playing the hard man. These new laws will surely become redundant if the Lisbon Treaty is ratified. And I think Ahern knows it.

[garlandgreen]

Unless I missed something i thought the issue was that Al-J would report on an any attempts to test the law throught a Danish cartoon type stunt.
And I do think singling out AL-J as the medium through which such a story would be mediated to what in Gulf war days used to referred to as the Arab street left room for some misunderstanding - if a Danish style controversy arose it would be in every newspaper news channel etc and not just Al-J which in turn is not the only source of news in the Arab world

indeed you have missed something. Al J was the best example to give because of the audience it has. The world media covered the mayhem that followed not the cartoons themselves which were published many months before. An organised campaign was put together to distribute this stuff in the middle east which then resulted in "unorganised" mass riots. And the carrier of the coverage of these staged events was guess who?

[Didimus]

Garland - It was your reference to details of legislation that confused me.
In any case I repeat my point - Al-J was not and is not the only source of news in the M.E. The riots may indeed have been organised as you suggest, but are you suggesting that Al-J was involved insome sort of conspiracy?

[garlandgreen]

Garland - It was your reference to details of legislation that confused me.
In any case I repeat my point - Al-J was not and is not the only source of news in the M.E. The riots may indeed have been organised as you suggest, but are you suggesting that Al-J was involved insome sort of conspiracy?

No I'm suggesting that people burning flags and doing their nut makes for good Television. Al Jaz is the only mid east outfit well known in these parts so mentioning any other would be rather pointless

[femmefatale]

No I'm suggesting that people burning flags and doing their nut makes for good Television. Al Jaz is the only mid east outfit well known in these parts so mentioning any other would be rather pointless

But do you think Al Jazeera would go out of their way to report about blasphemy in Ireland and do so in such a way to encourage a hostile reaction from their audience?

[Cato]

I did a quick check and found the following reason why Atheism is not considered a belief system.

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"A belief system is a "faith based on a series of beliefs but not formalized into a religion; also, a fixed coherent set of beliefs prevalent in a community or society." This is simpler than an ideology or philosophy because it's just a group of beliefs; they don't have to be interconnected and they don't have to provide guidance. This still doesn't describe atheism; even if we narrowed atheism to denying the existence of gods, that's still just one belief and a single belief is not a set of beliefs."

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This seems like a very tenous argument to me. Believing in nothing counts as a valid belief and saying that a single belief cannot possibly count as a belief system as it needs accompanying beliefs is nonsense – it’s a guiding principal and as such counts as an individual’s belief system.

My original point (which you missed) was that someone who takes an Atheist position is seen to be blaspheming by all of the major religions out there. If you want to argue the point go ahead but I'd appreciate if you did not call me ignorant again.

*Sigh* Now you're twisting. Pity. Your understanding of atheism is still poor.

(There's nothing wrong in being ignorant. There are many subjects of which I am ignorant. Atheism, for you, is obviously a subject of which you are ignorant. There's nothing wrong with that, but you should avoid commenting on it until you remedy your knowledge deficit.)

[Didimus]

anyway...
The point at issue seemed to be a concern that some people may be prompted into provocative action by the passing of the bill, and that the reporting of this by media in the ME might result in violent street demonstrations.
The simple solution would obviously for people to voice their disagreement in a calm and civilized way.

[garlandgreen]

But do you think Al Jazeera would go out of their way to report about blasphemy in Ireland and do so in such a way to encourage a hostile reaction from their audience?

The answer to the two questions in this order is no and no. They won't go out of their way to report it because it is in their way to report to get their audience. They don't do it to encourage a hostile reaction they do it to get an audience. If I'm not making this simple enough for you would you like me to draw you a diagram?