International "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" (20th May)

Since 20th May is the first international annual "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" ("Be there or be dhimmi"), I was going to draw a cartoon or something, but instead I have dug up a perfectly good cartoon representing Mohammed, drawn by an Israeli girl in 1997. Here it is:

Mohammed as a pig, standing on the Koran whilst he writes in it.

I got this cartoon from THE PIG AND THE PRINCESS.

Israeli girl Tatiana Soskin:
Drew the "illegal" cartoon of Mohammed as a pig.

The pig, of course was the depiction of Mohammed. The princess was Tatiana Soskin (pictured right).
Seems like this simple young Russian/Jewish girl living in Hebron in 1997 became, perhaps understandably, pissed off at the Arabs/Palestinians continually bombing and shooting into her home town. As a sign of protest, she drew a cartoon depicting Mohammed as a pig, standing on the Koran whilst he writes in it. This could seem like fair comment to most people.

It's not clear from the post in THE PIG AND THE PRINCESS as to what crime she was believed to have committed, but In 1998 she was apparently given 2 years' prison sentence for committing what the presiding judge considered to be some kind of racist act or atrocity akin to (wait for it) - what the Nazis did during the Holocaust. Amazing.

The mind boggles that the Jewish authorities and legislature could have been such dhimmis, but there we are - and bugger the principle of "freedom of speech", I suppose.

I must admit, until I read this, I had always thought the actions of the Israelis demonstrated them to be a pretty hard-headed and rational bunch, with a strong sense of moral integrity/justice, but this one - if true - has me at a complete loss. I wonder, under what circumstances could it be justifiable and make sense?

As for the annual international "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day", this cartoon from DayByDay Cartoons is priceless (click on the link if this copy below is too small to read):

Daft Kiwi copyright law could be adopted

Update 2009/04/04: This proposed legislation has now been thrown out, following a huge protest. The Creative Freedom Foundation NZ contributed a lot to mustering support amongst citizens, who asked their MPs to vote against the thing. Another failed attempt to reduce our lawful and democratic rights.
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The Enquirer article here has a link to a site to protest this proposed law:
The Creative Freedom Foundation NZ
I have just written to Helen Clark, Labour MP and ex-PM, regarding this.
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Dear Ms Clark,
I wish to protest in the strongest possible terms regarding this proposed legislation, which appears to be being forced through approval at the behest of interested commercial lobbyists, and against the interests of people's democratic rights, freedom and liberty.

The government appears set to adopt a daft, draconian copyright infringement law next month, which will see Internet users summarily disconnected merely upon accusation that they've unlawfully shared copyrighted files, with no proof, due process or right of appeal involved.

Termed Section 92 of the Copyright Amendment Act, this outrageous Kiwi legislation makes the assumption that any Internet user in the country accused of copyright infringement will automatically be deemed guilty. Just the allegation requires that their ISP disconnect them.

Instigated at the behest of the RIANZ, New Zealand's Big Music MAFIAA analogue of the US-based RIAA, the law is currently scheduled to be put into force at the end of February 2009.

Any "Guilt upon accusation" law would be fundamentally wrong. Western democracy, freedom, liberty and law thrives - amongst other things - on a robust declaration about due process in the proving of guilt.

If this law is approved, then it would presage the further progressive reduction of people's democratic rights, freedom and liberty.

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Canada is no longer a free country?

Canada is incrementally moving to some disturbing conclusions. How was freedom so easily dispersed? I used to think Canada was a bastion of freedom, but now it's not so certain that that is the case.

Check out this: HUMAN RIGHTS PANELS OF ALBERTA
BETWEEN: Darren E. Lund (Complainant),
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Stephen Boissoin and The Concerned Christian Coalition Inc. (Respondent)
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Canadian Civil Liberties Association and Attorney General of Alberta (Interveners)

(Download the file: http://albertahumanrights.ab.ca/LundDarren113007Pa.pdf)

Separately, the NRO (National Review Online) states:

Most of the media in Canada and the United States ignored the British Columbia “Human Rights” Tribunal that took place last week in a windowless basement in Vancouver. Now, a group of provincial human-rights commissars will decide whether or not National Review’s incomparable Mark Steyn and the largest-circulating magazine in Canada, Maclean’s, will be fined or otherwise censured for printing an excerpt from Steyn’s book, America Alone. The piece argued that demographic trends indicate that Western Civilization will sooner or later be forced to confront problems associated with radical Islam. We believe that the right to free speech must be defended almost without exception, but it’s worth noting that Steyn’s article was perfectly within the bounds of reasonable opinion journalism.