The Atheist Blogger

I was planning to watch the controversial movie “Fitna” on LiveLeak.com and write a summary / report on it, but as I settled down to do so, I found a lot of reports from various other blogs saying that the film had been removed from quite a few places on the web. On LiveLeak itself (on the homepage itself) the following message is displayed:

Following threats to our staff of a very serious nature, and some ill informed reports from certain corners of the British media that could directly lead to the harm of some of our staff, Liveleak.com has been left with no other choice but to remove Fitna from our servers.
This is a sad day for freedom of speech on the net but we have to place the safety and well being of our staff above all else. We would like to thank the thousands of people, from all backgrounds and religions, who gave us their support. They realized LiveLeak.com is a vehicle for many opinions and not just for the support of one.
Perhaps there is still hope that this situation may produce a discussion that could benefit and educate all of us as to how we can accept one anothers culture.
We stood for what we believe in, the ability to be heard, but in the end the price was too high.

I haven’t watched the movie yet (although I plan to after I write this), but if it’s anything like what I have heard about it, I’m honestly not that surprised. After the whole fiasco over one image of Muhammad with a bomb for a turban, I dread to think what repercussions will occur for a film that is purposefully against Islam.

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Back in 2005, a Danish newspaper published 12 cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad in some controversial poses, including the most famous image of him wearing a bomb as a turban. This led to a load of riots and protests in the Muslim world, and more than 100 people died as a result.

Of course, the images were on the internet within hours, and so they were never going to disappear completely. The free online encyclopedia Wikipedia was unsure whether to allow them on their article covering the controversy. The subsequent debate went on for almost two years (officially starting on 11th April after Wikipedia removed the images).

However, two days ago the debate ended and the decision was made to reinstate the images in the article, but to tag them with an id so people can remove the images from their view of the page.

Important notice: Prior discussion has determined that pictures of Muhammad will not be removed from this article

It’s a long deserved victory for those who support freedom of speech and expression, and another blow for people who think that religious rules should be followed by everyone. We live in a secular society, and freedom of speech should be respected, especially on the World Wide Web.

Thanks to Spread Rationality for the link!