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2/12/2008

Assassination Attempt thwarted

In Denmark people were arrested who allegedly wanted to kill a cartoonist. The cartoons had been a reason for demonstrations in Arabia in the spring of 2006 , where about 100 people were killed.
Source: Welt Online.

It is 160 years since people used to duell in Germany because of personal insults, for example Fürst Bismarck.

In March 1852, so ten years before Bismarck's time as prime minister, it was in the 2nd Prussian Chamber. Bismarck, then MP, and Mr Georg von Hagen Vincke (1811-1875), son of the famous first President of the province of Upper Westphalia, came in a offensive heated verbal exchange. Vincke then sent on the following day Bismarck a claim for guns with four bullets. Bismarck reported in a letter dated 14 April 1852 to his own mother about it.
In this pistol duel Carl acted as a secondary and pleaded for a four balls, a duel with four Jump shot in the circumstances was too hard. As a result, he may have saved Bismarck's lives. After the first shot of the two duelists were unsuccessful, the duel was brought to an end.
Source: Wikipedia

What I will say, the right to freedom of expression is one thing, but there is too a responsibility not to hurt other people's feelings and to respect that each culture has a right to change their views in their own time pace to arrive at certain insensitivity.

We Germans struggled for religious questions somewhat bloody strictly speaking, if you take for example the 'Kulturkampf'. Catholics and Protestants nearly banged in their heads. We Germans needed our own time to a moderate attitude towards religion.

Update:
Quelle: 14.02.08 Danish newspapers print caricature as a sign of solidarity, Iran protests.

4 comments:

Mark said...

People who's feeling are hurt are responsible for how they feel and how the react. Freedom of expression is freedom of expression regardless of who it might offend. The hardest thing is to defend ones right to expresss themselves in a way that makes your blood boil.

Ray Gratzner said...

Hello mark. Thank you for your point of view, and surely you are right in juristical regard.

But isn't it a neccessary condition for choosing one's own feeling, that the person is independant from the views of its social environment? This takes time.

In Germany it is not allowed to declare untrue the holocaust. We know from history, that there are limits to what might be expressed for very good reasons - fear of the return of nazis.

So if it serves peace, why not respect the values of other cultures. I have no need of any caricatures about religious contents.

Anonymous said...

You are not to blame for the behavior of another. You are only in control of and responsible for how you react or choose not to react to what happens. You control how you think. Nobody else controls your thoughts. You can choose to be open-minded and non-judgmental even when people are emotional.

Ray Gratzner said...

Dear liara, thank you for this positive statement. I agree with you.