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Comment by moubarak | Hacker News Reader

you had no reason to offend another religion. you take religion lightly. you should be educated on other cultures. it is not smart to see people dying for their religion all around the world, and then go around offending them claiming that it is your digital right. that is extremely apathetic. im against you being jailed, but i am with you being outcast from society until you appreciate other people's cultures. You don't seem to deny offending another religion, so i assume you have been rightly convicted.

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I appreciate plenty of cultures, indeed I've tried to learn languages to better understand them, but I'm sure that doesn't mean I have to agree with them.

Assuming I have some criticisms of the application of Islamic laws, why must I ask your permission to express them, and to hold political opinions in general? I'm sure that some of my opinions would be held offensive by someone, does that mean I have "offended a religion/culture"?

if you merely criticized religious laws, then i apologize and take back all what i said and believe the you have been not rightly convicted. if you have been convicted however because you insulted that religion (insensitive photograph, your words nit mine) then you should be outcast like a drunk bee.

> your words nit[sic] mine

This was my first comment on this thread, and I'm not the one who submitted it. Read the usernames attached to the posts.

> if...you insulted that religion

As I said, it depends on my opinions and the definition of insulting - people might be insulted by what I say, I don't know until I've said it, do I.

In Liberal Theory (On Liberty, JS Mill) it is said that freedom of thought (believing something) and freedom of expression (expressing that belief, whether in a wordy article on political theory or a catchy, easy to understand cartoon) are so close as to be indistinguishable; since one cannot really claim to believe something if one cannot express it. You are trying to distinguish between the two; I don't think that's philosophically valid.

Additionally, you seem to be saying that you think it should be against the law to be rude. I will no doubt offend you if I say "how very English that sounds".

i think the human brain is more powerful than what you or what you state believe. humans can easily distinguish between freedom of expression and an offense.

> humans can easily distinguish between freedom of expression and an offense.

Offense is interpretation. This is fundamental to Liberal Theory.

In some cultures, some things are considered racist, in others they are not. see: "Black Person Toothpaste" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darlie (In China, a popular brand of toothpaste. In the UK, US, and I'd hope much of Europe, the name and the packaging would be considered extremely offensive[1].)

If "humans" don't agree on what's offensive (as I have proved with the toothpaste example), then something isn't "offensive" in and of itself; offense is an opinion about the object ("We think this opinion is offensive"). You can hardly convict someone of "causing our people to interpret something as offensive".

[1] although perhaps not in Italy... http://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2013/jul/30/italy...

'Religion' cannot be offended. People can.

And if they are so easily offended, this is not OP's fault.

What if his culture is anti-religious? Aren't you being offensive by saying he should appreciate religious cultures?

there is respect even between enemies. if his religion is anti religious, then he should respect them even more because they are his opponents. taking your enemies lightly is reckless.

That's one of the stupidest things I've ever read.

its interesting that you find this stupid, but not the fact that his religion is anti-relgious. you're really smart.

this is not about religion. this is about the idiots who think the religion is untouchable. how come a religion is getting offended by a picture. can a picture make you think that your religion is less valuable after you see it? imagine that i'm worshiping to cream cheese and you laugh on that. so now i have enough reason to jail you, even better, kill you. because cream cheese said so.

so you're saying a rude picture is not offensive? how can i argue with you?

Dear Moubarak, thank you for expressing your opinion. THIS is the beauty of something called freedom of speech: I don't like what you're saying, I think it's even offending to me, however, you have the right to say this. You don't get jailed and you don't get outcasted.

Based on this comment as well as several others, you appear to be under the impression that jacquesm is the OP. That is not the case, and I'm not sure how you made that mistake.

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