the dreaded internet conspiracy nutcases are claiming this awful event was a Jewish plot to cover-up Prince Andrew's woes and take him off the front pages...but

my personal belief is to never mock others religious beliefs no matter how wacky I think they are ( even poor ITK's worship of Mammon ) but I'm always wary of this "free speech" claim.

I can understand publishers wanting to re-publish the Charlie Hebdo cartoons to prove a point ( artistically i thought they were rubbish) but...

will they object then if cartoonists publish cartoons 'sending up' or mocking the victims of this massacre?

They'd be free to object to cartoons of that kind, just as anyone would be free to object to any cartoons they published but they wouldn't be free to use it as an excuse to commit murder. I personally think that even if having your religion mocked or seeing other religions mocked isn't pleasant, it should be permitted and that if you or your religion can't take it, it and/or your faith must be pretty wobbly.

Excellent points (as ever) by Hedda.

Surely the limits to 'civilised' Free Expression are to not CREATE or mock victims or the weak, only the strong and broad-backed?

E.G. Don't create victims by falsely shouting 'FIRE' in a packed hall, or by falsely alleging crimes that never happened.

While, leaders and prophets like Moses, Christ, and Mohammed are perceived strong, Christians facing lions, Jews in a Holocaust, and Muslims in Gaza, are victims and weak.

Yet, the strong figure of Christ made a weak victim and crucified was 'creatively' mocked by Monty Python in 'The Life Of Brian'. Which might be a film that humourless Jihadists my find enlightening, as no doubt Moses, Mohammed, AND Christ himself would have done.

Meanwhile the grim, Mammon-worshipping ITKs, mocking victims of exploitation will end up like the visionary Welles' 'Time Machine' Morlocks as fucking cannibals. And, the ITKs might not be amused by Hilary Mantel's excellent rage against victimization, 'The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher' with epic last line, "Rejoice. Fucking rejoice!"

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04wtrlj

that's a terrible thing to say re The Morlocks. What have they done to deserve ITK?

Late last year a columnist I really loved reading, Mike Carlton in the Sydney Morning Herald resigned over a controversy like this.

As an anti-Zionist he published a piece that carried a cartoon of a Jewish gentleman sitting in an armchair watching the bombing of Gaza.

He received massive hate mail and a twitter storm eventually telling many to 'fuck off".. The SMH laid him off for 2 weeks and he left.

Now the SMH is supporting the publishing of anti-Muslim cartoons- fine but a double standard ?

(## yes, no cartoon worth killing anyone for)

www.smh.com.au/nsw/mike-carlton-resigns-...20140806-100w1u.html