Al Sadr/Free Speech Issue?

Democracy?... Hmmmmm

Am I the only one who finds it ironic that as a nation who prides itself on democracy and freedom of Speech, we shut down an islamic news paper for "printing lies" and anti-american crap in Iraq?

The current conflicts in Iraq can be traced back to the closing of this paper.

Check it out yourself.

Did Bremmer underestimate the reaction to this?

The paper was run by a radical group of shiites lead by young cleric Al Sadr.

The same group that is blamed for the death and mutilations of many and the capture or
abductions of others.

Any thoughts?

Gazz



[Edited on 18-4-2004 by UM_Gazz]

Well the problem is that anti-american could leads to attacks so you have to put troops safety first.

Originally posted by UM_Gazz

The current conflicts in Iraq can be traced back to
the closing of this paper.

No it isn't.
The newspaper incident is just a peripheral.
The current conflicts are taking place because:

a) Sadr is making a grab for power
b) He had an arrest warrant placed on him a few months back by the IGC for suspicion in the murder of a rival cleric.

I haven't read the Iraq constitution does it include freedom to incite terrorist attacks with your newspaper?

Originally posted by J0HNSmith
I haven't read the Iraq constitution does it include freedom to incite terrorist attacks with your newspaper?

JOHNSmith is right, the paper was exploiting freedom of speech. Do you think that the paper was right to incite attacks against american troops?

Not only was the newspaper inciting attacks on American troops, which I agree that it may have a right to do, but it was printing actual lies. That was the justification for shutting it down.

Originally posted by RedDragon
Not only was the newspaper inciting attacks on American troops, which I agree that it may have a right to do,

Yeah? I wonder what you would think of that if on the front page of your morning paper there was a call for all muslims in the united states to murder as many american as they can any way they can. Might change your mind about that eah?

Well, of course I wouldn't agree with it, but I do agree with them that have a right to say it. I guess this means that, in a nutshell, even if I don't like what you have to say, I think you have the right to say it.

well than, I hope for the sake of all of us that you don't ever come into a position of power. You do not have the right to attempt to get people killed, through written word or any other means. It is called enticing violence and it is illegal in any civilized country.