St George…so where is his modern-day equivalent?
Where are the bloody champions of civilized behaviour when a lady’s honour needs defending?
Alf raises this question after a bunch of religious leaders condemned the film that has sparked violent protests among the world’s Muslims and extreme reactions to it.
They have issued a statement (here) through the Office of Joris de Bres, the Race Relations Commissioner.
The statement is not likely to do a fat rat of good where it matters, which is among mad bastards who want to provoke Muslims with their ill-considered movies, cartoons, books or whatever, or among those Muslims with low tolerance thresholds who don’t need much of a pretext to declare a jihad or go on the rampage.
Some of the provocateurs on the publishing side of the issue can be found in France.
A bunch of feeble-witted Frogs has been involved in the publication of inflammatory cartoons of The Prophet Mohammad.
Are they really so short-changed in the thinking department that they don’t realise cartoons of this sort trigger much the same reaction as a match being tossed into a tank of petrol?
Except in this case the tank of petrol happens to be the whole of the Muslim world.
But in this country, an element of togetherness and concern to put out the fires of hate is showing among religious leaders, which is heartening.
The aforementioned media statement says –
Christian, Muslim and Jewish faith leaders spoke out today to unreservedly condemn the film and the violence that has led to tragic deaths around the world.
The joint statement was issued by Archbishop John Dew (Catholic), Archbishops David Moxon and Brown Turei (Anglican), Bishops Justin Duckworth and Richard Randerson (Anglican), Federation of Islamic Associations President Anwar Ghani and Wellington Regional Jewish Council Chairperson David Zwartz, supported by Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres.
They said that “The film, ‘The Innocence of Muslims’, was dishonestly made and presented, and designed to mislead, provoke hate, and cause harm. We unequivocally condemn the making and promotion of this irresponsible and inflammatory film and the resulting violence, which has seen the loss of innocent lives”.
“We call on all faith communities in New Zealand to remain calm and to strive to foster mutual understanding, counter hate, and promote dialogue, within and between our communities”.
These are worthy sentiments.
But who is going to similarly condemn the publication of pictures of a topless Kate Middleton, who is the wife of our future monarch?
This freedom-of-expression tosh is being taken much too far.
Trouble is, we are not allowed to behead the offenders any more.
We can only take civil action.
But the royals – who have succeeded with legal action to stop the publication of further photos in the French magazine where they first appeared – probably don’t have enough money to pay for similar action in every country of the world.
The controversial pictures have been published in Ireland, Alf understands.
Now they have spread to Scandinavia, as you can read here.
A Swedish celebrity magazine has printed 11 topless photos of Kate Middleton spread over three pages of its latest issue while its sister publication in Denmark has threatened to use between 60 and 70 of the offensive shots later this week.
Carina Loefkvist, editor-in-chief of Se og Hør (See and Hear), said her magazine, which has a weekly circulation of more than 100,000, bought the pictures last Friday ‘from photographers and photo agencies’.
Ms Loefkvist, said: ‘It is nothing new to us to publish nude photos of celebrities on holiday.
She said actresses Demi Moore and Sharon Stone as well as model Kate Moss have previously appeared half-naked in the magazine.
‘No one complains when they do and we print the photos,’ Loefkvist added.
Loefkvist can expect a letter of complaint this time.
If will come from the Grumbles, once we can find someone who can translate our feelings of outrage into Swedish.
It looks like we will have find to a Danish translator, too, because –
Kim Henningsen, editor in chief of Se og Hor ( See and Hear) in Copenhagen said he planned to planned to reproduce over 60 photos spread across a 16-page supplement which will be published on Thursday.
Alf is pleased to read, on the other hand, that police have raided the Paris headquarters of Closer magazine in the hunt for the photographer who captured Kate Middleton sunbathing topless while on holiday in the south of France.
And, of course, an injunction has halted further publication by Closer.
But this does not bring closure.
The aforementioned Danish tosser reportedly told a Copenhagen newspaper that the French injunction did not affect his magazine because he had been in possession of the photographs for several days before the Paris court ruling.
He said: ‘It’s a set of unique photos from a A-class celebrity. We are a leading gossip magazine in Denmark, and it is my job to publish them.’
And once upon a time our knights of the realm would gladly do their job. They would track down and seriously rough up the swine who dishonoured their monarch and his missus (or monarch in waiting and his missus in this case).
Oh for the good old days, although Joris and his mates might well be inclined to issue a statement urging a more moderate response.
Alf Grumble 