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"People who claim to be offended can by all means do so, it takes a lot to make me cry." - Christopher Hitchens

No, you don't understand. There is no war or military criminal law here. Read the Turkish papers and you'll see.

OK. I assume you meant that if he was fired for antisemitism, that's a threat to free speech. If you didn't, then my bad. Suppose you start your own magazine in France and your editorial policy is to mock all religions, except Islam because you are a Muslim (I don't know if you actually are)...

And this doesn't negate what I said. Was liberty at stake when Sine was fired? It could be interpreted that way, but not for the reason you think. - - - Updated - - - And in Turkey it's not death. Now, Erdogan wants to introduce death penalty for treason and execute people who have committed...

So you agree, then? It's undemocratic.

It could also be a sign of self-censorship. Artists refraining from satirising Islam because they are afraid (quite rightly so) they might get killed is the end of free speech. In this situation, when liberty is at stake, printing cartoons like that simply as a protest is commendable, even if...

Said by everyone. Democracy is not just about elections, its about rule of law. The death penalty is not undemocratic in itself, there is a death in America. But you cannot sentence people to death for crimes that were not punishable by death when they were committed. It's the backward...

If Erdogan reinstates the death penalty for the participants in the coup, Turkey will officially seize to be a democratic country.

OK, he can answer in the religion thread.

Clearly more loosely than you. What is your definition and which countries do you consider theocracies?

No, but it's a totally different situation (that's why I said major policies). There are some defining issues for both Qatar and Israel. For Israel it's the right to exist and the Palestinian question. In Qatar it's the fact that it's a theocratic dictatorship. What is the equivalent in...

Yes, I do. Saudi Arabia might be worse, but that doesn't mean Qatar is not a theocracy. Btw, there are expats in Riyadh, too, so the same logic applies. It's just that Saudi Arabia has lower GDP per capita.

That's my point exactly. Some people wouldn't go there because it's unsafe, some wouldn't because wages are not high enough, and some wouldn't because they don't approve the policies of the state of Israel (the major policies, of course) or even think it has no right to exist. People who do...

Of course it doesn't stop many people from going there. The majority of the people couldn't care less about any of that. Most of them don't even care much about their own libery and would exchange it for a few extra bucks. As to the bold part, in a way yes. It means that they don't mind living...

Most Europeans would never consider a move for a different reasons, they think it isn't safe. Also, Israel doesn't have local population that wash their asses with oil and have no desire or ability to work, therefore there so not that much demand for expat labour.

I only offended theocratic dictatorships. I am glad you finally admit to everyone and to yourself that they are dear to you. And by agreeing with you, so does Seven. - - - Updated - - - I could be wrong, but weren't you the guy who was defending Qatar in the World Cup thread against all the...

Well, it's important to have an identity.

I'll try to explain one time before I go to sleep. When I said the Islamic World hasn't changed and is still a shithole, it should have been obvious from the context what I meant. I didn't mean that they are poor (some of those countries are very rich) or have shit climate and so on. I meant...

I apologize. From now on I'm going to spell out to you everything I say in detail and always speak literally. I've been overestimating your obsolete intellectual equipment.

Just a question, how come I get warned for calling a person, who justifies terrorism with the invasion of Iraq by USA, a terrorist-apologist, but nothing Seven said in the last 5 posts warrants a warning?