Letter on Iraq Still Makes Waves: Go to mosque and kill five Muslims

[Thurston Howell IV]

The letter to the editor was printed over nine months ago but its effect is still reverberating through Arizona. The Dec. 2 letter in the Tucson (Ariz.) Citizen made a suggestion on how to end "the horror" of American soldiers being killed in Iraq: Go to the nearest mosque and kill five Muslims.

In response, fearful Muslims kept their children home from religious school.

The Gannett Co. newspaper received numerous protest letters from readers, issued an apology and sent staff members to meet with members of a local mosque. Then the controversy moved to the courts.

Two men on Jan. 13 filed a class-action lawsuit against the newspaper on behalf of Islamic-Americans, and the Arizona Supreme Court is being asked to decide whether to overturn a trial judge's ruling allowing the newspaper to be sued for alleged distress caused by what it printed.

The newspaper argues that its First Amendment rights protect it from such lawsuits, but the plaintiffs contend that the newspaper, by choosing to publish the letter, crossed the line.

"You can express your opinion but not - especially with what's going on in the Middle East - if you put some people's lives at risk," said plaintiff Aly Elleithee, an accountant and immigrant from Egypt. "Somebody has to be accountable for what they did."

The Citizen argues that the most fundamental of First Amendment freedoms - the right to engage in robust political debate - is at stake.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/9707144.htm

[Cocoa]

1. we shut down Sadr's newspaper for inciting violence

why can't we do the same for the Tucson Citizen?

[karlrschneider]

2. Wow. Here's a blog with the letter reprinted

http://ayashi.net/blog/archives/000013.shtml

[renegade000]

3. ya and i'm sure they would have

printed something like "go to a church and kill five christians"
if it was sent to them.

:eyes:

[geek tragedy]

4. The only question is whether this will get them civil or criminal

liability.

Had someone been killed, the paper would have been in a world of hurt.

I would hope that they fired the idiot who decided it was ok to print that.

[AIJ Alom]

5. Crap like this does reverberate....

I remember right after the 9/11 tragedy, I went to several Islamic discussion forums.

The radical Muslims there who kept uttering death to America and celebrating the attacks in Egypt, Brazil, Somalia, Germany, Britian, and Pakistan would always point to the "lovely" anti-Muslim posts on Free Republic and other right wing hate sites of the time....And this was at a forum where everyone was coming together to bridge the gap between the Islamic world and the West. Can you imagine what these radical Islamic clowns took to their followers ? Can you imagine how powerful a translation of killing American muslims or the photos of the Abu Gharaib prison scandal are in hands of Osama Bin Laden ?

In my ideal world: I'd take all the radical fundamentalists of every race, religion, and persuasion, stick them on an island somewhere from where they cannot escape, arm each of them equally, and let them shoot it out. The ultimate Survivor showdown, just this one would not be broadcast on television.

[aquart]

6. Your right to swing your arm ends at my nose.

"Robust" now includes instructions to kill?

Because I have many fantasies of what I'd like to do to Ken Lay and his pals.

[bluestateguy]

7. Someday somebody will do it

Someday, maybe sooner than we would like, a gang of RWingers will kidnap and hold captive a bunch of American Muslims and impose demands upon Arab nations and Iraqi insurgents. If the demands are not met they will behead the Muslim hostages and record the images for TV. It could turn into a real international incident.

[ilovenicepeople]

8. SHHHHHHHH!!!

Don't give them any ideas.:scared:

[saigon68]

9. THE LETTER

Executions would halt killings

We can stop the murders of American soldiers in Iraq by those who seek revenge or to regain their power. Whenever there is an assassination or another atrocity we should proceed to the closest mosque and execute five of the first Muslims we encounter.

After all this is a "Holy War" and although such a procedure is not fair or just, it might end the horror.

Machiavelli was correct. In war it is more effective to be feared than loved and the end result would be a more equitable solution for both giving us a chance to build a better Iraq for the Iraqis.

- EMORY METZ WRIGHT JR., M.D

[number6]

11. worked for the Nazi's

"In war it is more effective to be feared than loved and the end result would be a more equitable ...."

see how long the 1000 year Reich lasted ...:eyes:

[Flammable Materials]

10. Citizen's "Clarification"

Editor's note: The Dec. 2 letter did not call for executions of Muslims in Tucson. It called for military executions of Muslims in Iraq when U.S. soldiers are killed there.

So that makes it okay, then.

I'm so glad I don't live in Arizona anymore. Of course, living in Tennessee isn't much better.