Turkey bans biologist Richard Dawkins' website

Ankara - Turkish internet users have been blocked via a court order from accessing the site of prominent British biologist Richard Dawkins after complaints from lawyers for Islamic creationist author Adnan Oktar, the website of Turkish television station NTV reported on Wednesday.

http://richarddawkins.net/article,3...-Richard-Dawkins-website,Monsters-and-Critics

Islam won't rest until it has taken over the world!

 

this is the beginning of the end of the beginning which is another way to say ... the governments around the world are slowly getting their little censorship hands around the invisible world of the internet.

pathetic.

i can understand a society banning child porn .. but banning a website because of ideas and science/religion ideas? if you are gonna bann one ... you have to ban them all e.g christian;islam;hindu etc and even then that will not solve any of the worlds problems.

 

The lawyer was a muslim so only so much rationality can be expected of him...

 

That's terribly prejudiced.

This is only a news story because dawkins is prominent, but lets be honest, he's as ridiculous a caricature, and as bad a stain on athiests as tammy faye bakker was on christianity.

(that is to say, I have a great deal of respect for a great many athiests, but, come on, you know dawkins is ridiculous, he WOULD have good arguments, but then he goes too far, and he takes things and showbizzes them, he doesn't HAVE to tweak bible verses and use specious and non standard translations to make his point about evolution being obvious, but he does.)

That being said, a great many governments block "religious hate websites" which, should be blocked. with no better justification.

Do I think dawkins should have been blocked?

HELL no. I'd point to a voltaire quote (that I REALLY hope you know ) But it would serve no useful purpose.

but saying that there was no explanation BECAUSE the lawyer was Muslim is just as hypocritical and hateful as the people you're talking out against.

That kinda shit is seriously outta line.

 

Muslims make great kebabs. Don't diss them.

 

I've never met him personally so I'll have to take your word for it.

So you don't believe that the individual should get a say on whether they believe something is bad or not and instead think there government should regulate the internet for the populace?

Interesting, I take it your from North Korea?

What are you trying to say here?

You do realize that the lawyer took offense because he was muslim correct?, I mean that's his entire arguement...

Perhaps in your opinion, but of course that is just your opinion.

 

What an over-rationalized and sucky argument. I'm not taking sides here, I'm just saying that if you're going to insult Muslims, do it honestly.

 

Or we could all just insult creationists instead. I could be wrong and I don't have any material to reference, but I am fairly sure not all Muslims are creationists... maybe ill look into it some time.

 

There is such a thing?!?

 

My son spent last summer wandering around in Turkey, his gf spent a whole year living there, and much of her family is from there (two of her family from Turkey were her visiting at our home just yesterday, in fact), so I tend to hear a lot about Turkey.

Although the population is about 99% muslim, their government is secular. Turks take a great deal of pride in the fact that they're secular in all matters public- even more so than in the USA, generally. My son is as politely anti-religion as anyone I know, but even he said the version of Islam seen in Turkey is generally beautiful, and conducive to peace, love, and family.

That said, I think it's a terrible mistake if in fact Turkey has blocked Dawkins' site. Dawkins really just does one thing: hold religion to the same standards of examination that we apply to all other assertions and claims. That offends people who believe that certain things should be above question or examination.

In any case, it's not like Turkish college students are too clueless to find ways around the efforts of their government.

Turkey is one of the most interesting places on the planet right now, and I'm tentatively planning to go to Turkey in 2011; we'll see how that works out!

RECOMMENDED:
Movie "Crossing The Bridge, The Sound of Istanbul"
One of the best documentaries I've seen in the last decade.