Where in Jordan do you live? We are just as awful as China…”

while you are certainly entitled to your opinion, i do feel this is a bit of an exaggeration. and i would usually not address this but you seem to saracastically be suggesting i am oblivious to our realities because i live on the other side of town (?).

while there are many negative elements when it comes to civil liberties in Jordan, many of which have been discussed on this blog time and time again, compared to China’s track-record (as well as that of the Dark Ages), we’re doing a bit better.

again, we are no where near where we should be, or where both you and I would like to see it…but we’re definitely not China…or the Catholic Church in the Dark ages for that matter.

thanks

What the hell? Why should our problems receive any international interference? If we cannot stand up to solve our problems on our own, then we are not worthy of change!

“It kind of makes us sound like China.”

LOL. I laughed when I read that. Where in Jordan do you live? We are just as awful as China when it comes to choking civil liberties and social freedoms as well as censorship! We ban books for God’s sake! We’re like the Catholic Church in the dark ages, thanks to the Wahhabi influence in this country, thanks to the Ministry of Education, the Awqaf, the Ekhwan, the Moukhabarat and decades of corrupt governments, as well as our allegiance to America!

Free Speech is “The right of expression in any manner without reprimand or censorship.” Does ‘any matter’ include offending others? If i saw someone on the street verbally bashing another person or offending them I would probably interfere and would like to censor or reprimand the culprit, but what counts as offensive to one person is not offensive to another. I could be offended by something, while others could be completely tolerant if not accepting of what is being said, but who gets to choose what the dominating rule is?

It is assumed that religion dictates what is right or wrong(that is the purpose of religion, for the most part). Sometimes I personally can’t decide what in reality is acceptable and what isn’t, because discussing Religion in the opposite direction is considered taboo, and in my head, I sometimes fear that discussion; but who do I fear, people, or God? I think I fear the latter, yet in Amman, I learnt that many fear the former.

As for poetry, since the days of Socrates (and before), the power of rhetoric is feared. Words, if arranged, picked and wrapped properly are as powerful to the human mind as flowers are to the heartbroken lover. Rhetoric can make or break, and if I was in power, I surely would watch out for it…

the thing is i get the feeling most ppl dont give a crap and this is just a way for them to look enlightened and make them feel good about themselves .. even though they have no clue about anything .. like when some time ago hamas banned a book and everyone was like oh boohoo and in the end it turned out all what happened is they pulled it from school libraries because they felt it was age-inappropriate which many ppl including ppl who hate hamas thought it was ..

ino oh waaa3 we are jailing poets we are living in the middle ages bla bla bla .. guess what .. we are jailing an entire population in gaza .. but it doesnt make us seem enlightened and cool to whine about those ppl .. no no its the silly poets who write crap about sex and alcohol and degrade the quran .. il mushkile if he was jailed for writing a meaningful poem like something political or whatever i would get it .. but this guy is “safil w mun7at” imho and yet hes getting all this attention ..

and yes i realize that this may not be a very popular opinion that i have just expressed but anyway ..

again .. im not sayin he deserves to get jailed .. im just sayin ..

anyway, I totally disagree with you about Islam causing 90% of the WORLD’S PROBLEMS. are you serious, especially being so precise in mentioning a percentage? So you leave out problems caused by natural hazards, famines, wars over wealth and OIL, imperialism, colonization, ideology/tribal conflicts, evil people with numerous motivations; such as greed, wickedness, desire to control, being psychic,..etc

Since you called for it, can you be specific and mention how you reached such a seemingly precise (90% ??) conclusion?

an if this post gets deleted then you’re just gonna prove my point.

I won’t even allow myself to get into the right or wrong or how or who or why….

While those possessed by fear behave like self appointed snipers silencing one body after the other, they can never silence the words, nor the images, nor the sounds.

The entire poem and everything Samhan/the Samhans of this place every scribbled will make their way online soon enough.

So dear stupids, go ahead, start packing for that dark, dead end cave. Take lots of cigarettes. Knock yourselves out! Nobody cares about you. You have become faithless since the religion you cowardly preach thru expelled you – because it is really you who are the infidels. And now you have no choice but to resort to savage, ignorant behavior. You are miserable human beings because your faith gave up on you, and you feed on the dregs festering on that new bottom.

This story makes me sick.

Your comment could be the title for a “creative poem” in the making… how about that for an idea! but why did you choose to censor your word?

But tell me, how would you react to your child reading those two poems I mention in my previous comment?

I think the trickiest part is not what you referred to, I think it is who decides what is “acceptable” whether it is poetry or even a dress code. Can an entity decide what I should view as acceptable?

- We don’t live in a world of our own … let’s look at it away from poetry (which in itself does have certain guidelines if one wants to get really technical about it. If you ever taught creative writing, or poetry writing, you’ll know what I mean), you’re a grad student Mohanned, right? your first day of the semester, your instructor hands out a syllabus highlighting schedule, expectations, class rules, grading scale … Why should an instructor do that?

- If you’re part of the corporate world, you’re going to get handed that corporation’s set of guidelines for work hours, dress code, expenses, etc. Why should corporations bother doing that?

- Even if you are self employed, you’ll have certain rules and guidelines of your own as well …

- Being a parent, you’ll probably have your own set of rules and guidelines when it comes to your kids. Why would you do that? or would you not?

even in rebellion and defiance, there are some type of rules …

asking it to succumb to earthly understandigs of what is right and what is not seems, to me, a defeat of the very purpose of art

relatively agree…

I was asking where does one draw the line with freedom of expression when it comes to religion and holy scriptures …or do we? for example, how do we – as part of society – handle a published poem that explicitly details having sex with God ? How about one that ambiguously details God’s physical features?

http://perezhilton.com/2008-10-21-god-bless-the-usa-2

also, poetry is an art form Iman… asking it to succumb to earthly understandigs of what is right and what is not seems, to me, a defeat of the very purpose of art. I love the stanza Nas posted… “if poets lose, the world will not gain”. That doesn’t mean that all art is good, indeed there is art that is bad and distasteful. But even bad art serves a purpose, because all art helps us think critically… and that to me, is badly required divine intervention.

“and so the point is freedom of expression comes with responsibility. period.”

and i agree with that. what i’m saying there’s usually a little more to it than that. for instance, if you read the sentence i wrote, which surprisingly follows the one that you quoted, you’ll see there is a contrast between acceptable lines of free speech and the persecution of ideas.

historically, the latter part has proven more trickier when you’re talking about poetry.

without descending into unwarrented profanity, insults and slanders, which are standardized and typically acceptable lines of free speech.

Exactly … and so the point is freedom of expression comes with responsibility. period.

Iman: My guidelines are designed to keep discussions clean without descending into unwarrented profanity, insults and slanders, which are standardized and typically acceptable lines of free speech. I don’t censor people for their IDEAS nor do I have the power to throw them in jail for several years under the label that they’ve committed a crime.

judging by your comment it feels like you’re already assuming he’s guilty of something based purely on the religious principle of it

Not at all … I just don’t find myself qualified to defend something I have not seen.

i’m more outraged with the principle of jailing poets in the 21st century

Actually, I condemn (and I stress that->) jailing anyone for expressing themselves in speech or writing, and believe it or not, even if it’s blasphemous… But let’s take your blog for example … people have the right to express themselves by leaving comments – however by going outside the guidelines you’ve set forth for your readers, their comments have the fate of getting edited to fit your blog’s commenting policy … so, really, with freedom of expression comes responsibility…whether be it social, cultural or ‘religious.’

After publication any author of course has to be able to defend his work – if necessary in court, which apparently will be the case for this author.