[hermes]

>Easy to point at paranoia,

and I am the first.

>but the OP actually does have a point with what he listed (The Satanic Verses, et al), and one might have some surprises with trying to bring any scientology literature into Germany,


Or bringing the bible into Saudi Arabia, no?


Are you serious about scientology books being verboten in Germany? I must look into this. It is my belief that by criminalizing weird ideas you give them power. Leave them in the open where we can laugh at them. Did six million die? Who cares? At least I don't, whether it was six or five million or the whole holocaust was an invention of the 'Jews who control the world'. But in Canada and Germany both, people have actually gone to prison for questioning historical details or having some nutty ideas. I don't support their ideas but I support their right to express them.

As much as I think some islamic looneys also are potentially dangerous, even if the Koran advises violence (I haven't read it yet) and historically is a form of 'religious' racism, hey, the koran is just a book - paper and binding. Own it, buy it, sell it, honour it ritually, interpret it as you wish (and yes, burn it if that suits you). But what is happening is people who question the wisdom of Islam or muslim immigration go to prison in Europe and are charged with a crime in Canada. I don't know who is more dangerous - people who want to kill sellers of Danish cartoon buttons or the governments that penalize those who sell them. I don't want to have anything to do with either group.

>for another example (they're very sensitive to anything that feels cultish, for obvious reasons). The point is that we take our freedoms very much for granted, and many of those freedoms do not exist world-wide.

Exactly.