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Rackspace Shuts Down Quran-Burning Church's Sites
theodp writes "In response to a complaint, Rackspace has shut down the websites of the Dove World Outreach Center, a small 50-member church which has received national and international criticism for a planned book burning of the Quran on the anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. The center 'violated the hate-speech provision of our acceptable-use policy,' explained Rackspace spokesman Dan Goodgame. 'This is not a constitutional issue. This is a contract issue,' said Goodgame, who added he did not know how long it had hosted the church's sites. Not quite the same thing, but would Kurt Westergaard's cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad also violate Rackspace's AUP? How about Christopher Hitchens' Slate articles? Could articles from one-time Rackspace poster child The Onion pass muster?"
I wonder if we'll ever see a Bible, Quran, and Talmud burning protesting the small mindedness of religion and how it gives people the false hope that God will save us from of all our problems and that we can continue our mindless consumption and destruction of the planet and extinction of species because He put this planet here for us.
RIP America
July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001
What's interesting is that the only USians with the balls to condemn an ancient barbaric religion are members of another one!
The rest of America is gutless, and brainwashed that superstition should be respected. Fuck that.
Modern culture EVOLVED by destroying backward cultures, and should seek to improve the breed by competing. Everything secular USians profess to hate about Christianity is vastly worse in Muslim societies.
Attacking all superstition is man's duty to the human race.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
From my grandparent message
"It is funny how the ISP's and Hosting companies want all that common carrier protection"
the word and means both ISP's AND Hosting companies WANT "Common Carrier" protection, it did not say they were common carriers.
No it is not an ISP, it is a hosting company, please read past the first few words
I think we should burn all religious texts in a national day of Freedom From Religion.
The book burning is barely a real political statement, its not an artistic performance, and its certainly not warranted. It's some groaty, pissed-off redneck reminiscent of the side-character Skeeter in South Park -- the guy who hangs out in the bar going "we don't take kindly to your kind around here." In this case its "hey, intolerant Muslims! we don't take kindly to your kind around here!" Just because he has a legal right to proceed with his moronic plan, the irony of which, I'm sure, is probably much too subtle to have an impression on him, doesn't mean that, you, I, Rackspace, or anyone else has to facilitate his stupidity.
And killing people because of a perceived insult is ... what ... exactly ?
muslims once again demonstrates what assholes they are. I will, incidentally, retract this statement if any decent-sized group of muslims stands up and defends this book burning.
Yeah, we wouldn't want to upset the muslims. It's not like they go around burning Christian bibles.
They just burn Christians.
Rackspace, like most of the US, are terrified of Muslims. The only cure for that is to be forced to fight them by making the "dialogue" more confrontational.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
This is about idiocy. Now, at least, I have excellent cause to shun Rackspace.
I have also learned that expecting competent reasoning from a bunch of software geeks is only going to bring disappointment. Along the same lines as trying to explain to a bunch of coders why English syntax is as important as the syntax of their favorite programming language.
Freedom of speech is a right. Freedom from being offended is not. When Obama pulls the plug on the Internet, you may finally get it.
--- Bill
"which is why they had to use the "hate speech" loophole in their acceptable use policy."
/. article telling the world what a shitty hosting provider you are. FAIL
And it's clear they define "hate speech" as anything Rackspace hates
Gee, this policy really encourages me to switch to Rackspace and recommend them to friends and family.
Seriously Rackspace, did you have to stick your nose in it? All you had to do is STFU and let it blow over, but instead you just got a front page
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
Islam is designed to thrive under tolerance, produces horrible societies, hence conflict is to be sought. Moral examples outside their doctrine don't interest religionists.
We need to be attacked by Muslims to appreciate how bad Islam really is, and when they attack us they do us a cultural favor.
As for protest, religion is merely superstitionist politics, nothing more or less, and should be protested. If you don't want to live under theocracy, fight religion that would impose it. Protest SHOULD be offensive.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
So if any group would want protection from criticism, they simply have to start randomly killing innocents, like these muslims do ?
Because, quite frankly, that's what you're saying. I sure hope those neo-nazi's don't see it this way, or we'll be in for a world of hurt. The same goes for dozens of other groups.
Thinking like you do doesn't lead to less violence, it leads to more violence.
Have your Bible burning. We're used to it. People do it all the time. And while you're at it, burn some flags. We're all adults here, we can take it. Well, I guess some of us aren't. Let your 1st anal BBWR commence, it will just prove how our system is supposed to work.
But I hope you see the double standard here. People burn Bibles all the time. When it happens, the highest general in the land doesn't request for them to stop. The POTUSA doesn't go on good morning america and request that it stop. All of the attention that they are getting just makes it more important that they do it. Let the other side see how it feels. And when all the Muslims go ape shit over it, point it out. How many Christian riots have resulted from Bible burning? Muslim riots from the threat of a quran burning? Already a good number. Hell, they go nuts when someone draws mohammed in a cartoon. Talk about a glass house.
And to answer your question: Why this book at this time? Easy. Ground Zero Mosque. It's not illegal to build it there, even if 98% of Americans don't want it. Guess what, I don't want it. It offends me. It pisses me off. It's a victory mosque. The imam is doing this out of spite. Did you know there was a Greek Orthodox that's nearby and destroyed when WTC fell on it? Do you know that they haven't been given their permit to rebuild but the city has given one to the imam? They've been trying since it was destroyed.. There's that double standard again. How long do we have to put up with it?
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
I understand that. However, I hope you see that keeping the principle of free speech strong in the public is important to protecting the legal right of free speech in the future.
When people no longer care about non-government discrimination, why would they care about government discrimination? In fact I'd say one leads the other. If I start thinking, jeeze this is really awful, I really really want that guy to stop and I'm going to protest and call for boycotts of any webhost that takes him.. then it's just a little more of a step to say "screw it that's too much work, let the police do it. After all most of the public agrees with my view."
That's not all it will achieve, nor is designed to. As well as angering Muslims, it encourages those who would commit violence against them. Which is why it's "hate speech".
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
I wonder if Rackspace is this high and mighty about kicking pro terrorist and islamic jihad websites off their servers?
Somehow I doubt it. Youtube is equally hypocritical.
Corporatism != Free Market
If I own a megaphone, and I don't lend it to you because I don't agree with you, am I violating your free speech rights?
More accurate analogy - you are a megaphone rental company and one day someone walks in of a political / religious / ethnic / sexual persuasion that you don't like. You continue to hand out megaphones to everyone else, but tell this person they're not allowed to rent one from you.
On the way home, that person also has to sit at the back of the bus.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
You must see that you're contradicting yourself.
Is it, yes or no, okay for an isp to refuse to connect a server it doesn't like for it's content ?
This is both what rackspace did here, and is the exact same thing as AT&T did in refusing SIP on it's network.
Some pastor who leads a might congregation of 50 members, in a run-down part of a state known for below-average intelligence,
Gainesville is home to the University of Florida.
Which is to say .. you're right!
Display some adaptability.
Agreed. Rackspace can do as they please, and given the noise over this matter, it's no surprise that they acted as they did.
However, the bigger issue here is: how the hell does something like this not only make the news, but keep itself in the limelight for days? We're talking about the organized action of 50 people, performing a constitutionally protected act.
It has been bigger news than the rioting in LA and the lawlessness on the southern border (of which we have seen barely any news). Does Rackspace host any thing relating to La Raza? Why have those (hypothetical) sites not been taken down (or, at least, received any news)? The internal dissolution of one's country is somewhat bigger news than the isolated and non-violent religious actions of 50 nuts.
Furthermore, how the fuck is this something of international turmoil? Has anyone even actually read what the Quran says about (for instance) jihad? Here's a hint: it says not much at all about inner, spiritual trials and a bit about conquering and defeating the opponents of Islam in war ('opponents', in the Islamic sense, meaning "not Muslims"). Why is so little made of this, or the countless atrocities endorsed via Sharia law (and which are directly supported by the Quran)? We're talking about a religion which assassinates/kills people for drawing cartoons, stones women for showing a little ankle, and considers a women adulterous in the event of rape unless there are multiple male witnesses to back her up, and various other atrocities, for fuck sake. Go read their "holy" book!
Let's have a little discernment in our hatred of religions, for crying out loud. Considering not only what is written in the Quran, but what is considered to be the prevailing dogma throughout the Muslim world as it pertains to that Quran, it could be considered roughly on par with burning, say, Mein Kampf. Sure, burning books is an offensive act - one we're conditioned against socially and culturally in the West - but let's consider this with a little more pragmatism.
Would it be a bad thing if all books encouraging the extermination, subjugation, etc. of other races, genders, of beliefs were to disappear? Probably not. A symbolic burning to say "this is bad"?
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Islamic world: "Die for insulting our moon god!"
Christian world: "Die for insulting our sky god!"
The difference between christianity and islam is that when a christian acts out in violence, he's disobeying the ideology of his religion. When a muslim acts out in violence, he's following the ideology of his religion.
Christianity is the real religion of peace. Islam is demonic creation.
Disconnect your television. Do your own research. Draw your own conclusions. They're probably lying. Don't be a sheep.
Some pastor who leads a might congregation of 50 members, in a run-down part of a state known for below-average intelligence,
Gainesville is home to the University of Florida.
.. you're right!
Which is to say
Sadly, Floridians are not regarded as having much of a sense of humor, either. Just think of how miserable they must have been before they sold a large swamp to a mouse...
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Stop trying to suppress my free speech. I'm going to tell Sarah Palin on you
Rackspace is defending their right to not have the equipment that they own and their technical expertise used for the purpose of spreading hate. The people who are against Rackspace's decision don't do it because of "freedom of speech". Let's be honest. They do it because they're RACISTS.
Warning: This sig is not thread safe. For more information see Slashdot's sig policy.
" The First Amendment is the codified protection against government intrusion on that particular freedom. It doesn't apply to private actions."
This piece of misinformation on /. is getting old.
. ''The outstanding fact about the First Amendment today is that the Supreme Court has never developed any comprehensive theory of what that constitutional guarantee means and how it should be applied in concrete cases.'
T. Emerson, The System of Freedom of Expression 15 (1970)
It's the government that enforce contract law.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
It's a pity you couldn't manifest all of this moral outage when we were funding and arming those Islamic extremists to fight the Rooskies.
Are you saying that if we contribute to causing a problem, we *should not* contribute to solving that same problem?
In my opinion, the fact that we were partially responsible for creating Saddam's regime and the Taliban's rise to power makes it even *more* crucial that we do everything in our power to combat that evil.
Comment of the year
#2b, Fundamental freedoms: "Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:... freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;"
Unless you're Mark Steyn.
Seriously, man, China has Freedom of Speech too, in their constitution. Canada seems to respect its version as well as China respects theirs.
I'm not saying that the US is perfect, but Freedom of Speech is defined by a nation's *actions*, not by the words an important document. Canada can have 10,000 paragraphs about freedom of speech, but the instant they prosecute Mclean's magazine, their reputation goes down the crapper.
Comment of the year
Internet service provider. If Rackspace wasn't that their customers wouldn't pay them. It's not all cable-modems and end-users.
And as long as they want the right to distance themselves from their customers content - not be charged for conspiracy for letting you publish your illegal plans for instance - it's only reasonable that they stay out of people's content. Otherwise they would, by not erasing something, be tacitly approving it.
Here's where Rackspace needs to decide if it's as its name says, space for racks - regardless of what they host, or a walled content-screened garden like AOL.