[Foundation-l] Wikimania and the Muhammad pix

[Chad]

Florence:

I'm going to say it one last time: please do not dismiss potential
concerns simply because we're "Neutral." Many people have
claimed neutrality before and it's burned them. Belgium before
World War II being a notable example.

To be perfectly honest, I doubt that any of the non-Western
governments give a crap about NPOV. You can say "But it's
educational and we don't decide editorially what to put in
en.wiki" until you're blue in the face. It doesn't change the
way it's perceived. And, unfortunately, it currently looks to
portions of the Islamic world that the WMF is dismissing
complaints made due to a difference in religious ideology.

Just imagine the PR from the headlines "Wikimania contributors
gunned down by Islamic extremists." Now, I'm not wishing this
on anyone, nor do I hope we ever have to discuss the fallout
from such a situation, but there are places in the world where
the actions taken by some people can create headlines such
as this.

The board would be wise to properly investigate the security
situation in Egypt or potentially face the risk of having done
nothing and then having to cope with the fallout because of that.
I believe most Wikimedians would be fine with a canceled, postponed
or relocated Wikimania if it meant they'd all be a bit safer.

For the community,
Chad

On Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 9:08 PM, Florence Devouard <Anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Oldak Quill wrote:
>  > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>  > Hash: SHA1
>  >
>  > On 23/02/2008, Florence Devouard wrote:
>  >>  It should not matter what the political advocacy of our
>  > governments are.
>  >>  It should not matter where we come from. It should not
>  > matter whether we
>  >>  are gays, or muslims, or newyorkers.
>  >
>  > As far as I know, where we come from, our sexual orientation or our
>  > religion doesn't matter to us. Wikimedia has no restrictions on who
>  > can edit based on any group that they belong to. There hasn't been any
>  > suggestion that this should or will change.
>  >
>  > The concern is that there are places in the world which, due to the
>  > national government it falls under, care about where we come from, our
>  > sexual orientation or our religion (or lack thereof).
>  >
>  > - --
>  > Oldak Quill (oldakquill at gmail.com)
>
>  This was not my point at all.
>  A previous editor made it a point to oppose US (wikipedians) to Egypt,
>  insisting that Egypt government did not share our values, and giving it
>  as an argument for wikimania not to be held in Egypt.
>
>  I am not convinced at all China government shares our values.
>  I am not convinced either France government shares our values.
>  I am not even convinced the USA government shares our values.
>
>  If we start giving as arguments for not going somewhere, the fact the
>  government does not share our values, then we will not ever go somewhere.
>
>  I can perfectly realize that some countries are not as respectful than
>  others about differences between people. That does not mean I think we
>  should accept divisions of groups of people per countries within our
>  community.
>
>
>
>
>  _______________________________________________
>  foundation-l mailing list
>  foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
>  Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>