OK, I did not reply to this thread so far because I felt it would be appropriate to first let people take a look at what happened and let them form their own opinion.

I will now try to clarify a few points regarding this whole issue:

1) I made it clear in the warning that Gawain received and in the exchange of PM that followed - I do not consider Gawain to be a racist. If anybody got the impression that Gawain has been accused of being racist I can only repeat that this is not the case and I apologize if this wrong impression has been created.

2) Gawain and myself had indeed an exchange of PMs before the thread here has been started. In the end we simply kind of agreed to disagree on this issue. I, personally, see nothing inappropriate in how Gawain chose to follow up on this issue.

3) I closed Gawain's first thread because I felt the article he used to start the thread was racist and offensive and would rather lead to a discussion about the racist content of the article than to the discussion about the issue Gawain was trying to point out - the course the thread had taken until I closed is in line with this reasoning.

4) Gawain received no warning for the first thread - he received a PM from me on why I closed the thread in which I also pointed out that objective a discussion of immigration policies, integration problems and low birth rates of the native population is not discouraged and that he would be free to start a new thread if he refrained from using racist articles to start the topic.

5) The second thread was, IMO(!), started with an article that not only was at least as racist as the previous one, but that also contained a link to a racist website. Due to this I not only closed this thread as well but also sent a "light" (i.e. without effect to the warning level) to Gawain.

Some comments on statements made in this thread:

Quote Originally Posted by Gawain of Orkeny
No and I dont care to read it. I only posted the article for the stats and for opening remarks to start the debate. I have no interest in promoting racisim in any manner. I agree with his premise not his ideals.
If it was just for the stats, why didn't you start the thread with the Guardian-article Ed Toner's "article" referred? Why do you think it was necessary to include Ed Toner's racist rant?
Especially after your first thread was closed I do not think it would have been asked to much to take a bit more care in selecting an appropriate article to start the discussion.

But thats something I hoped to get to in the thread but never had the chance to express it.
You had the chance to express your opinion on this issue - after all you started this thread, however, you chose to simply post the article.

I ask then that no one may quote Stalin, Hitler or any number of other known racist.
I think most of the people on this board are old and mature enough to understand that posting racist content is not just an yes/no issue, but that the context is crucial to the decision whether a post/thread is appropriate or not.
If somebody decides to start a thread by posting e.g., an anti-semite Hitler-speech and an accompanying link to a Nazi-website and merely says "Hey, I am not a Nazi or anti-semite but this Hitler-guy brings forward some interesting facts and while I not agree with him I think the issue he points at make for a good discussion" I will close such a thread.
If there is a discussion on the history of anti-semitism and somebody quotes Hitler to point out how anti-semitism was propagated in the Third Reich and/or to point out parallels to anti-semitic speeches that might be held today by other people, I would consider this to be in line with what is allowed on this forum.

In the end, what will not happen is that you receive a 500-page, detailed guideline of what is allowed and appropriate and what is not.

Best regards and thanks to all people for their input to this discussion

Ser Clegane