At the heart of the debate there is a stand off between two opposing and seemingly irreconcilable views regarding blasphemy.
Too often, London fashion week can appear to be a stand-off between young designers competing over who can show the daftest clothes in the draughtiest and most badly lit venue and an old guard whose shows can have a frustrating lack of ambition.
The result is a stand-off between the planners and the brewery until one or the other blinks, or the building becomes dangerous.
There was a stand-off between black and white spectators yesterday outside the magistrates court where two black farm workers were charged with Terre'Blanche's murder after an apparent wage dispute.
Mr Ibarretxe said his party's gains would strengthen its case, deemed controversial in Madrid, for holding a referendum on whether the Basque region should become "a free state associated with Spain".The latest bone of contention is a stand-off between the PNV and the Supreme Court in Madrid, which has been egged on by the PP.
The Italian bishops expressed "full confidence" in Mr Boffo and, some days later, the Vatican disclosed that the pope had conveyed his "esteem, gratitude and appreciation" to the head of the bishops' conference.The outcome is a stand-off between the church and Mr Berlusconi.
There has been a stand-off between those demanding that the personal exchange of messages between the former US president George W Bush and Blair in the run-up to the war be published, and those saying such a move would represent an unprecedented breach of confidence concerning one of the most sensitive episodes in British foreign relations.
But then there's a stand-off between Alan Nunnelee, a Republican senator, who originally introduced the bill, and Steve Holland, a flamboyant Democrat representative, who had inserted an outright ban into it, because, he says, he 'was fed up with the way the legislature had been chipping away at abortion, and I wanted a straight up and down vote'.
Indeed, after 11 November 1918 he was on a firing range with other Tommies when a jobs- worth officer so riled them that there was a stand-off between his revolver and their rifles: "Had he not backed down, he would have been shot, there's no doubt about it".
He said there was a stand-off between Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones and the Secretary of State for Wales David Jones, who represents Welsh interests at the UK cabinet table.
