RE: [chchskeptics] draw muhammad day
| From: | Paul King |
| Sent on: | Friday, May 14, 2010 3:44 PM |
Yes there is a lot of nastiness inherent in Islam, as with other religions, and particular nastiness with certain implementations of Islam- but I think the problem is that by overtly confronting these variants you intrinsically make them stronger.
The stranglehold of Islamic leadership over the faithful needs the chance to atrophy and become corroded from within by it’s own young people – and the real battle lines there are to do with censorship & exposure of the young to other more enjoyable ways of living.
The leadership of any nasty regime loves the opportunity to externalise their battle for control – and by being confrontational you give them the perfect opportunity to refocus the minds of the population along patriotic lines and delay the decline.
Yes, the need for targeted responses to acts of terror are hard to avoid, but the long view requires that we mostly try not to tar all the faithful with the same brush, and instead to simply “live the dream” – rather than presenting a wall of opposition, allow the inherent superiority of openness and freedom of thought & expression to remain manifest – something to inspire gentle then growing dissent from within such regimes as exposure to the greater opportunities of the outside world improves .
The outside world needs to be a welcoming and tolerant rather than threatening place – it is too much to expect the faithful to abandon all superstition within the space of a single generation, and if we show the wider world can indeed tolerate and even accommodate irrational superstitions (so long as on balance, not too many people are hurt by them) then we should. Burkas and sensitivities over portraits are silly, but don’t really hurt anyone directly – and while we maintain the right to criticise or debate them, we can also show politeness to the majority who are not participating in the debate when nothing of substance is immediately threatened by them.
There needs to be vigilance such that tolerance does not preclude reasoned debate & criticism – but acts of mass defiance or protest by any group don’t really amount reasoned debate or criticism – they simply demonstrate the will of a particular mob, however arrived at – a propaganda event that can be spun to suit both sides and a great opportunity to reinforce the perceived “otherness” and thus evilness of the opposition, whoever that happens to be.
Cheers
Paul King
From: [address removed] [mailto:[address removed]] On Behalf Of The Green Man
Sent: Friday, 14 May 2010 2:46 p.m.
To: [address removed]
Subject: RE: [chchskeptics] draw muhammad day
I won’t be putting up cartoons of Mohammad in the street, but I support everyone’s right to do so. I have them up on a website of mine just because Muslims tell me that I can’t.
I don’t buy the “weekend Muslims” concept as proposed by Issac. Muslims are not part timers like Christians, on the whole. They read and obey the directives in their “holy book”, unlike Christians.
Well done to France and Belgium for ridding themselves of the oppressive Burqa, perhaps NZ should do the same before it becomes an issue here, which it undoubtedly will.
Issac, how can you be a sceptic and be an active member of the Interfaith Society? I know that the Sceptics Society doesn’t want to touch religious scepticism, but that seems like we are giving religion a “special place” that it really doesn’t deserve.
Islam is more of a threat to my way of life than homeopathy, psychics or Ouija boards. I am totally against face coverings, circumcision, Halal killing, homophobia, repression of free speech and all the other “wonderful things” that Islam stands for.
An interesting article about someone that tried to make fun of religion and was prosecuted can be read here: http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/04/uk-atheist-who-mocked-islam-and-christianity-hit-with-anti-social-behaviour-order----but-for-which-i.html
As Phillip Pullman says HERE “No one has the right to spend their life without being offended.”
I don’t want to inflame Islam but I will stand against it wherever I get a chance.
Cheers
Marc – atheist and sceptic
Dreamweaver Website Design and Hosting Services
[address removed]
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