I was planning to write something on this, because I believe this kind of censorship is an egregious violation of human rights, but it appears the man himself can tell his own story just fine. (HT: Pursuing Holiness.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzVJTHIvqw8.
Just so.
A British teacher was sentenced to 15 days in prison and deportation (which should be a blessing!) for insulting Mohammed. You can read the story here.
Yet this outrage is not sufficient to satisfy some Muslim hardliners. There were protests in Khartoum calling for her execution. The teacher, Gillian Gibbons, has said she doesn’t want this to raise resentment against Muslims, and she is to be commended for her tolerant attitude. I, on the other hand, suggest that this is another danger of the extreme danger of religious fundamentalism, most commonly and forcefully demonstrated in the Muslim world at the moment.
Nobody requires this kind of protection from insult. Those proclaimed as prophets should receive more, rather than less scrutiny. Truth benefits from being questioned and defended. Hyper-sensitivity is a sign of fear–fear of being totally wrong.
This should not be placed on all of Islam, but it should warn us of the extent to which extremes can take us. Religious fundamentalism is but one major manifestation.
Ed Brayton reports on a victory for FIRE against the University of Delaware, which had a diversity training seminar that was mandatory for all students. It was followed up by big brother style watch-dogging.
Just in case some of us might get the idea that it is only right-wing ideologues who would like to indoctrinate people, there is plenty of evidence for the same behavior on the left. Where a particular ideology manages to hold unchallenged authority backed by force, there is an unfortunate tendency to act in this manner.
FIRE is to be congratulated for challenging this type of activity. They are continuing to challenge such practices at the University of Delaware, which, though defeated on this program, has not explicitly agreed to end certain other practices.
Here’s another case: Leader offers $100,000 for cartoonist’s death.
The head of an al-Qaida-led group in Iraq offered $100,000 for the killing of Swedish cartoonist [tag]Lars Vilks[/tag] over his drawing depicting the Prophet Mohammad.
I’ll say again what I have said before. Blasphemy should not be illegal. I believe in [tag]free speech[/tag] when it’s engaged against my own faith. I don’t change my mind when it’s going against someone else. Muslim leaders who offer this kind of reward simply reflect badly on [tag]Islam[/tag]
I like this response to a recent court decision regarding the so-called Patriot Act. Hey Christine–people who read, and even worse write Haiku are extremely dangerous. Didn’t you know that? And those peonies for your garden? Indeed there ought to be a law! 🙂
According to Ed Brayton (Dispatches from the Culture Wars), the suit has been withdrawn. Brayton also makes a number of remarks on this that are totally on point. I agree with him completely as to the nature of the suit and the characters involved.
My previous comments were here. PZ’s very own commentary is here.
Of course, to wish Peter Irons well in dealing with the threat from Pivar’s attorney, Michael Little, would be superfluous.
It appears that WordPress.com has been banned in Turkey because of criticisms of Muslim creationist Adnan Oktar. Oktar appears to be an unusually warped version of creationist, and may well be using creationism to foster Muslim fundamentalism.
The reason I’m linking to this is that it is a free speech issue. As a number of commentators have pointed out on the official wordpress.com blog, if folks violate a TOS, it’s appropriate that they be removed, but not for their opinions.
I hope this will all be resolved in favor of free speech.
