Right right right, I’m an “Islamophobe,” and criticizing Islam is punching down because Muslims are a despised group. (The second part is true, but the first part doesn’t follow. Punching Muslims is punching down, but punching Islam isn’t, because Islam itself is what punches down. Islam has huge, illegitmate power in many many parts of …
Tag Archive: Religious censorship
Sep 21 2012
Pakistan tells the world
Via Paul Fidalgo’s Morning Heresy – the Prime Minister of Pakistan says the UN “should frame laws to stop blasphemous acts.” Oh, yes, absolutely, because that kind of thing is working out so well in Pakistan. Asia Bibi for instance, accused of “blasphemy” by a petulant neighbor. Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, murdered for …
Aug 10 2012
It’s OK, we’re on the 10th floor
Alom Shaha notices an excess of timidity about discussing Islam. “We can’t publish this, we’ll get firebombed.” Apparently this was the response from one of the staff at Biteback Publishing, the UK publishers of my book, The Young Atheist’s Handbook, when it was first presented to them. Thankfully, Iain Dale, the managing director, laughed at …
Jun 06 2012
Insulting Islamic values in Twitter messages
Another entry in the annals of Persecuting and Prosecuting People For Having an Opinion That Reactonaries Dislike. A court here on Friday charged Fazil Say, a classical and jazz pianist with an international career, with insulting Islamic values in Twitter messages, the latest in a series of legal actions against Turkish artists, writers and intellectuals for …
May 26 2012
Banned as it contradicted the Quran and Hadith
More squalid airless stupidity from Malaysia: banning Irshad Manji’s book and confiscating copies from bookstores. The Home Ministry has banned the controversial book by liberal Muslim activist Irshad Manji as it could cause confusion among Muslims. In a statement yesterday, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Abu Seman Yusop said the book Allah, Liberty and Love and its …
Mar 24 2012
A bargain
It can seem strange how entirely alien the whole idea of free discussion can seem to people who (I suppose) have never had any experience of it. A Bangladesh court on Wednesday ordered authorities to shut down five Facebook pages and a website for blaspheming the Prophet Mohammed, the Koran and other religious subjects, a …
Feb 13 2012
Lawyers for Liberty are pissed
At Malaysia’s Home Minister, for one. Lawyers for Liberty is simply astonished and outraged at Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein and PDRM’s continuing attempt to spin further lies and deceit over the illegal and unconstitutional detention and deportation of Hamza Kashgari by now alleging or insinuating that he is a “criminal” or “terrorist” wanted by his …
About the Author
Recent Comments