Maajid Nawaz, LibDem parliamentary candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn and chairman of the Quilliam Foundation, whom you may have seen rocking the discussion on the Big Questions, is trying to persuade his fellow Muslims to learn to calm down about inoffensive cartoons like for example the one in which Jesus and Mo (of Jesus and Mo) say hi how ya doin.
He posted that one on his Facebook the other day, and got some indignant responses. He tweeted it earlier today, and got a flood of death threats.
happymurtad tweeted a drawing too.
happymurtad@happymurtad
Desis rightfully hurt by me drawing Gandhi in my notepad are now swearing vengeance and complaining to the UN. pic.twitter.com/w6A18JqNwM
Then he followed it up with another.
happymurtad@happymurtad
The NAACP, who speak for all blacks, have just announced my apostasy from the Negro race for tweeting MLK sketch. pic.twitter.com/vwJLkIvww0
I know which team I think is more fun.
This could go on for a long time
(o_o)
It was good to have Nawaz on Big Questions showing that not all Muslims are upset by this sort of thing.
The chance to issue death threats is one of the things that some people find attractive about their religion. In a secular society they would have bite their tongues and shutup, but in a religious society they can issue death threats and gain the plaudits of their peers when they do so. Some of the happiest smiles I have ever seen have been accompanied by the words, “You are going to burn in hell.”
But Martin Luther King’s day is coming soon! (This Monday, isn’t it?)
Unclear about Gandhi&Mo’s.
This brave and necessary work. Only repeated insult is going to break through Islamic entitlement attitudes to drive home the point that your religion does not get shielded from criticism in a secular liberal democracy.
Sadly the misguided people that pushed ‘hate speech” laws in the West, have sent mixed messages. I see people crying all the time about how illiberal France is because of its selective bans on the veil, yet I hardly see anyone mention the numerous court cases where Charlie Hebdo or Michel Houellebecq, for example, have had to defend themselves for merely insulting the religion.
I just hope Mr. Nawaz has more steel than many atheist “progressives.”
grumpyoldfart, the unashamed enjoyment of the expression of hatred is by no means limited to the religious.
Providing an outgroup for unabashed hatred has been a reliable tool of rabble rousers and would be dictators since time immemorial. Religions have often provided the standard – in the sense of a flag or banner – for both hater and hatee, but they cannot be causative any more than their gods can be. Their gods don’t exist and hatred cannot be made from nothing, it has to exist already to be tapped.
It has been the constant failure of religions that although they have often provided the justification for acting on hatred, they have never made any significant attempt towards understanding the causes.