Katha Pollitt wrote a piece in 2012 titled “Blasphemy is Good for You.”
As I write, mobs all over the world are rioting about an amateurish video portraying Muhammad as a horny buffoon. Death toll so far: at least thirty, including Christopher Stevens, US ambassador to Libya, and three embassy staffers. Not to be outdone, Pakistan’s railways minister announced he would pay $100,000 to anyone who murdered the videomaker, and added, “I call upon these countries and say: Yes, freedom of expression is there, but you should make laws regarding people insulting our Prophet. And if you don’t, then the future will be extremely dangerous.” More riots, embassy closings and a possible assassination attempt or two followed the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo’s retaliatory publication of cartoons of Muhammad naked. To bring it all full circle, an Iranian foundation has raised to $3.3 million the reward it’s offering for the murder of Salman Rushdie. (Just out and highly recommended: Joseph Anton, Rushdie’s humane and heroic memoir of his years in hiding.)
Full circle.
when did assault become an acceptable, non-actionable event as opposed to a crime and why are people who make these threats taken at their word?
This moron can’t be so shortsighted as to see how quickly and easily this would backfire on him in a non-muslim-majority country, can he?
That takes a special kind of insular thinking.
This is incitement to murder by a leading politician. He hasn’t been fired by his government. The people of Pakistan are not, en masse, protesting. It’s terrifying.