This from the NSS is alarming.
The Manchester Free Speech and Secular Society’s website has been deleted, shortly after the group received a message warning they would “feel remorse” if they didn’t stop criticising Islamic fundamentalism.
The Free Speech and Secular Society (FSS) was sent a message, from an IP address in Saudi Arabia, which warned: “Please stop mocking Muslims otherwise you will feel remorse.”
I thought that meant the Society had closed the website down, but no.
A spokesperson for the Society said that on the same day the sinister message was received, “someone tried to get access to the website, as multiple accounts received password reset prompts that weren’t initiated by the account holders.”
Despite not thinking much of the initial apparent threat or the attempts to hack into the website, by the 27 June the Society found that their website had been deleted entirely. The hacker “deleted everything that could be deleted,” according to the FSS. “No message was left on the site.”
They talked to their webhost, who said it was not their doing, nor a technical problem.
They want to run us all, these fuckers – they want to force us all to obey the rules of their horrible stupid pinch-minded little god.
The FSS said that they had “some articles critical of Islamic fundamentalism” on their website, and also commentary about their Student Union’s decision to ban the FSS from displaying the ‘survivors’ edition’ of Charlie Hebdo published after the attack on their Paris office.
I posted about that here at the time. I remember doing it.
The Society writes that their focus is on “free speech and secularism” and that they have been “hacked and threatened for supporting free speech”.
The historian Tom Holland said the society had been “menaced” by “enemies of free speech”.
Ben Jones, the National Secular Society’s communications officer, commented: “This appears to be a particularly sinister attempt to stop debate, criticism and commentary about and around Islam. We hope the Manchester Free Speech and Secular Society have their website restored soon and can recover from the attack quickly. We offer our solidarity and support. No-one group or individual should be left to face the danger of defending free speech alone.
“Threats to freedom of expression are coming thick and fast and from all quarters. Whether it is student unions censoring student comedy shows for ‘blasphemy’, or university administrators cancelling events about Islam to avoid causing ‘offence’ or on other spurious grounds, or the invidious prosecution of Christian preachers for criticising Islamic beliefs, the right to freedom of expression must be defended.
“There are concerted attempts to establish global blasphemy laws coming from the OIC, who still long for a global law against the ‘defamation of religion’; from terrorists using violent jihad; moves by complicit student unions and universities to indirectly support these efforts in the interest of ‘cohesion’; and in this case from hackers and what the FSS call ‘cyber-jihadists’. No matter what form the attack comes in, free speech must be defended.”
Their horrible stupid pinch-minded little god can go swim with the ducks.
That’s a ringing phrase, it is.
My temper was rising as I wrote that bit.
You say your religion prohibits depictions of Mohammad? Fine. Don’t draw Mohammad. What do I care? But I didn’t sign up for your religion, so there’s no reason I’m bound by its rules. Unless… What’s that? Are we all actually Muslim, even if we don’t know it yet?
@footface #3 – Therein lies the definition of fundamentalism: an absolute, unshakeable belief that all the world must exist in accordance to ones beliefs, or else.
That said, having a vulnerable web site and (apparently) not having it backed up is pretty daft.
Wow, that is just… Can we delete Islam?
This smells a bit like the internet equivalent of book burning. “I don’t like this text, so I’m going to make sure nobody can ever read it.”
Facile religious thinking:
“We don’t like what you’re saying, so we’re not going to listen.”
Fascist religious thinking:
“We don’t like what you’re saying, so nobody is going to listen.”
It’s time for a new form of religious parody. I’m working on one.
footface
‘Are we all actually Muslim, even if we don’t know it yet?’
Yes, according to Wahhabism. The Quran, being ETERNAL, applies to all who lived before as well as after. Adam was a Muslim, Abraham was a Muslim, Jesus was a Muslim. And you are a Muslim too. No choice, no question. It is only because of the corruption that has kept you from The Truth that you retain any independent awareness or integrity.
And they plan to fix that.
Islam is a totalitarian ideology, it’s as much a threat to liberal democracy as Communism or Nazism and its demented followers have been at war with the infidels for 1400 years. Unfortunately, perhaps most of the infidels really don’t seem to understand,
Hmm, let’s try it without the accent symbols:
footface, #3
There is actually a notion in Islam called fitrah, which roughly translates to a fundamental instinct for Allah and the divine. It is something all humans are supposed to be born with. Some Muslims take this to mean that every baby is born Muslim and then lose their way via non-Muslim upbringing. This is why you may hear some Muslims refer to people who convert to Islam as having reverted to Islam instead of converted to it.
Another basis of this is that the word insan, meaning human has a root that means to forget. This again is taken to mean that humans are by nature creatures who have forgotten something (i.e. their history and connection to Allah going back to Adam).
rjw1@10
If you don’t mind, I’ll just repeat what you said:
“Islam is a totalitarian ideology, it’s as much a threat to liberal democracy as Communism or Nazism and its demented followers have been at war with the infidels for 1400 years. Unfortunately, perhaps most of the infidels really don’t seem to understand,“