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Friday, September 28, 2012

Codifying Blasphemy?

(Hat tip to Infidel Bloggers Alliance)


From Secular Europe Campaign:
Watch out: UK signs agreement on “religious freedom” with OIC

Concerns have been raised by the National Secular Society that the UK’s stance on free speech could be compromised by an agreement signed at the United Nations between this country and the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC).

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Baroness Sayeeda Warsi – the new “Minister for Faith” – and pledges that the UK and the OIC will “work together on issues of peace, stability and religious freedom.”

At present, the OIC is agitating at the United Nations for a global blasphemy law that would make criticising or satirising religion a punishable offence....
Terry Sanderson, resident of the National Secular Society, pointed out the following:
“In Egypt the blasphemy laws are also used to get rid of political opponents and are sometimes used as a means of revenge by neighbours or colleagues who are in dispute. We do not need this kind of primitive legislation in our democracies...”
The UK appears to be considering jumping onto the slippery slope. Is the United States, despite our history of separation of church and state, far behind? Codifying religious blasphemy as part of the civil code is dangerous in the extreme!

And just what is the Islamic definition of blasphemy?  According to this source, the definition is nebulous and open to exploitation:
The...Quran, the primary authority in Islamic jurisprudence, offers no explicit definition of blasphemy. The hadiths, a collection of sayings attributed to Mohammed, mention briefly the “abuse of the Prophet” as a capital punishment offence...

Proponents of strict implementation of Sharia religious law usually argue that blasphemy should be punishable by death. Muslim clerics that condemn cases of blasphemy sometimes exhort on fellow Muslims to punish the perpetrators, while in some countries, conservative clerics with influence over the state judiciary pursue suspected blasphemers in state courts.

Yet in the Muslim world only Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates currently permit blasphemy to be punishable by death. Muslim clerics that condemn cases of blasphemy sometimes exhort on fellow Muslims to punish the perpetrators, while in some countries, conservative clerics with influence over the state judiciary pursue suspected blasphemers in state courts.

[...]

[I]t will be up to individual Muslim clerics – with varying degrees of juridical knowledge and reputation – to declare an individual a blasphemer. A wide variety of alleged offences have been branded as blasphemous in different environments, ranging from cultural production deemed offensive to Islam to bizarre allegations of blasphemy such as the Sudanese case of a teddy bear named Mohammed.
As I read the above citation, I think of Mona Eltahawy and her zeal as she defaced private property in the NYC subway this week  Did she not appear absolutely convinced that she had the right to do what she did?

I think of Salman Rushdie.

I think of the recent filmifada, too, of course.

And the Danish Cartoons and the ensuing outrage.

I also think of these signs that Muslims carried in the streets of London:


Offense is in the eye of the beholder. 

The slippery slope.

26 comments:

  1. I love how those who want to shut down free speech use such euphemisms as "religious freedom." It's right out of Orwell.

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  2. In truth we have Adolf Hitler to thank for this frightful situation concerning The United States of America vis-a-vis "The World Community."

    The current mania to imagine it appropriate and "just" to criminalize and punish gestures and commentary deemed "offensive" by -- You Name It -- is part of the Political Correctness that originated in the aftermath of the Holocaust.

    Oh yes it did, Virginia!

    The enormous power garnered by cries and accusations of "anti-Semitism," a power that increased by leaps and bounds after the war, seemed only fair and decent after the horrors perpetrated by Hitler's Third Reich, of course. However, in the long run it has -- as with most policies designed to inhibit freedom of expression -- it has come full circle to bite us on the buttocks.

    Once other Grievance Groups began to realize the enormous power repeated and persistent cries of "anti-Semitism" gave to Jews, naturally they began to follow suit and the Denunciation Disease spread, has now become epidemic, and is threatening to subvert and destroy our Bill of Rights.

    First Anti-Semites, then Anti-Blacks -- and now Anti-Islamaniacs -- became the New Salem Witches of our time.

    The increasingly powerful drive towards INTERNATIONALISM on all fronts, which has been in the works for well over a hundred years, is part of the Progressive Agenda to dissolve our sovereignty and that of all other nations in favor of One World Government, which of course will be SOCIALISTIC -- meaning a leveling across the board of all societies to uniform mediocrity at best, mutually shared misery at worst ostensibly in the interests of "Fairness" and "Equality."

    For several decades now Caucasian Christians have been considered Fair Game -- especially if they are Protestant, prosperous and powerful. The ethnic and religious groups that achieved the most and became the richest and most powerful have been in effect
    "Scheduled for Demolition" -- what the elitists, of course, prefer to call "TRANSFORMATION."

    This current obsession with "concern" over the "feelings" in "The Arab Street" is bogus. It is just another part of the long-planned Agenda to Discredit White Achievement, Decrease White Power, Diminish White Wealth, and thus give Caucasians and Christians their long awaited Comeuppance.

    If I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about the Islamaniacs. They TOO are just being USED as PAWNS in the deadly game perpetrated by The Oligarchs to Achieve World Domination.

    We ought, instead of getting so involved with all the smelly, Rotten Red Herrings the Oligarchs keep throwing in our path, to work feverishly to learn precisely WHO these would-be Slave Masters that have us all at each others' throats really are, and figure out HOW to DEFANG and CASTRATE the bastards before we are reduced to the status of galley slaves.

    ~ FreeThinke

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  3. For those who think this wasn't a terror attack aimed at the "Satan America", we need to ask why the muslims aren't jumping all over the French magazine that published very critical cartoons of islam only shortly afterwards..right?

    Britain...why have its proud people bent over for islam? It's awful. And we're on the way

    AOW, FrogBurger's done research and doesn't quite trust Shoebat; could you come back in and give us any info you know?

    Thanks!

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  4. Baroness Sayeeda Warsi – the new “Minister for Faith”

    Oh good ... total objectivity.

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  5. The US has already signed two different proposals with the UN which can be expanded upon to limit speech against Islam. Obama must be peeing in his pants with glee.

    Debbie
    Right Truth
    http://www.righttruth.typepad.com

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  6. Only a matter of time me thinks until they get what they want.

    ReplyDelete
  7. In Malaysia, they even have what they called Bank Islam in Malay! I am sure they initially are open to all faiths but like everything else with islam, they want to infect everything with islam and dominate via islam, even though it is unsuitable in a multifaith country. And it would not be a surprising thing if it eventually open to islamic customers only. Strange why UK should have Sayeeda as miniter of faith, or more aptly should be called minister of extreme intolerance where it would alienate more nonbelievers. Perhaps, the caption above should be the 'world should not belong to anyone that create false understanding of islam'.
    WLIL

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  8. If anyone thinks Islam is only a religion, they’d be wrong. If anyone thinks Islam is only a social protocol, they’d be wrong. If anyone thinks Islam is merely a judicial system, they’d be wrong. Islam is all of those. Eleven years after 9/11, I still do not hear the voices of “moderate Islam” speaking out against the extremists. Do they not understand that the extremists are causing us to hate Islam? Or have they decided that since extremists have nothing to do with them, it is none of their concern?

    In my view, there is very little about Islam anyone can regard as “enlightened.” It does not appear to enrich anyone’s life —unless you happen to be on the top of the pile. It does not value peaceful coexistence. It does not appear to reward average people. To the contrary, it appears angry, deceitful, hateful, decadent, and uncivilized. As a case in point, look how cartoonists depict Muslims. Read John Adams own words about Islam, and those of Thomas Jefferson.

    Why do we refuse to learn these important lessons about the Satanic Verses?

    ReplyDelete
  9. I purchase my "Qurans" in bulk at Sam's cuz ya never know when you might suffer the Hershey squirts.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Well Sam, what you say is true of ALL the Abrahamic religions and only the secular state can moderate the excesses.

    What do you consider "enlightened" about the Abrahamic religions? Calvin, Luther? Let us know.

    I would rather pay attention to what John Adams thought about the Alien and Sedition Act while he jailed the opposition and tried to turn the country into a dictatorship despite what that hack McCullough writes about him. Less then a chapter on Adams and the Sedition Act. I think I see why your American history is so limited.

    You know less about Islam. Really weak.

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  11. As to O's comment, it could have only been better if it were in Arabic.

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  12. Islam is worst than any other faith groups that I know of, because islam(whether it dominate or not) intrude into every decent aspects of our nonbelievers life, and lessen our nonbelievers choice or impose no choice to us nonbelievers and lessen our nonbelievers joy in life, via their socalled decent way of life.
    WLIL

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  13. The push is officially on:

    Islamic leaders in Missouri and New Jersey are calling for lawmakers to limit free speech after an anti-Muslim film sparked outrage across the world.

    [...]

    “We understand the First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights and, as such, prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, etc., but when the allowance of “free” speech incites violence it should be banned,” read a statement from the Islamic Society.

    While condemning the violence that was originally blamed on the film, the Muslim group said ti would “be in everyone’s interest to ban such actions from reoccurring.”

    “We condemn the violence and feel that, in spite of the First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution, action may be necessary to pass such a bill or, at least, censure such actions in order to calm the current situation as well as prevent future re-occurrences,” the statement read....


    Interestingly, CAIR seems not to be supporting this push. Read the entire article HERE.

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  14. CAIR won't support this; it is too much, too quickly. They give us creeping Sharia, like turning the fire up on the frog in the pot slowly.

    This is a slippery slope, indeed! For a group who likes to yowl about the Crusades, they are setting up their very own official Inquisition.

    ReplyDelete
  15. We are deleting you liberal nitwit because you are, well ... a liberal nitwit. We prefer that you leave your inane comments at blogs that are part of the Soros Network.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Does it not seem like THIS to you:

    Take common sense, logic, rationality and proportion, then discard that -- and you have Obama and his decisions, philosophies and embracements.

    BZ

    ReplyDelete
  17. "To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize." -- Voltaire

    ReplyDelete
  18. AHHH, 1529,...everything old is new again! ;) The Victory SHALL be sweet!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Sam Huntington said...

    "Ducky, do you not ever tire of demonstrating to everyone what an ignorant ass you are?"

    Not in the last 12+ years he hasn't. Being an unmitigated ignorant ass feeds his delusions of adequacy and intellectuality.

    He once aspired to, "leading a life of the mind". Apparently, he didn't have enough mind to live any kind of a life.

    I feel sorry for him. Since movies are all going to digital recording, his skills with round nosed scissors and paste aren't in big demand.


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  20. Dear Anon - WLIL-,
    I agree. it is a natural outcome of that sort of repression. Sort of implodes on itself, that reasoning.
    I believe it to be a law of nature.

    ReplyDelete
  21. BUT, I also think we, here in the US have something
    that will stay, strengthen and revive us. A natural revulsion towards the forces you describe, that can only build. As with any natural force, that pressure will find an outlet. Thank God for our Constitution.

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  22. Lady Liberty,
    If the pendulum swings as hard as I think it will, things are going to get mighty ugly.

    The alternative to the swing of the pendulum: submission to the unthinkable.

    Tomorrow, I will be posting a video that will send any Believer up the wall. The idjit calls himself a man of God.

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  23. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  24. "We ought, instead of getting so involved with all the smelly, Rotten Red Herrings the Oligarchs keep throwing in our path, to work feverishly to learn precisely WHO these would-be Slave Masters that have us all at each others' throats really are, and figure out HOW to DEFANG and CASTRATE the bastards before we are reduced to the status of galley slaves."...!
    Oh, Free Thinke, I AGREE WITH Y-O-U!
    AN ABSOLUTE MUST!

    ReplyDelete
  25. HEY! MAYBE, just maybe, the reasoning behind the "hate-speech-laws"against Mohammedanism is because so many of the Mohammedans curse living in it??? The Khomeini fellow himself SAID it wasn't "fun".

    ReplyDelete

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