Charlie Hebdo cartoon featuring Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
More grief over the so-called dis-respecting of a religion, namely Islam. Why in a secular society should making fun out of a belief system mean death and destruction? Surely if a religion is so great and liberating it can take non-believers mocking it? Maybe those who are supposed to believe in it are insecure because it has so many holes in the belief system.
For instance if you wish to leave Islam and believe something else or believe in nothing you can be killed! So this religion follows the path of coercion. It wont be the first and it wont be the last religion that forces people to do what the leaders want it to do.
I have always hated bullies and even though I have friends and acquaintances who are religious or have some sort of belief system does not mean I do not have the right to be critical of that belief system when it tries to coerce people into doing things that make no sense such as blowing your self up and be rewarded with 72 virgins in heaven.
Blowing yourself up is not religious it is suicide and political. Killing people because they mocked your belief is petty and weak. Yes weak!
Killing children because they want to go to school is also petty and weak. It is clear that religion requires people to believe in things that are supernatural but to attack people who want to educate themselves is revealing. That is why Galileo Galilei, Nicolaus Copernicus as well as others suffered at the hands of religious people who were scared that they would lose influence if people started to think differently.
Then there is the whole massive debate about ‘creation’ who are we and how it all came about? There is no debate because the idea that humans walked with dinosaurs like the cartoon ‘The Flintstones’ is just plain silly.
In the end freedom has consequences. You are not free to falsely scream fire in a cinema. Likewise you cannot be upset if you choose to behave in a certain way in public and expect people not to comment on your behaviour. If you’re religious then be prepared to be questioned as it helps with your understanding and rejection as people will reject you if they are not convinced.