Dear Muslim, I don’t care if these cartoons offend you
_Update 2015-01-28: Watch the second half of this video by the British Humanist Association wherein David Silverman makes the same point I do below.
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_Update 2015-01-16: Please watch this YouTube video by Mr. Deity for why Pope Francis is wrong to condone violence against those who criticize religious beliefs.
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_Update 2015-01-11: Please see this article by Jerry Coyne and Matthew Cobb for more about Charlie Hebdo’s equal opportunity lampooning. Also, this article by the American Humanist Association.
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Please note I have no more enmity for Islam than I do for Christianity or any other religion. No religion gets to impose their religious dogma on non-members of your faith tradition. Neither do you get to censor speech you deem offensive to your religious sensibilities. No one has a “right” not to be offended. I am offended by your stupidity and behavior. That does not grant me the right, let alone duty, to kill you. You are doing more to turn people away from Islam than your perceived enemies could hope to achieve on their own.
These articles by Charles P. Pierce and P.Z. Myers, as well as every other article at FreeThought Blogs, deserve a read given that you are reading my thoughts on the matter.
The following commentary is from the HuffingtonPost article by Catherine Taibi where I obtained these images.
“Charlie Hebdo gained notoriety in 2006 for its portrayal of a sobbing Muhammad, under the headline “Mahomet débordé par les intégristes” (“Muhammad overwhelmed by fundamentalists”). Within its pages, the magazine published 12 cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, bringing unprecedented condemnation from the Muslim world. The French Council for the Muslim Faith eventually sued the weekly for the cartoon. The issue has since been considered the one which positioned Charlie Hebdo as a target for terrorist attacks.”
Before a French court sided with Charlie Hebdo in the lawsuit, in 2007, another cartoon was published with the text “”Charlie Hebdo must be veiled!”
In 2011, headlined by a cartoon reading “100 lashes if you don’t die of laughter,” an issue invited Muhammad to be a “guest editor” for the weekly. The Charlie Hebdo offices were firebombed following its publication.”
Charlie Hebdo’s website was hacked following a 2011 cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad as gay.
The weekly received backlash again in 2012 after publishing a cartoon criticizing religious Muslims and Jews.
In a more recent issue, the magazine published a cartoon depicting a member of the Islamic State group beheading Muhammad.
