The Jesus and Mo artist is “back from hols” and presents a brand-new strip. And indeed, Mo has a faux-credible argument that cartoons mocking Islam or Muhammad directly incite violence. It’s just that they do so in the reverse way:
Jesus ‘n’ Mo ‘n’ blasphemy
April 6, 2016 • 8:15 am
I’m frequently terrified – just reading the news from Northern Ireland and Poland.
One of the (many) problems with modern Islam is that (many of) its members refuse to partake in the modern idea that the crime of ‘blasphemy’ only applies to people inside the religion. A nonbeliever critiquing, criticizing, mocking, or rolling their eyes may be committing blasphemy in the eyes of God, but they’re not subject to the rules of the organized church, mosque, or temple. It’s not blasphemy blasphemy, the technical version. This is religion evolving to fit the Enlightenment.
Once blasphemy becomes an in-house only crime, the next step will be lowering the penalty from death to being thrown out of the group, cast adrift among the damned. Blasphemy is heresy and now you don’t belong. And then you’ll go off and find or found your own church, the real one.
But the J&M Artist probably has it right. A severe penalty — the ultimate penalty, the death sentence — must lead to an extension of what’s considered a crime. If a Muslim saying “I have doubts that this interpretation of Islam is the correct one” entails an execution, how can this religion’s followers shrug off ANY ridicule, criticism, or doubt coming from any source at all? The stakes have been made too high to keep it amongst themselves.
At least the fundamentalist Christians cherish their counter-factual cinematic persecution porn. Fundamentalist Muslims too often seem to envision their ‘push back’ against secularism as a web of assassins engaged with real life events.
And leaving your car unlocked should be a crime because it incites auto theft.
A.C Grayling has pointed out thet all the major religions blaspheme on each other.
Christians based their religion on Judaism.
Heretics
Muslims based their religion on Christianity. Heretics.
Protestants based their religion on Catholicism.
Heretics.
Mormons based their religion on Christianity.
Heretics.
On and on it goes.