Fareed Zakaria: Blasphemy and the law of fanatics
10 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, economics of religion, liberalism Tags: Blasphemy
By contrast, the word blasphemy appears nowhere in the Koran. (Nor, incidentally, does the Koran anywhere forbid creating images of Muhammad, though there are commentaries and traditions — “hadith” — that do, to guard against idol worship.)
Islamic scholar Maulana Wahiduddin Khan has pointed out that “there are more than 200 verses in the Koran, which reveal that the contemporaries of the prophets repeatedly perpetrated the same act, which is now called ‘blasphemy or abuse of the Prophet’ . . . but nowhere does the Koran prescribe the punishment of lashes, or death, or any other physical punishment.” On several occasions, Muhammad treated people who ridiculed him and his teachings with understanding and kindness.
“In Islam,” Khan says, “blasphemy is a subject of intellectual discussion rather than a subject of physical punishment.”
HT: http://wapo.st/1zXY2PA but cartoon inserted independently, not in Washington Post
On Charlie Hebdo and campus speech codes
10 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in liberalism Tags: Blasphemy, campus speech codes
Freedom starts with a laugh
09 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
John Cleese on Political Incorrectness
09 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, liberalism
Bill Maher: Hundreds of Millions of Muslims Support Attack on ‘Charlie Hebdo’
09 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
HT: Steve Wrathall
It is important to be disrespectful of religion
09 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in liberalism Tags: The Age of Enlightenment
HT: Stephen Berry
On blasphemy against Monty Python
08 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, liberalism, TV shows Tags: Blasphemy, Monty Python
HT: Tyler Cowen
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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