Your words made me think so thanks for that. It sent me on a mission to see where the gaps are in my thinking along the lines you indicate. Because I certainly did focus on the religious connection when I read this news.
I don't think your trying to connect Barry's statement with another group with ideas he may not agree with really helps your case. All people who challenge religious beliefs are not right wing nationalists. These are unconnected ideas. I found a lot of information from moderate Muslums which would help to support your point. They quoted their scriptures and showed how the statements in it do not really mean what it seems to mean concerning the punishment for blasphemy. For example if it says that a person should be killed for blasphemy against the prophet they say that this is what God will do and it isn't an instruction for man to act on it. All well and good for them in their households. Little problem is that the laws based on other interpretations in Pakistan for example give a death penalty for blasphemy and they base this law on THEIR interpretation of scripture. And we all know how ISSL is interpreting it. But the main problem I have is that moderates in religion still make the same epistemological blunder of accepting old books as the the word of God and therefor an unquestioned authority in human affairs. Christians love to dismiss all the foam on lip crazy talk of the Old Testament God saying things like stone adulterers and giving precise instructions how to sell your daughters into slavery. They say that Jesus didn't preach that so we can safely ignore what God said himself, directly. They claim that Jesus brought a new covenant that fulfills all these laws. Problem is that Jesus makes it clear: Matthew 5:17-18 "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." So we need to fulfill the law to stone adulterers? And before we get in a parsing war about what he means by this, if there are different ways to interpret it, this is the problem. He did not say :"I come to abolish all those park bench babbling crazy statements my lunatic father made when he was on the vino a little heavy". He did not say that all that stuff in the Old Testament was wrong. So we are left with humans believing that the scripture is the word of God and that some humans on earth are able to interpret the sometimes ambiguous statements for the rest of us which is the source of most of the trouble with the extremists. But to say that it is a few extremists is intellectually dishonest. It includes the law in numerous countries where blaspheme laws exist. The only thing these wackos in France did was to apply the religiously based laws of certain countries outside those countries. And they did it under cover of the idea that there is a God who communicates to man through certain books which can be interpreted by certain people who know his will. And this IS the central part of religious thinking that I believe must be challenged in these modern times and not protected by religious moderates. As long as society protects bad ideas as beyond criticism because of the cover of religion we cannot directly address the root of the problem. Society needs to drop the pretense of religious tolerance while enabling an epistemology of authority from dubious sources. When even religious moderates pick and choose what they follow from what God directly says in his so called scriptures, then we can all join the party and make direct statements about what ideas are bad ones like we do with literally EVERY other human idea. The first to go is the concept that a supreme being has communicated to man and we know this because some people wrote ambiguous literature about what he wants a long time ago. ‘Maulana Subhan Mahmood relied upon verse: 9:65 and 66; 33:57; 49:2; 2:217; 5:75; 39:1, 65; 47:28. He has related some Ahadith and juristic opinions wherein the contempter has been considered an apostate. He has further relied upon a Hadith related on the authority of Abu Qulabah wherein the punishment of contempter has been prescribed death. He has also relied upon the Hadith related by Qazi Ayaz that the Holy Prophet said: “Kill the person who abuses the Prophet and whip the one who abuses his companions”’ (Para 4). - See more at: http://www.reviewofreligions.org/5002/what-is-the-punishment-for-blasphemy-in-islam/#sthash.WtyqYvsG.dpuf http://www.reviewofreligions.org/5002/what-is-the-punishment-for-blasphemy-in-islam/#sthash.WtyqYvsG.dpuf ‘Maulana Subhan Mahmood relied upon verse: 9:65 and 66; 33:57; 49:2; 2:217; 5:75; 39:1, 65; 47:28. He has related some Ahadith and juristic opinions wherein the contempter has been considered an apostate. He has further relied upon a Hadith related on the authority of Abu Qulabah wherein the punishment of contempter has been prescribed death. He has also relied upon the Hadith related by Qazi Ayaz that the Holy Prophet said: “Kill the person who abuses the Prophet and whip the one who abuses his companions”’ (Para 4). - See more at: http://www.reviewofreligions.org/5002/what-is-the-punishment-for-blasphemy-in-islam/#sthash.WtyqYvsG.dpuf http://www.reviewofreligions.org/5002/what-is-the-punishment-for-blasphemy-in-islam/#sthash.WtyqYvsG.dpuf ‘Maulana Subhan Mahmood relied upon verse: 9:65 and 66; 33:57; 49:2; 2:217; 5:75; 39:1, 65; 47:28. He has related some Ahadith and juristic opinions wherein the contempter has been considered an apostate. He has further relied upon a Hadith related on the authority of Abu Qulabah wherein the punishment of contempter has been prescribed death. He has also relied upon the Hadith related by Qazi Ayaz that the Holy Prophet said: “Kill the person who abuses the Prophet and whip the one who abuses his companions”’ (Para 4). - See more at: http://www.reviewofreligions.org/5002/what-is-the-punishment-for-blasphemy-in-islam/#sthash.WtyqYvsG.dpuf http://www.reviewofreligions.org/5002/what-is-the-punishment-for-blasphemy-in-islam/#sthash.WtyqYvsG.dpuf ‘Maulana Subhan Mahmood relied upon verse: 9:65 and 66; 33:57; 49:2; 2:217; 5:75; 39:1, 65; 47:28. He has related some Ahadith and juristic opinions wherein the contempter has been considered an apostate. He has further relied upon a Hadith related on the authority of Abu Qulabah wherein the punishment of contempter has been prescribed death. He has also relied upon the Hadith related by Qazi Ayaz that the Holy Prophet said: “Kill the person who abuses the Prophet and whip the one who abuses his companions”’ (Para 4). - See more at: What is the Punishment for Blasphemy in Islam? - The Review of Religions http://www.reviewofreligions.org/5002/what-is-the-punishment-for-blasphemy-in-islam/#sthash.WtyqYvsG.dpuf http://www.reviewofreligions.org/5002/what-is-the-punishment-for-blasphemy-in-islam/#sthash.WtyqYvsG.dpuf What is the Punishment for Blasphemy in Islam? - The... http://www.reviewofreligions.org/5002/what-is-the-punishment-for-blasphemy-in-islam/#sthash.WtyqYvsG.dpuf Introduction Blasphemy, derived from the Latin Blasphemia, is generally defined as the exhibition of irreverent behaviour or language towards God, religion or anyth... View on www.reviewofreligions... http://www.reviewofreligions.org/5002/what-is-the-punishment-for-blasphemy-in-islam/#sthash.WtyqYvsG.dpuf Preview by Yahoo ---In [email protected], <[email protected]> wrote : And it's just equally sad to use this sad incidence to flame againts religion in general. It's just the worst generalization, and total lack of discrimination, and no western government, neither the Dutch nor the American, nor the French nor the German, would ever say it as you just said. You like to provocate, your calling, but it doesn't make you look very smart. In Germany we have the pegida PEGIDA - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEGIDA who actually blame the muslims in general for this kinds of attacks, and they are largely regarded as right wing nationalists. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEGIDA PEGIDA - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEGIDA Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes (PEGIDA, in English: "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West")[note 1] is ... View on en.wikipedia.org https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEGIDA Preview by Yahoo
