Thanks to the counter-revolutionary Muslim Brotherhood and president Morsi, the charge of blasphemy is on the rise in Egypt, including against two children aged 8 and 9.
Alber Saber, a 27-year-old computer science graduate, has also recently been charged with blasphemy.
When an angry mob tried to break into their home after neighbours accused Saber of uploading sections of the ridiculously bad film, Innocence of Muslims, his mother called the police who then promptly detained Alber for “his own protection.”
Later, when his mother went to the police station to pick him up, she was surprised to find that charges had been pressed against him rather than the mob that was trying to break into their home.
Yes, quite…
I too am still often surprised by how easily men, women and children are sacrificed to appease the Islamists.
But nothing will appease them. Appeasement will only legitimise and encourage their mob violence and their murder and mayhem.
Instead, we need to stand up to them, defend the right to blaspheme, and real solidarity with those on the frontlines dissenting and resisting day in and day out.
****
I’m blogging every hour on the hour for the Day of Agreement marking the International Day against the Death Penalty:
The first blog entry was dedicated to 14 year old Malala Yousafzai who was shot by the Taliban for demanding that girls go to school. This day is for her and the many like her who refuse and resist despite charges of offence, apostasy and blasphemy.
The second blog entry was entitled It is possible not to cause offence.
The third was a guest post from Marieme Helie Lucas entitled Honour the dissenters.
The fourth was on Salman Rushdie and the need for blasphemy.
The fifth blog post is Calling all blasphemers to submit their own acts of blasphemy to the comments section.
The sixth blog post shows why open mike nights just don’t work under Sharia law.
The seventh post is a guest blog from Sue Cox entitled Enough!
OK, let’s accept this premise to be true. That is, we have determined that nothing will appease these Islamists except complete compliance.
The question then is, what should we do?
OK, what does this mean? This “standing up” part? Blog about it? Encourage people to blaspheme in Egypt?
If you are not advocating violence (and apparently that will not appease them either), all that will happen is they win.
Please do not tell me that violence is never the answer, unless you also accept that in this case, non-violence is simply going to lead to their total victory.
Violence is unreasonable, and offers the only chance against unreasonable positions where reason, as you say, will not appease them.
If I am wrong in this thought experiment, please point out why.
Am I correct in thinking that the world will be a very empty place if the Islamists have their way? It seems that they want to kill everyone who disagrees with them but they don’t seem to be able to agree amongst themselves. So when the last man standing looks around him at the carnage that his religion has caused will he still believe that “God is great”? He will be very lonely when he finally realises that there is no God!