Monday School: Hang Atheist bloggers???

After taking a week off, it’s time to come back to Monday School! Your ongoing ‘Rational Corrective To All That Nonsense You Learned Yesterday!’

Today’s class will focus on the religious and how dangerous their faith can be especially when anger is focused on those who disagree with them.

Over the weekend, someone forwarded me an article that was posted online last Saturday. She forwarded the link to me because apparently it concerned me because I was an atheist blogger. I took a gander at the article to see what she was referring to and to say I was shocked by what I read would be a complete understatement. I’ve had my fair share of hate mail and online stalkers but this clearly took the cake. It turns out there was a protest by Muslims in Bangladesh, where many members of Islam were calling for Atheist Bloggers to be killed.

There seems to be an issue with Atheist Bloggers in Bangladesh, where several bloggers who happen to be Atheists have been arrested by police and are going to be charged with ‘blasphemy’. I’m not kidding. Apparently, not only do people want these Atheists charged with a crime, they want them to be put to death merely for expressing an opinion that differs from theirs. Death for having an opinion, is this the 21st Century or the 7th? Shocking to say the least since people should have free speech, something that other non-Atheist bloggers have been protesting since the arrest.

Not only is this a blatant attack on free speech, but it’s bigotry and hatred at work. To condemn someone to death for merely having an opinion, it’s not right. If this were another nation condemning Muslims to death for not worshiping their religion (whether it be Christianity or Hindu), I’m pretty sure those Muslims would be protesting and calling for the release of the people arrested. But because this is about Atheists, they’re all for denying free speech and even life if given the chance. These people are calling for death because someone has an opinion and they have the audacity to call themselves the religion of peace? Not even close people… this is not what peaceful people do.

What these ignorant religious fools don’t realize is that their ability to worship any God they choose is because of free speech. As I said in an earlier class, religious freedom can only be as liberated as free speech allows it to be. For people of religion to fight people for expressing themselves is pretty much the equivalent of religions biting the hand that feeds them. The freedom of religion isn’t very much without free speech to back it up. Without free speech, there is nothing to stop the next dictator from outlawing religion next. Trust me people… this is not a path anyone should want to go down. And yet there these Muslims are, calling for the death of someone who posted something about Atheism on their blog. Disrespectful, disturbing and criminal are the words that come to mind when I think about this despicable act. This is why the non-Atheist bloggers are protesting this; they’re not in support of Atheism but are afraid their views will be punishable next and they have every right to be worried. What if the next group to be attacked are Christians? Buddhists? Jews? I think you see my point.

Just like people who claim to support the bible, it appears that people who support Islam have failed to do their homework. People seem to think that the Qur’an gives them permission to force people to adhere to their views, but that’s not the case. The Qur’an clearly stats that the forcible conversion is, in itself, an abomination: “Let there be no compulsion in religion” (2:256). Apparently Allah himself thinks that forcing someone to accept his word is not cool… so why do people do it?

As for hanging Atheist bloggers; that too is forbidden … as it’s clearly stated in 6:151 of the Qur’an: “…take not life, which God hath made sacred”. Can Allah make himself any more clear?

Let’s try another: “Do not let your hatred of a people incite you to aggression” (5:2). Translation: if someone disagrees with you, do not let your disgust for them turn into violence. That would make hanging Atheists against the alleged will of their own God.

So before all these people in Bangladesh try to hang Atheists high for merely holding a different opinion, I think these Muslims need to crack a book… namely their own holy Qur’an to read these sections and realize they are not abiding by the instructions of their own God. How can people expect others to honour their rules when they can’t even follow them properly themselves? This is the hypocrisy that gives Islam a bad rap.

Like many other religions, leaders seem to carry a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ approach to preaching their word of God. It’s this kind of inconsistency that feeds doubt and causes people to back away from all religion, period. I find it funny that people think reading the holy books (no matter which one they preach) will convert people. Quite the opposite, the more I read the more I realize people are not actually following them correctly to begin with. The more holy books I read, the more I am sure about being an Atheist. So that whole idea doesn’t work… if anything, it creates more Atheists. So thanks!

I’m a blogger and an Atheist, so it’s hard not to take this personally. While I realize these specific Muslims are calling for the death of all Atheist bloggers in their own nation, I have no doubt they’d extend it to all nations if they had the power to do so. Since starting this blog, I have received some hateful letters from people both sides of the planet. I’ve even had a few notes/comments that wished for my death… all because I don’t agree with what they believe. Does anyone here actually think that a higher being (if one even exists) would approve of such behaviour?

I don’t think so either. So what does that tell us about the people who do believe? You’d think they’d have more reason to follow the rules, right?

And then they wonder why we won’t fall in line.

The answer is pretty obvious: we’re merely following your lead.

Peter