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Sunday, January 27, 2008

For the past couple of years, I have noticed that one post, Somebody Bring Me Some Fatwa, has been far and away the most visit via Google searches.  Check out the referrers page and see for yourself.  The reason is the image contained on that page, which you can see below.

The writing on the pig is “Allah” in Arabic.  I just received the following polite email from concerning this picture.

Dear Admin

I have come across an article on your web site called “Somebody Bring Me Some Fatwa” while researching a topic in Islamic studies. The URL for this article is:

http://right-thinking.com/index.php/weblog/somebody_bring_me_some_fatwa/

I would like to draw to your attention to the fact that this page contains extremely offensive materials to hundreds of millions of muslims around the world.

I am trusting that this page might have slipped through the cracks and would kindly ask for this page to be removed.

Best Regard
Yousef Amel

And here is, as you expect, my response.

Dear Yousef.  That image, which I created myself, was not a lapse.  It was intentionally be designed to be as offensive as possible.  It was put up when, under the orders of the Iranian government, tens of thousands of your fellow “peaceful” Muslims rioted and destroyed property all over the world because of some cartoons published in a Danish newspaper.

Thus I decided to make the most offensive image possible, a pig with the word “Allah” on it.

What the Muslim wold is going to have to learn, if it ever hopes to drag itself into the modern world, is the concept of free speech.  There is a saying in the west, often incorrectly attributed to the French philosopher Voltaire, which states “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” What the Muslim world thinks, and which your email clearly shows, is that you do not respect my right to free speech, you believe that everyone’s speech should be curtailed so as not to offend your delicate Muslim sensibilities.

Go to my blog right now, http://www.right-thinking.com, and read the posts over the last couple of weeks.  There have been numerous discussions and arguments between people like me, who generally believe the idea of religion is stupid and irrational, and with the Christian faithful.  It’s been lively and passionate, with each side representing its views, going back and forth.  This is healthy for a society.

You, and your fellow Muslims, are too scared to allow this type of debate to take place.  You write me messages saying, “Waah.  I am a big, sensitive baby, and your picture hurts my feelings.  Please remove it.”

Yousef, in the most extremely polite manner possible, I say “Go fuck yourself.” The image of the pig stays.  Interestingly, it is also by far the most popular link to my site.  People hit that image via Google Image Search hundreds of times a day.

The answer to problems arising from freedom of speech is more freedom of speech, not less.  The Muslim world, with it’s rigid strictures and self-righteous indignation at anything that dares to insult your “prophet” is not above my right to say whatever I like.

Tell me, when your fellow Muslims sentenced a woman to death in Sudan for allowing her schoolchildren to name a teddy bear Muhammad, did you write a letter about that?  Or do you feel that this is also “extremely offensive to hundreds of millions of muslims around the world” and thus her death sentence was appropriate?

If the Muslim world ever wants to join the rest of us in civilized modern society, whining babies such as yourself are going to have to learn to grow up and be a man, and not cry like a little girl every time you see something which offends you.  You might as just chop off your balls and put on a hijab.  Otherwise you can choose to stay mired in your oppressive 11th century theocracies.

Go cry to someone else, and enjoy my pig picture.  Paste it up on your wall, perhaps you might learn something about freedom.

Lee

See?  I’m not just a Christpuncher, I’m also an Allahpuncher.

Update: I will say one, thing, unabashedly and actually quite proudly.  I the six or so years that I’ve been writing this blog there have been numerous arguments of religion and/or Christianity.  Not one time, ever, has a Christian written to me asking me to delete a post, no matter how offensive it may be to his particular sky pixie.  Which is why, even an atheist, I’d much rather be around Christians than Muslims.