Celebrated Turkish pianist and atheist Fazil Say has been given a 10-month suspended sentence for Twitter comments “insulting Islam”. He will face imprisonment if he “re-offends” and has shut down his Twitter account.
His Tweets included a verse from a poem by Omar Khayyám in which the 11th-century Persian poet attacks pious hypocrisy: “You say rivers of wine flow in heaven, is heaven a tavern to you? You say two huris [companions] await each believer there, is heaven a brothel to you?” In other Tweets, he made fun of a call to prayer that lasted only 22 seconds. Say tweeted: “Why such haste? Have you got a mistress waiting or a raki on the table?”
Emre Bukagili, a “citizen” (read Islamist) who filed the initial complaint against Say, said that the musician had used “a disrespectful, offensive and impertinent tone toward religious concepts such as heaven and the call to prayer.”
In other news, Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasrin who has faced numerous threats to her life has also been dragged into an Indian court and prevented from leaving the country by an Islamist because her Tweet on Muslim women “hurt his religious sentiments”.
Her Tweet?
“Muslim women deserve to have sex with 72 virgin men on the earth as they won’t get these things in heaven.”
And of course everyone knows about the threats of death against atheist, secularist and freethinking Bangladeshi bloggers. Islamists have called for the execution of 84.
Rather than arresting the Islamists, the Bangladeshi government has arrested four bloggers, namely Subrata Adhikari Shuvo, Mashiur Rahman Biplob, Rasel Parvez, and Asif Mohiuddin, who was brutally attacked in January. The four are still in detention and their bail applications refused. In the meantime, two more have been arrested from another district, one for ‘liking’ a Facebook page, the other for liking his ‘like’! There are reports that the government is now planning to arrest 7 or 11 more bloggers, An International Day to Defend Bangladesh’s bloggers has been called in order to stand with and support them.
Of course many Muslims also face attacks from Islamists and their supporters for questioning and challenging the status quo.
Canadian Muslim art student Sooraya Graham is one such case. She has had to leave her university and city of residence due to threats following an art work on women and the niqab.
As I have said many times, no society is homogeneous. Those who try to muzzle our freethinkers by claiming “offence” forget that we too are offended daily by their medievalism and barbarity. But freedom of expression does not include the right not to be offended.
Rather than being a question of offence, however, such charges and threats are further attempts at silencing criticism of Islam and/or Islamism by the powers that be.
Despite the threats, what is becoming very clear is that nothing will stop this wave of dissent.
Hands off and long live our freethinkers!
I caught the tail end of a news report from Burma last night.in it we were shown people being burnt to death and others beaten by Buddhists I think all in the name of some fucking god. 2013 and the majority of people on this planet still believe in fucking fairies and things that go bump in the night,as for uslim having sex with 72 virgin men!where the fuck will you find 72 virgin men these days not even in a monastery I,d bet..
ReplyDeleteI love articles like this that put it right up to the censors
ReplyDeleteSaying things like, For Gods Sake , Please Help Me God , God Forgive You.
ReplyDeleteThey are just a stupid habit everyone learned at school, That so and so Puts the fear of God in people.
Written by man for man, noting to do with any so called God , those who continue to carry out barnarian attacks in the name of there so called God do it for no other reason but , Power , have you ever heard of the maker of the suicide bomb jacket becoming a bomber, lol , no way , kidnap little children , brain wash them that they are born to give there lives for islam , is gross to say the least. and I am not just on about Islam , all religions are the same , a fight to get to the top of the ladder , they slide down the snake and die , and , then it continues all over again.
Its politics.
where the fuck will you find 72 virgin men these days not even in a monastery I,d bet..
ReplyDeleteMarty they only need 71..I'm a born again virgin..
Frankie,
ReplyDeleteleast of all a monastery
Anthony, that's hard to argue against. When you throw into the mix the Vatican bought one of the biggest gay sauna's going, the same time as my name sake got elected...
ReplyDeletePapal conclave begins as Vatican revealed to own Europe's biggest gay sauna
And did Joe resign because of this...Papal resignation linked to inquiry into 'Vatican gay officials
Frankie,
ReplyDeletethey are just men like the rest of us with their own particular biases and pretenses. Where they leave themselves exposed is in pretending that they have some right to give moral leadership.
Frankie:
ReplyDeleteWe are on Virgin Media network, so that means I'm a Virgin as well, my eight Kids were all miracles. lol.
Its like the guy who was brought into hospital, two nuns sat beside him until he recovered , The ask, "any Insurance" , NO, "Any money in the bank" , NO, But I have a sister who is a spinster Nun, "Nuns aren't spinsters , they are married to god", Oh, is that right said the bloke, well, in that case, send the bill to my Father In Law.
ReplyDeleteWe are on Virgin Media network, so that means I'm a Virgin as well
So you're with beardy then,Marty looks like all they need is another 70 born agains like it's just & myself..
Frankie:
ReplyDeleteI would say, The bearded one is well beneath my depths. even in the early days I never trusted him, kept himself clean of everything , as if he was told to.He is even entrapping himself in court lying against his own brother, or , they are both lying, who knows with a family like that. the truth will never come out until they all have been found out to be liars.
Itsjustmacker,
ReplyDeleteSorry for the confusion. I meant you are with with Branson too. A good friend of mine calls him beardy. I've gotten into the habit of calling virginmedia 'beardy's'.
I wouldn't insult your intelligence (or any of thr posters here**) by even implying you (they) are in agreement with Gerry Adams.
**Outside of Michael H.