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Jesus and Mo

January 18, 2012 By 5 Comments

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Click here if you want to see an image of Mohamed

(By clicking you agree that you want to see it.)

Yes, I have, on this server, an image from Jesus and Mo. I don’t particularly care for the comic, and I don’t like the artwork. However, I have put this picture here for one reason. This week, a 17 year old was forced to remove this image from his Facebook profile by his school in Cardiff. He put it there in solidarity with The Atheist, Secular, and Humanist Society at University College London, who were themselves forced to take it down from their Facebook page by their university.

In reaction to Rhys having this image on Facebook, he was directly harassed by people at his school and threatened with violence.

Let me make this clear. Not everyone is a Christian. Not everyone is a Muslim. People who aren’t part of a religion do not have to live by the rules of that religion. I can have a picture of Mohamed if I want (actually I can’t because no one knows what he looks like) because I am not a muslim.

More than that, people who are free to practice their religion and to say the things that they want to are only able to exercise this freedom because everyone else is. I can’t begin to express how stupid those people are that exercise their own freedom of speech to demand that someone else doesn’t have it. If you don’t like free speech, don’t use it.

Got it? No, I didn’t think so.

 

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  • http://twitter.com/NatalieDzerins Natalie Dzerins

    I completely agree with your point about reciprocal free speech - if Rhys has the right because of freedom of speech to put up a cartoon for whatever reason, people offended by it get to say that they’re offended by it. They might not do this in a nice way, but freedom of speech.

    But now look, everyone’s upset! This is a Bad Thing :(

    A suggested different approach would be mutual respect! Or as I call it, the super-fixy-why-can’t-we-all-just-try-to-be-mindful-of-each-other’s-feelings-and-not-unnecessarily-antagonise-each-other-come-on-it’ll-be-cool-we-can-have-vegan-diabetic-cookies-and-everything-method.

    Also, I’m totally cool with removing the right to free speech if it means I won’t have to see the commenters at Pharangyula high-fiving each other with their knobs and fistbumping about how they’re all smarter than every theist ever. And I’m a bloody hardcore atheist.

    I don’t want to fight about this :( I just don’t think that the fact that what the school did was wrong (and it was, and creepy) makes setting out to deliberately annoy and offend people right.

    • Christine

      I totally agree with the above - and I’m a hardcore theist (Christian)

  • The Girl Next Door

    Where’s the rest of this story?

    As a rule, schools don’t get involved unless it has been brought into school by the people concerned. Was the threatened violence going to interrupt teaching and learning? Was there a threat to student’s safety? If the violence had been threatened in school, what was done to the students who threatened violence? Has the school discussed anything with the students and their parents/carers? However, the person that constantly attempts to deliberately wind people up may well find that there is a limit to tolerance, and shouldn’t be overly surprised if there is a reaction to their actions. Not everyone has the patience of a saint!It seems to me that people have forgotten that the right to free speech comes with a responsibility to not be a jerk.

    (Cookies are a great idea though…)

  • SHREW:)

    in twenty years time Rhys would have been been to death for this crime against
    religion. Allah Akbar and all that jazz:)
    be thankful its only his Facebook they cut off..

  • SHREW:)

    i meant “PUT” to death on the last comment ( reminder to ones self don’t type and eat cheese on toast at same time)

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