Everyone Draw Some Blasphemy!

Ah yes, it is that time of year once again — Everyone Draw Mohammed Day!

It kind of snuck up on me this year so I didn’t really plan anything. But there are always drawings and artwork online and it isn’t difficult to draw a stick figure. I did recently have a Muslim tell me that Islam doesn’t actually have any prohibition against drawing their prophet. He might be right, but that is something he should take up with his fellow Muslims, not me.

I honestly couldn’t care less if Allah considers it a sin or not. I don’t believe Allah exists. The point of Everyone Draw Mohammed Day isn’t to offend an imaginary deity; it is to let Muslims know that they can’t scare us with threats. It is to support freedom of speech and expression even in the face of death threats.

Still, just because we can do a thing doesn’t mean we must do that thing. Just because I support the right to draw images of Mohammed that might offend Muslims, doesn’t mean we must do that. We should realize that people will be offended by our drawings no matter how silly and seemingly inoffensive they might be. Many atheists do seem to take issue with this holiday for that reason. Why should we go out of our way to draw something that will offend people?

Why does the mountain climber climb the mountain? Because it’s there! No one should be offended enough to threaten someone’s life over silly drawings of a long dead religious figure. The media should also not be intimidated by these types of threats and that is exactly the point of Everyone Draw Mohammed Day.

Sure, some atheists do get carried away with this holiday and intentionally try to draw the most offensive depictions of Mohammed they can think of, but this really misses the point. The point isn’t to intentionally offend Muslims, but rather to show that the offense Muslims take is ridiculous and that the threats that some Muslims make as a result of those depictions is an extreme overreaction.