September 30th, as my fellow bloggers have pointed out, is the International Blasphemy Day. And we haven’t forgotten how we got this designation:
It was founded in 2009 by the Center for Inquiry. A student contacted the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, New York to present the idea, which CFI then supported. Ronald Lindsay, president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry said regarding Blasphemy Day, “We think religious beliefs should be subject to examination and criticism just as political beliefs are, but we have a taboo on religion,” in an interview with CNN.
Blasphemy Day is celebrated on September 30 to coincide with the anniversary of the publication of satirical drawings of Muhammad in one of Denmark’s newspapers, resulting in the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy.
Let’s not kid ourselves. While the International Blasphemy Day is about freedom to speak about all religions, there is only one that is actively trying to silence freedom of expression today, using governments’ power, and its name is Islam. (Well, with a few exceptions, such as the Eastern Orthodox Church in Russia). What is more, Muslims majority countries (all fifty seven of them without exception) are not content with keeping their views on this subject to themselves; they have been trying hard to force everyone to comply with their rules, regardless of whether they are Muslims or not.
Democratic nations cannot remain silent in the face of this travesty. Those who care about human rights should raise their voices in support of their brethren exercising those rights in Islamic nations and suffering as a result. If we fail, we will be next.
