Friday, January 9, 2015

"Moderate" Ottawa Imam (He's an Ahmadiyya Muslim) Wants to Ban All Irreverence Re Religion

This chap "gets" the concept of free speech not at all:
An Ottawa imam has denounced the terrorist attack on a Paris weekly newspaper that killed 12 people, but he says satirical cartoons of religious leaders should be illegal.
Imtiaz Ahmed, an imam with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, said it should be against the law to publish cartoons that depict religious figures in a derogatory way.
“Of course we defend freedom of speech, but it has to be balanced. There has to be a limit. There has to be a code of conduct,” Ahmed said. 
“We believe that any kind of vulgar expression about any sacred person of any religion does not constitute the freedom of speech in any way at all.” 
Ahmed said there should be limits placed on freedom of speech to prevent the publication of offensive material. He says that seems to be the case for events such as the Holocaust. Members of the public denounce those who say the Holocaust never happened. 
“We don’t want the Jewish community to be hurt by these sentiments,” Ahmed says.
Thanks for that imam, but for the sake of free speech, the freedom that preserves all my other freedoms, I'm willing to put up with a little Holocaust denial. And here's the thing that really offends me--it's the way you've hijacked the Holocaust for the purpose of replacing Western notions of freedom with sharia law ideas about blasphemy. But do tell us what offends you, imam:
Ahmed said the work of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which has been threatened for its caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, is offensive and based on lies that have “hijacked the religion of Islam.”
So how would you remedy the situation?
Instead of looking at the few “disturbed individuals” who have committed terrorist attacks, the focus should remain on Muslims who are peaceful, Ahmed said.
In other words, no jihad to see here, folks; best move along now. In other words, a prescription for civilizational suicide.

I'm sure, though, that you Ahmadiyyas (a sect that is derided and persecuted in much of the Muslim world) are doing your part to tackle the crisis. Please describe your efforts in twenty words or less:
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has opposed such illustrations in the past in a peaceful manner. Ahmed said members of the community have gone to universities to educate students about Prophet Muhammad. He has also become involved in a campaign called Stop the Crisis to tackle the radicalization of Muslim youth.
 What words of wisdom do you impart to the students?
[O]ne thing I must say: there’s not a single verse of the Prophet that allows a Muslim to take the law in his own hand and commit horrific crimes against humanity,” Ahmed said. “We denounce that.”
Of course you do. And isn't that, in essence, the problem? To make any headway at all against the jihad, you should be acknowledging and denouncing this.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You and LRC both have some excellent posts this past week. Please stay on it! Civilizational suicide begins when no one is left who can call a spade, a spade.

scaramouche said...

Thanks for that. Much appreciated.