Posts tagged "blasphemy"
Pakistan’s Blasphemy Laws: Christians Come Under Attack in Lahore
By Saba Imtiaz A violent mob ransacked and burned the homes of more than a hundred Christian families in Lahore on Saturday in the wake of an alleged incident of blasphemy.
A Theory of Ethical Blasphemy
By Austin Dacey The claims of the believer and the claims of the blasphemer, so-called, are symmetrical.The value motivating us to protect the believer’s beliefs from desecration is the very same value manifested by the desecrator: freedom of conscience.
A Spiritual Defense of “Impiety”
by Austin Dacey The trick with monotheisms is that competition comes not just from neighboring gods, but even from our own ideas about the One.
Punk Protest, Bad Video Art, and “Religious Insult”
by Irina Papkova there's an eerie similarity between the reaction of some Orthodox believers to Pussy Riot and the worldwide protests against “Innocence of Muslims.”
African Responses to “Muslim Innocence”
by Alex Thurston Protests against the Innocence of Muslims film have taken on a global scope...in sub-Saharan Africa, responses have ranged from violent protests to calls for peace.
Everybody’s Sacred Cows or Nobody’s Sacred Cows? Equality for Impieties
By Austin Dacey F. M. Husain was hounded out of his native India...by Hindu conservatives outraged by his nude portaits of Hindu goddesses.
The Trouble With “Religious Hatred”
By Austin Dacey Opponents of hate speech laws contend that there is no evidence to suggest that the state can successfully bring about ethical behavior by the force of law. Bigotry is flourishing across Europe, for example, despite its robust hate speech laws.
A Human Right to Blaspheme?
by Austin Dacey Do you have a human right to blaspheme? Ask a philosopher and you may get two different answers.
The Globalization of Blasphemy
by Austin Dacey The Indian Penal Code was drafted in 1837 by the Indian Law Commission...In their commentaries, the commissioners observed that India is “pregnant with dangers” because of a susceptibility to “religious excitement” peculiar to Muslims and Hindus.
How Blasphemy Got Personal
by Austin Dacey Fifty-six years before Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses thrust blasphemy into the spotlight of Western public discourse, the literary debut of a young medical doctor named Rashid Jahan was generating more excitement than she could have imagined.
Sacrilege: an excerpt from Austin Dacey’s The Future of Blasphemy
We do not know what the first blasphemer said. We do know that he was a stranger who came among the Israelites.
