Islamic censorship rules enforced at London School of Economics

Proving again that despite the pretense of claiming to want to foster academic freedom and an environment of intellectual discovery, western universities are rapidly becoming a place where only politically correct, leftist opinions are permitted.

More at Harry's Place


h/t Terry Glavin

London's "No Place for Hate" rally at mosque where pro-sex slavery Imam preaches death for apostates

The London Muslim Centre, which includes the adjoining East London Mosque, is currently holding what it calls a "No Place for Hate" rally featuring English politicians and what they refer to as other "Community and faith leaders" and "anti-racist campaigners."

The rally is ostensibly to oppose "those who seek to sow divisions in our (Islamist) community" in the wake of the murder of Lee Rigby by British Jihadists. The announcement also invites attendees to "join our commitment to oppose racism and bigotry and declare Tower Hamlets is No Place for Hate."

Although as the British blog Harry's Place observes, it's only a particular type of hate about which they are concerned, which evidently would be the quite rational hatred of those advancing the cause of murderous, Islamist Jihad.

As Harry's Place notes:

Last week at the East London Mosque, you could have heard the Friday sermon being delivered by a hate preacher who has been banned from Sheffield Hallam university: Assim al-Hakeem.

Among the pronouncements of al-Hakkem are the validity of killing apostates from Islam as well as for Christians and Jews who speak ill of Mohammed. Naturally, he also is homophobic and is pro-sex slavery for women.

No place for hate indeed...

Thousands of British Muslims protest against Google

A protest by thousands of British Muslims outside the offices of Google in London today is just the first in an orchestrated attempt to force the company to remove an anti-Islamic film from website YouTube.   

Thousands of Muslims travelled from as far as Glasgow to take part in the demonstration, ahead of a planned million-strong march in Hyde Park in coming weeks.   

Anger over the 'Innocence of Muslims', which the organisers say insults the Prophet Mohammad and demeans Muslims, remains available to watch on the video website YouTube, a subsidiary of Google.

Obama has to explain free speech at UN to the totalitarians in Muslim-dominated countries

Too bad he had to also prostrate himself and America to them beforehand..

`I have made it clear that the United States government had nothing to do with this video, and I believe its message must be rejected by all who respect our common humanity. It is an insult not only to Muslims, but to America as well..`

- US President Barack Obama





UPDATE: more at Red State (update h/t BCF)

In a free society, we have the right to make fun of ANYONE'S prophet

Reddit has draw Mohammed a day

What we need is more mocking of Islam and its founder - if only so that Muslims finally get used to the idea that if the rest of us can take it, they should be able to as well. Or is their religion built on such shaky foundations and lack of logic that they are more insecure and fearful of criticism and being mocked than adherents of any other religion?

Hulk vs Mohammed

h/t Blazing Cat Fur

How an 'Innocence of Muslims' Lawsuit Could Impact Hollywood (Analysis)

If an actress is able to get past any written agreement she signed and convince a judge she worked on a film under fraudulent pretenses, more controversy could be around the bend.

Garcia is upset because the film didn't turn out the way she expected. This is certainly a highly unusual situation. She says she was led to believe via a casting notice that she was working on an "historical Arabian Desert adventure film" and it turned into Innocence of Muslims, which she says caused her to lose her job, contact with her grandchildren and her sense of security. (The film has only been published as a 14-minute "trailer" so it's hard to say what it is at this point.)

But it's also not hard to re-imagine her lawsuit under different guises.

She says in the complaint:

"Defendant Bacile's representations that he intended to make an 'adventure' film, and that Plaintiff would be depicted as a concerned mother, were false. Instead, Defendant Bacile made an anti-Islam propaganda film, in which Plaintiff is falsely made to appear to accuse the founder of the Islamic religion of being a sexual deviant and child molester."

Now imagine if the complaint said this:

"Defendant Paul Thomas Anderson's representations that he intended to make a 'buddy' film, and that Plaintiff Joaquin Phoenix would be depicted as an up-and-comer, were false. Instead, Defendant Anderson made an anti-Scientology progaganda film, in which Plaintiff is falsely made to appear to be victim to a cult."

Or maybe this:

"Defendant Jerry Bruckheimer's representations that he intended to make an 'adventure' film, and that Plaintiff Jake Gyllenhaal would be depicted as a strong male lead, were false. Instead, Defendant made a film (Prince of Persia) that caused audiences to laugh at him."

Read the full article at The Hollywood Reporter 

UPDATE:  Judge refuses to remove 'Innocence of Muslims' clip from YouTube

Obama apologizing for free speech is making him look more like Jimmy Carter pt. 2

“We are aware that a French magazine published cartoons featuring a figure resembling the prophet Muhammad, and obviously we have questions about the judgment of publishing something like this,” Carney told reporters during a midday press briefing at the White House.

“We know these images will be deeply offensive to many and have the potential be be inflammatory,” Carney said in a prepared statement.

Islam's incompatibility with freedom

No religion stands up to logical scrutiny. They are all based on faith, which is an abrogation of reason in favor of belief.

That said, some religions are stupider than others. All have intolerant, repressive factions, but in some the violent and hateful are the mainstream while in others they are the fringe.

Islam, as it is practiced in most of the Muslim world, is the most coercive of the world's major religions, and that can be attributed to both the nature of its origins and the political and cultural histories of the counties in which it dominates.

One of the major distinctions between Islam and other faiths is that predominantly Muslim countries have not undergone the political evolution in the west that has separated religion and state. That is one of the reasons why apostasy is considered a crime punishable by death within Islam. Abandoning Islam is seen not only as a betrayal of religious belief but as treason against the state, of which many impose Sharia law as the law of the land.

Islam is a religion that, at its origins, was spread by the sword. When the basis of a religion is "worship as I say or die," it will have an understandable insecurity about being mocked or criticized. Having been born of a chauvinistic, misogynistic tribal desert culture, it is even more sensitive to insults.

The current round of violence and riots through the Islamic middle east partially drive from their confined understanding of free societies. By western standards in general and American in  particular, there is no free speech and free press in the Islamic world. They have laws against blasphemy and apostasy. Journalists can be jailed or worse for criticising the government or religious institutions. Most inhabitants of Muslim countries just don't get that America doesn't operate that way. Because that's how things work for them, they assume that by not jailing people who make fun of their prophet, the American government must somehow be complicit in the insults.

In fact, many Muslim leaders who have immigrated to the west still don't really understand western concepts of free speech. A typical example comes from Toronto, Canada-based Zafar Bangash, the pro-Iranian Imam and President of the York Region Islamic Society, who said in an interview to Iranian state-controlled PRESS TV:

"I think all US officials whether they are in the Congress or in the government or elsewhere are quite familiar and aware of the fact that the honor of the Prophet of Islam is a red line for Muslims and that insulting him is basically taking a stab at the very core belief of the Muslims and that this kind of blasphemous act should not be permitted and yet US officials advance this curious notion that people have the freedom of speech and expression."

What may be a 'curious notion' to Bangash is a fundamental, sacred right to Americans and most people in free societies of the sort that Islamic cleric fails to comprehend. The right of individuals to express themselves, even in poorly made, offensive, intentionally insulting movies, is guaranteed under our laws. Jesus and God himself and prophets of both of Christians and Jews are routinely made fun of in America. But no one is killed over it and that in part is a testament to the confidence of those religions and the civilized societies in which they abide.

Democracy literally means "government of the people." Islam literally means "submission." The two ideas are not compatible. Either people can be free to rule themselves or they will be forced to submit to autocratic tyrants who use religion or other means to impose their will. We may be reaching the stage where if Islam doesn't find a way of reforming, democracies will need to find a way of defending themselves from the religion that demands submission.


UPDATE - to prove the point, no one has been murdered because of this image  (h/t Blazing Cat Fur)

Anniversary of the Molly Norris fatwa

Today is the anniversary of the fatwa against Molly Norris, who came up with Everybody Draw Mohammed Day. Because of death threats from Islamic fundamentalists, she has been in hiding ever since.

Strike a blow for free speech and show your Mo' today!

h/t Blazing Cat Fur

100 year anniversary of L'Inferno features Mohammed in Hell

100 years ago, L'Inferno, an Italian silent film based on Dante's work and inspired by the art of Gustave Dore was released.

Dore print of Virgil and Dante touring Hell

In it was a scene that contemporary filmmakers would be fearful to make, depicting the suffering of Islam's founder, Mohammed, in Hell.

Dore's rendition of Mohammed's (with exposed innards) torments. Punishment for "division"

You can see that bit at the end of the clip below, starting at about the 7:00 point.

Elwood P. Dowd the Prophet?

This is part of a free speech protest (for, not against!). You can get more details at Blazing Cat Fur.

And just so you know I'm an equal opportunity "prophet" mocker:





Atheist Palestinian Blogger arrested by Palestinian Authority for heresy - Radical Leftists have mental meltdown trying to figure out how to blame Israel

From the Canadian Press:

QALQILYAH, Palestinian Territories — A mysterious blogger who set off an uproar in the Arab world by claiming he was God and hurling insults at the Prophet Muhammad is now behind bars — caught in a sting that used Facebook to track him down.

The case of the unlikely apostate, a shy barber from this backwater West Bank town, is highlighting the limits of tolerance in the Western-backed Palestinian Authority — and illustrating a new trend by authorities in the Arab world to mine social media for evidence.

Residents of Qalqiliya say they had no idea that Walid Husayin — the 26-year-old son of a Muslim scholar — was leading a double life.

Known as a quiet man who prayed with his family each Friday and spent his evenings working in his father's barbershop, Husayin was secretly his anti-religious opinions on the Internet during his free time.

The media in the Palestinian Authority, as in the Arab world in general, are largely government-controlled, driving dissenting voices to the relative freedom of the Internet. The blogger's arrest showed a willingness on the part of the Palestinian government to clamp down on freedom of speech on the Web as well. He now faces a potential life prison sentence on heresy charges for "insulting the divine essence."

You can read the rest of the story here.

And for a laugh, read the discussion thread at rabble.ca, the online clearing house for neo-Marxist nitwits, as they have a meltdown trying to figure out a way to condemn this without breaking solidarity with the anti-Zionist struggle.

Penn Jillette on the "disappearing" of Everybody Draw Mohammed cartoonist Molly Norris

Penn Jillette: "I wish the President of the United States of America didn't apologize for people exercising their free speech, but rather I wish the President of the United States of America would come out on the side of free speech."




Related: Penn on why Sarah Silverman won't make fun of Islam