He has become corrupt.

You just answered your own question. It’s a race to the bottom for popular mass appeal. Like Trump posing with the Bible in order to get support from the religious right-eous.

Not from the perspective of the “offended” party. So I think in both cases the principle of free speech must trump hurt feelings.

@NostraDumbass Um are you saying that the holocaust did not happen? Because that is what he is equating poking fun at allah with. ie if you are poking holes in a religion that is as bad as denying the pain and suffering of those who ended up in the concentration camps, who had to hide out and those that risked death to protect and hide people.

One is a historical fact with evidence and those that deny it are doing so to effectually gaslight those that suffered and to rewrite history. They can not claim freedom of speech to do so.

@Budgie How on earth did you come to the conclusion that I might be suggesting that the Holocaust did not happen????? I did not even come close to saying that!!! No, I am saying that if you truly do believe in free speech then you are obligated to defend the right of people to say unpopular, unfriendly, hurtful things...like denying the Holocaust, for example. In fact, toxic speech such as that tends to be the litmus test for separating the true believers in freedom of speech from the pretenders. So let the Holocaust deniers say what they will, so that their malignant ideology is exposed to the world for what it is. Silence them and you drive them into the shadows where it will continue to fester and grow regardless. As well, you create a persecution narrative that they can then spin to their own advantage. But ultimately I am simply saying that hurt feelings are insufficient reason to deny free speech. And yes, that includes the feelings of Holocaust victims too. If you think otherwise then you are one of the pretenders I referred to earlier.

@NostraDumbass i guess because I will call out lies and hate that people think lying is an acceptable thing. I was at a meeting and kept looking up references as people were using "facts" that were not correct. So they can say it but I am going to call them on it and shut them down as they are incorrect. If that is denying their free speech then so be it.

@Budgie From a Muslim’s perspective “poking fun” at their hero is “hate speech” that should be “shut down”. From yours “Holocaust denial” is “hate speech” that “should be shut down”. So outside of the respective worldviews, you and Imran Khan actually have a lot in common. I’m happy to say I disagree with both of you. Censoring people is not the answer, because it then sets the stage for them censoring you. If you’re okay with that, then by all means feel free to “shut down” your opponents. Just don’t complain when they do the same thing right back at you.

Indeed! An almighty being is, by definition, incapable of being injured. Thus, blasphemy is merely an excuse to enforce conformity.

Try saying that to the total fucking idiot that is Imran Khan.

@p-nullifidian That small point is beyond the mental capacity of Imran Khan.

@anglophone I think he is just playing to the mob. That is what populist demagogs do. In private he probably doesn’t give a shit about Mohammed and Islam.

"Blasphemy is a victimless crime,"
To any reasonable person yes that is so, however not to professional clerics, it decreases their cash flow, lessens their memberships and reduces their political power, which is why they are so vehemently afraid of it.
To the clergy it is a vile disease that spread like a computer virus through there system and threatens ultimately to bankrupt them.

With you there!

Allah is a name and thus a proper noun and so is capitalised.
However god with a lower case "g" is a simple noun, describing a type of alleged entity, same as a unicorn and does not need to be capitalised.
The Lord God (upper case g) is a specific reference to the Christian or Jewish god and is a title such as King (insert name here) and so is treated as a proper noun. The "one true God" whose true name should technically never be spoken as doing so is according to religitards is an act of sacrilege.
Jews will not even write the word God for fear that to do so might be blasphemous and upset the big bad sky daddy and so write it G-d as if that made a fucks worth of difference.
Most people in the west grew out of this shit decades ago, but not so in the middle east apparently.

@LenHazell53 Thanks for the explanation. Another example of how Jews and Muslims have lots in common yet they hate each other.

@JackPedigo Always happens when two groups of aholes start calling themselves the the chosen people or the master race and start lording over every one else in the form of a religion or an empire.

@LenHazell53 I am compelled to challenge your assertion. Both "Allah" and "God" are common nouns that have been co-opted by certain monotheistic religions and converted to proper nouns. As an illustration, I offer the word "alla" which is Maltese for "God". While Maltese is a Semitic language closely related to the Maghreb Arabic whence it is descended, Malta is a deeply Roman Catholic country. Nonetheless, "alla" (without the 'h' ) is the official word used in Catholic liturgy to reference the deity. As a bonus factoid, the "Al" in "Allah", is actually more or less a definite article, so "Al-lah" means literally "the-God". Compare other words from Arabic that present an integral definite article: algebra, alchemy, alzucar, Alhambra, alcohol.

@amymcmxcii However, when writing the comment I noted god was not capitalized whereas Allah was.

@JackPedigo I'm not sure how meaningful that is given that Arabic has no equivalent to UPPER case/lower case. Arabic letters have different forms depending on their position in a word, but there is no capitalisation in our sense of the word. The fact that "Allah" is written that way in Roman letters seems to be a nod to the Western habit of capitalising "God". That convention has no meaning in Arabic and neither therefore in Islam.

@amymcmxcii I do know about the differences between Arabic (much the same as Farsi) as I was married to an Iranian woman for 16 years. I guess my question was about the spell dictionary. Non capitalized god was not highlighted but non-capitalized allah was. I also know in Farsi there are no articles. I was always adding them to my partner's vocabulary and writing. Even though she spoke flawless English this was something she always missed.

@JackPedigo Oh, I didn't pick up on that. If you mean the electronic spelling dictionary in this and other boards, I guess I must admit that I don't pay much attention to it. I expect the boffins that programmed it know more about coding than about language, or religion. As for Farsi and Arabic, apart from the 'alphabet' that Farsi derived from the Arabic and some vocabulary borrowings, they are two quite dissimilar languages. Farsi is an Indo-European language in the same group as English, Latin, Russian, and most other European languages. Arabic is a Semitic language related to Aramaic, Hebrew, Maltese.

@amymcmxcii Wow, you know a lot about Farsi. I only knew it had more letters (and a few words) than Arabic but otherwise similar. Yes, the characters are similar and the writing is from right to left. I do know the Iranians looked down on the Arabs and to call an Iranian an Arab was a huge insult. Also, one is primarily Shiite and the other Sunni.

@JackPedigo What I know about Farsi is vanishingly tiny. I do know that Iranians are a charming and enormously talented people with a deep, rich culture. It saddens me how the "West" persecutes and bullies Iran.

@amymcmxcii I don't think it's the people but the extremist, religious government. Iranians that come here tend to be in high profile jobs.

The real problem will come if Saudi Arabia decides to follow suit, trade deals with Pakistan are one thing, but SA has most of the world's economies by the bollocks, hence allowing them to get away with literal murder, war crimes and atrocities.

Of course not, they are not Islamic and are therefore not real people, and laws only apply to people and even then only to male ones, female ones are equivalent pets however so can be disciplined when it is needed or even put down if they are beyond redemption.

@LenHazell53 On the probability that I will write something prophetically unco I'll be silent!

I might have guessed YOU would be against the first amendment, and democracy wanting to ban democratically elected representatives based on their religion and their constitutional right to exercise it.

@LenHazell53 Radical Islam is not protected by the 1st amendment.

@Trajan61 I hope then for your sake that you have proof that congresswomen Omar and Talibe ARE radicalised Islamist, because if you do not, what you have just done is tantamount to libel, defamation of character and to wit is actionable and possibly even constitutes treason.
I'll be happy to assess any evidence you care to provide before sending screen shot of of your comments to the representatives concerned and the FBI along with a screen shot of your profile page.
Actions have consequences sunshine

@LenHazell53 Both support Hamas and Hezbollah which are terriorist groups. Your threat to turn me in to the FBI is totally bogus!

@Trajan61 So you have proof these congress women Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan are members of Hamas and Hezbollah or are you relying on the fact that Israel banned them from visiting and that Trump's pet poodle Bernard Kerik (who Trump pardoned for his conviction for multiple ethical violations) said that they might be on Fux news?

Or are you taking seriously the hate campaign uncovered and debunked by the Guardian newspaper that involved a group of mysterious Israel-based accounts comprising 21 far-right Facebook pages across the US, Australia, the UK, Canada, Austria, Israel and Nigeria, all of which have now been closed down for spreading the same lies and false news you are now perpetrating.