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PaperclipPerfector  11mo ago (text post)   27236 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 11, 2023

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One thing I always find curious (not really because... well you know) is that only Christianity is targeted. Would Atheists ever put up depictions of Muhammad (peace be upon him)? This type of selective targeting just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

There are plenty of atheists who love to mock Islam. But America doesn't have many Muslims, and I suspect that the most hardcore militant atheists tend to be people who grew up in oppressive social conservative households, which in America are mostly Christian. Some atheists might also be more afraid of getting killed for mocking Islam than for mocking Christianity.

(not really because... well you know)

Speak plainly please.

only Christianity is targeted. Would Atheists ever put up depictions of Muhammad (peace be upon him)?

That's just not true. Maybe in America, where Muslims make up a tiny minority of the population, but in Europe Islam is often criticized and even ridiculed, mostly by atheists. What did you think caused the assassination of Theo van Gogh, the Charlie Hebdo massacre, the bombing of the Danish embassy in Pakistan, the attack on the Swedish embassy in Iraq, the 2023 terrorist attacks in Belgium, Türkiye soft-blocking Sweden's ascension to NATO, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.?

It didn't happen in the Anglosphere, but the main left-wing newspapers in France and Germany reprinted the Danish Mohammed cartoons, on the basis that it was progressive to mock religious pretension. The Four Horsemen were notoriously anti-Islam - that is why the New Atheism fell out of favour in prog circles.

There was a draw Muhammed day in a town in Texas in 2015.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Culwell_Center_attack

Two muslims road tripped to the event to mass murder the attendees. They were both killed by Texans while getting out of their car.

And see, this is what a sane secular society does when people want to be gratuitously offensive for no reason- ‘sorry, we’re not going to go out of our way to stick up for you being a jackass, if you want a Mohammed drawing competition have your own security’.

Fundamentalist Islam has approximately zero salience for internal US disputes over religious freedom.

While I am not the kind of atheist that feels inclined to do public displays of atheism, I am the kind that would attack Islam rather than Christianity. I dislike Islam and like Christianity. Christianity is intricately woven into the society and culture that I care about, Islam is its enemy.

Would Atheists ever put up depictions of Muhammad (peace be upon him)?

Maybe in Texas. In many places this would just get you killed while the authorities basically remark "play stupid games, win stupid prizes".

But it's not really symmetric because Muslims do not, as far as I know, put up public art celebrating their religion in the US. Maybe in Little Mogadishu in Minneapolis?

Sunni Islam forbids almost all religious imagery, leading to violence over depictions of Mohammed.

(They do a lot of calligraphy and symbols instead.)

I'm aware that depictions of Mohammed are forbidden (hence being killed for making them), but "calligraphy and symbols" would count, if made part of public art.

Putting up a faux-pagan idol (in technical accordance with local law) is no more targeting Christians than Muslims. It's not like local Muslims have a great love of pagan idols.

This is not mockery of Christ where you could gotcha them on lack of equivalent mockery of Muhammad. This is a fake goat demon stylized like a Tarot card used exercise legal tenants from the 1st ammendment.

Militant atheists in the west grew up in a Christian-influenced culture, and a lot of them grew up in conservative Christian homes, which left them with distaste and contempt for Christianity in particular.

If you go to, for example, ex-Muslim communities online, you will find every bit as much low-brow fundies-owned vitriol directed towards Islam.

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