A recent incident in Egypt prompted my good friend Karim to write below thoughtful, enlightened and constructive opinion re the issues and concerns associated with the concept of "insulting religion."
Karim's mindful and soulful opinion got me thinking as well about the logic and meaning behind that concept "insulting religion." My focus here is in regards Judaism and the fact that American Jews are dropping in number, due to many social and personal developments in their midst, including:
- intermarrying at an astonishing rate,
- a significant percentage of those intermarried Jews are not raising their kids as Jewish, and
- another significant percentage of those intermarried Jews as well as couples who are both Jewish are no longer practicing Judaism.
Now, are American Jews insulting Judaism? Common sense tells me not. It seems to me that Judaism will be insulted if those Jews continued every Saturday to honor a God they did not believe in. Yes, there may be fewer Jews in a generation or two, but Jewish culture is based on Jewish ideals and values, that will not go away. In fact, respect for law and order, progressive values, emphasis on literacy and education and embracing diversity will stand a better chance of being woven into the culture of a given society once the terrible ideas about racial purity are discredited and fewer and fewer people are attached to them.
As I fully concur with Karim's analysis, I share it with you below.
Hussein
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Karim's "Insulting Religion" Analysis
I was appalled at the following news headline posted on Ahram Online, Wednesday 30 Oct 2013: "Egyptian court orders detention of student on 'insulting religion' charges."
No mention was made as to what the insult comprised but it evidently was deemed offensive to the Egyptian court. I would not be at all surprised if the so called insult was no more than an expression of free thought or at worst a criticism. Regardless of the nature of the insult and the particular religion targeted, the civilized response to such offence should have been to shun the offender or to express opinions that counter the offense. This brings me to the essence of my argument on the subject of “the right of free speech”, meaning the ability to express one’s views without fear of coercion or compulsion.
Traditionally, respecting other people’s religious beliefs has been a common value in our worldview… to the point where criticizing or even questioning anyone else’s belief is seen as offensive at best, sacrilegious at worst. Most people will often get upset or even insulted when their deeply-held ideas and beliefs are criticized, questioned, challenged, mocked, or refuted.
Why should religious beliefs, alone among all other ideas, be beyond criticism, and the very act of questioning religion is inherently intolerant. We criticize every other idea; we criticize ideas about science, philosophy, politics, medicine, art, culture, and who has the best educational or health system etc. Why among all other ideas does religion get to be free from criticism and questioning and mockery? What makes religion so different, so special, that it deserves that special treatment? Why should religion be uniquely protected against criticism, questioning and self correction?
I fully support people’s right to believe whatever they believe, and to practice whatever religion or non-religion they choose, as long as they keep it out of government and don’t shove it down other people’s throats. While we should respect the important freedom of religious belief…we should also retain the right to criticize those beliefs, and to treat them just like we’d treat any other idea we think is fallacious.
Egypt is presently at the crossroads of modernity and repression. If we retain Article 98 of Egypt's penal code that says anyone convicted of offending religion in any form can face up to six years in prison, we are condemned to repression.
To foster a progressive secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanistic values we must encourage critical thinking in examining controversial and extraordinary claims. We must advocate and defend a nonreligious life-stance rooted in science, naturalistic philosophy, and humanistic ethics and to serve and support adherents of that life-stance. We must promote the ideals of scientific and critical inquiry, democracy, secularism, human-based ethics and challenge the rise in fundamentalism in all religions.
We must set up wide-range national rehabilitation programs to promote such behaviors.
George Washington once warned that if the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.
Let’s hope the unfortunate student who purportedly insulted religion gets off free and be recognized as one of Egypt’s courageous freethinkers.
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