Celebrating blasphemy

Today marks International Blasphemy Rights Day and the culmination of the Center For Inquiry's Campaign for Free Expression. It's the day where people across the world denounce, debase, ridicule, mock and criticize whatever the hell they want.

I say this because while ostensibly about religious sensibilities, the truth is that blasphemy isn't inherently a religious concept. It's the verbal or physical violation of something sacred, whether that "thing" is the former site of the Twin Towers, your wedding vows, the Eucharist, a well-worn and highly sentimental copy of your favorite book, or the Prophet Muhammad.

On September 30th, 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published twelve cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad as part of a larger discussion on the chilling-effect aspects of Islam were causing within the country. After the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh and other violent incidents, people were increasingly unwilling to even approach the subject, lest some unknown extremist Imam thousands of miles away issue a violent fatw? against them, or similar. Rather than be cowed into silence and willingly relinquish their freedom of speech, the Dutch cartoonists put ink to paper and brought the issue out into the light of day.

The purpose of today's blasphemy, in whatever form participants do it in, is not meant in ill-faith. Though virtually guaranteed to draw anger, vitriol and virulent condemnation, International Blasphemy Rights Day is not a day of attack but rather a celebration. Is what is done today vulgar or rude? Maybe some, probably a lot.

But that is the price we pay to live in the free society we enjoy. Tolerance is the tax on freedom.

Want to burn a flag? Go for it. Want to torch a Qu'ran? Here's a match. Put a nail through a Eucharist, call the President a nigger, claim masturbation is adultery, tell the world there is no God, draw Muhammad with a bomb, picket with a list of sinners, condemn people to hell, deny the Holy Spirit; is it offensive? Yes. Do we have the right? Absolutely.

The United Nations passed a resolution last year defining defamation of religion as a human rights violation. The woman behind Everybody Draw Mohammad Day has been forced to go into hiding owing to her involvement in launching that viral campaign. In Ireland you can be fined up to 25,000 EU they publish or utter "matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion". Dozens of countries in Europe have laws against insulting the sacred, many of which are still enforced.

Accompanying the twelve Dutch cartoons in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, the editors included a short piece explaining their intentions. In part it reads...

"The modern, secular society is rejected by some Muslims. They demand a special position, insisting on special consideration of their own religious feelings. It is incompatible with contemporary democracy and freedom of speech, where one must be ready to put up with insults, mockery and ridicule. It is certainly not always attractive and nice to look at, and it does not mean that religious feelings should be made fun of at any price, but that is of minor importance in the present context. [...] we are on our way to a slippery slope where no-one can tell how the self-censorship will end. That is why Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten has invited members of the Danish editorial cartoonists union to draw Muhammad as they see him."

That self-censorship still exists today and it is not something anyone, of any persuasion, should be standing for. People have the right to offend - we do not have the right to not be offended. If someone aggravates our senses, violates what we consider sacred, we are not allowed to shut them up. But we are allowed to speak ourselves. Discuss, debate, argue, critique, criticize, contemplate, scrutinize, and question. The function of speech is to release people from the bondage of irrational fears.

Today we celebrate that function and our refusal allow those irrational fears to silence.