ralpress.org

If you have any attachment whatsoever to the rule of reason, to the notion of humanistic individual rights and to the essential equality of men and women, then you really need to read this post. There exists the very real possibility that the concept of “defamation of religions” becomes an international legal norm. Write to your MP, join an organization that defends secular principles (here’s one I recently joined), agitate, demonstrate on the streets, write a blog post (it’ll be indexed by Google, at least), do whatever you can. This is a grave matter and the process is occurring now, not “might occur”, it is occurring, and as the quotes in the post linked to point out, has been for the last 10 years or so, with minimal opposition so far. Don’t be a frog in the boiling pot and then merely shrug when it becomes fait accompli, do something now to make your voice heard.

This matter has serious ramifications for those who do not want the rules that govern their lives to be dictated by theocrats and superstitious belief. As Ophelia Benson remarks:

If the right to free speech can be trumped by a subjective perception of insult, then there is no right to free speech. That’s it. All over.

(I don’t like writing such strident posts, but this is important, isn’t it?)

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