Today is Blasphemy Rights Day. According to the CFI website: “International Blasphemy Rights Day is observed every September 30 to commemorate the publishing of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons . . .”
Yet those cartoons, which the day commemorates, are nowhere to be seen on the CFI home page (http://www.centerforinquiry.net/). In fact, they’re not even on the Blasphemy Rights Day page (Secular Rescue | Campaign for Free Expression). There’s only a link to an external page that shows the cartoons.
Why aren’t these cartoons on the CFI website itself? Is the CFI afraid?
Seems to me the cartoons should be proudly displayed on the BRD page, if not also on the CFI home page. At least on this one day of the year. The CFI should also post one of more of the cartoons on Twitter and Facebook.
Let’s get some balls and put some teeth into this day. Currently, I’m sorry to say (and witness), the CFI appears to be wimping out.
I’m not in for blasphemy day. Insulting people just for the fun of it will not bring any good effect.
I'm not in for blasphemy day. Insulting people just for the fun of it will not bring any good effect.I agree. Just like having a "Down With Greedy White Male Ahole Day" would be silly even though the underlying idea may be a good one. And I doubt the awareness raised by a Blasphemy Day would be more than the ill-will generated amongst otherwise moderate Muslims.
“Insulting people just for the fun of it”
Yes. That’s the entire point of Blasphemy Day: to insult people for the fun of it. You obviously completely understand the goal of Blasphemy Day.
I'm not in for blasphemy day. Insulting people just for the fun of it will not bring any good effect.I agree. Just like having a "Down With Greedy White Male Ahole Day" would be silly even though the underlying idea may be a good one. And I doubt the awareness raised by a Blasphemy Day would be more than the ill-will generated amongst otherwise moderate Muslims. First, when is "Down With Greedy Whit Male Ahole Day", so I can stay home and hide. Second, my general rule is, almost any protest is likely to result in a net positive. Even the worst contrived event will get people to talk about whatever it is you are doing. You may hate the members of the Westboro Church, but you have to think a minute about what they are saying. For some that's harder than others, they may actually be uncomfortable with homosexuals but haven't thought about it much. The protest forces them to either realize hating is the feeling they really have (a positive for Westboro), or to stick with where they are (a non-negative), but it's less likely they will think that because Westboro Church are a bunch of haters, they should become LGBT advocates. With Blasphemy Day, seeing a cartoon picture of Mohammed is not offensive to most people. If they see it in the context of the protest, they might think, hmm, that didn't offend me and I can't see why it would offend anyone. Those who are offended would have been offended anyway. The worst case is someone has a logical argument about cultural symbols or something, but still, it's discussion, which is better than silence and ignorance.
I'm not in for blasphemy day. Insulting people just for the fun of it will not bring any good effect.I agree. Just like having a "Down With Greedy White Male Ahole Day" would be silly even though the underlying idea may be a good one. And I doubt the awareness raised by a Blasphemy Day would be more than the ill-will generated amongst otherwise moderate Muslims. First, when is "Down With Greedy Whit Male Ahole Day", so I can stay home and hide. Second, my general rule is, almost any protest is likely to result in a net positive. Even the worst contrived event will get people to talk about whatever it is you are doing. You may hate the members of the Westboro Church, but you have to think a minute about what they are saying. For some that's harder than others, they may actually be uncomfortable with homosexuals but haven't thought about it much. The protest forces them to either realize hating is the feeling they really have (a positive for Westboro), or to stick with where they are (a non-negative), but it's less likely they will think that because Westboro Church are a bunch of haters, they should become LGBT advocates. With Blasphemy Day, seeing a cartoon picture of Mohammed is not offensive to most people. If they see it in the context of the protest, they might think, hmm, that didn't offend me and I can't see why it would offend anyone. Those who are offended would have been offended anyway. The worst case is someone has a logical argument about cultural symbols or something, but still, it's discussion, which is better than silence and ignorance.I guess I should have added "Rich" to that fake day. :) Anywho, I guess any protest is aimed at those who disagree or are on the fence. To take your point, yes those who agree won't be swayed, those who are already offended probably won't, but those on the fence, the real target of the protest might get offended by the protest when they actually are in agreement with the cause. So to me protest names that poke fun at those who are in the wrong, who are the target of the protest but on the fence, do no good. Similar to someone who maybe is on the fence about gay rights. Then they hear about a "Take it up the butt" protest, or the "Sodomize your boyfriend" day and are likely to be disgusted and turn away when in fact they might have agreed.