The Infidel Challenge
An "Infidel challenge" has been launched on the internet. The challenge is to "create a horribly drawn image of Islam’s prophet Mohammad, and display it in a public area." the internet counts as a public area.
I shall not be submitting an entry.
I was about to say something along the lines of "the atheists that did this put us all to shame" or "I can’t believe an atheist would do this" but then I realised, of course I can't say that, I have no right to say that. The problem with us atheists as a group or as a community is that unlike religious communities we by definition have to no moral standards to hold ourselves and each to. Therefore we cannot frown upon members of our community (if indeed as I hope there is a small idea of one) who do things that go against our values as we have none collectively. I suppose all this time I have been writing principles that I believe an atheist community should live by at the back of my mind. I've always thought that it is our duty in a way to prove to the rest of the world that we are not in fact the spawn of the devil as many seem to think (see previous post) put we're just normal people and just because we have no religion does not mean that we cannot create our own morals principles with which to live our lives. I hoped that tolerance and respect for others could be one of those principles, but I see it is not.
I can see why people doing this, why is was started and why people are taking up the challenge. Of all the belief systems in the world it has constantly been atheism that people have felt it's ok to believe is evil. In a way, the fact that this drawings are seen as a rebellion shows this. If a similar challenge were to occur in some kind of fundamentalist Christian community I'm sure no one would make a big deal out of it, many Christian teaching talk of the wrongs of us heathens. It is somehow seen as more morally wrong to insult religions. I suppose we're used to being labeled as the evil non believers and getting those "convert or die" email through (or am I the only one?) but I guess we know they're good people really, they're just slightly mislead by their misinterpreted version of religion. And yet I don't believe it is right to retaliate in the same way.
Just because we don't not hold the Prophet Mohammed as sacred does not mean we should treat him in this way. Just imagine if it were someone's parents, just because you don't love them don't mean that you disrespect their name. The Prophet is a figure who gains the highest respect from Muslims and I don't see why we shouldn't respect that.
It is true that atheism has few particularly good deeds to its name specifically unlike religion. However unlike religion as yet we also have very few bad ones, we don't wage in the name of atheism or hurt people in the name of the no-God. Starting this disgusting assault on Islam on brings us closer to the bad side of religion. If we do this we lose the one thing we ever claimed to have as a community, tolerance of others.
This reminds me again of the imdb boards before the Golden Compass was released, there was a lot of fierce arguing going on and I have to say it really was mostly Christians insulting atheists but I remember seeing a wonderful dignity in those who calmly explained their point of view without feeling the need to insult the other side.
As an atheist it’s always fun to have a good argument with a believer and yet once that argument turns into openly insulting believers how many steps are we away from becoming the sort of fundamentalists that harm others in the name of their beliefs that we spend our whole lives condemning?
I'm going to be getting hate mail from theists and atheists alike now! The things I do for my beliefs...
