I didn't answer... has anyone else here read T.S. Eliot's essay "After Strange Gods"? He makes point that religious blasphemy can't really be talked about in a secular society as a prerequisite for blasphemy is a genuine belief in what you are blaspheming. The summing up quote goes something like this: "It is no more blasphemy for an atheist to take the Lord's name in vain, than if a parrot were to copy the oaths of his master."
Astute point, IMO... that's why salmon Rushdie incurred so much wrath, when other people who had commented on the "satanic verses" that the novel alluded to did not... Rushdie was raised Muslim.
Astute point, IMO... that's why salmon Rushdie incurred so much wrath, when other people who had commented on the "satanic verses" that the novel alluded to did not... Rushdie was raised Muslim.
