Shots fired in Dallas of mohammed cartoons.

[Mudhammam]

"Yes, a person has the right to offend 1.7 billion Muslims but common sense says they should not do so."

I don't have a problem with that.

I find that fairly surprising since you of all people seem eager to cut down religious figureheads whenever the opportunity presents itself. And why not? What wisdom is there in this notion that, "Yeah, you people believe in radically unsupported ideas about the world, and you give them priority above all else, but because there are many of you and only a few of us, it's best to keep silent and allow your superstition to spread unopposed." I don't think people realize that part of the culture war that secularism confronts in religion, and one of the reasons for the former's relatively recent success in the West, is the ability to take these superfluous beliefs that people treat with utmost seriousness and make them appear to be what they in fact are---totally unserious, and even flat-out silly. That's why, as disdainful as the event organizers in Garland are in my view, "Draw Muhammad events," or anything that mocks religion in literature and art, is something secularists ought to fully support (as well as the mocking of our own "figureheads" when they say or do something or inspire others to think or behave a certain way, as for example Dawkins, whose snobbishness often appears obnoxious to me and it equally fruitful when he's derided for it). I think it's critical in shaping how future generations will think about these prophetic characters and the ridiculous belief systems they continually inspire.