Response to Some Atheists

(Photo Credit: http://uiucatheists.blogspot.com/2010/04/chalkin-it-up-to-free-speech-aaf-stands.html)

Yesterday I participated in Chalking Up the Quad for Free Speech, and event put on by the AAF (Atheist Agnostic Freethinkers) club of the University of Illinois Champaign Urbana. We attacked the main quad at night and drew stick figures labeled "Muhammad" up and down the sidewalks. As discussed in my earlier post, Islam prohibits the depiction of the prophet Muhammad, especially those which could be seen as disrespectful...
Like this!

The idea of the chalk event was not to make fun of Islam or piss off Muslims, it was to demonstrate the importance of free speech, something that is highly challenged today by the threats of terrorism and retribution for shows like South Park and Theo Van Gogh's film Submission.

Unfortunately, I was disappointed by some of the members of the AAF and how they failed to grasp this idea. The mission was simple: draw a stick figure and label it Muhammad. This is very powerful, and truly gets at the heart of the issue of free speech and blasphemy. Unfortunately this is not all that was said and done. Some jokes were made about throwing urine on the drawings, or writing PBUY, Piss Be Upon You. While I adamantly support everyone's free speech and their ability to express urine on the prophet Muhammad if thats what they wish to do, I do not agree that it falls in line with this particular exhibition, especially when the goal is not to specifically insult Islam as a whole, but the dogmatic inhibition of free speech associated with Muhammad.

One other comment was made last night that bothered me, personally. One of the participants made a statement that went something like:

"We can't go too far with these people, they deserve it!"

This is downright wrong. "These people" is an ugly, xenophobic term that really irks me. The mentality that its "us against them," that this is a battle between the dumb and the enlightened is not one I wish to be a part of. If we as nonbelievers fall into the same pit of disrespect as the religions we oppose, we are not on a side worth fighting for.

The issue of atheism is whether or not it is our duty to inform others of the true dangers of misbelief and dogmatic thinking. Faith is something I speak against, because I believe it is dangerous to people in general. I think the betterment of humanity can be achieved by eliminating this idea that faith is superior to rationality. It is not a moral choice for me to label those who have faith as the enemy and try to insult them and piss on their idols, etc. On the contrary! It is my moral duty to treat them as people, to work with them, not against them. If the enemy is religion, fight the religion, not the believer!