General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Taking a radical right-wing position on the part of an outgroup is not "liberalism." [View all]Warpy
(111,437 posts)Majority Islamic countries generally have various degrees of laws against blasphemy, mostly by common consent. They take offending the dominant religion as seriously as did the Christians in Europe until very recently, say 350 years ago. Do I agree with such laws? Hell no, but it's not my country and I'm all too aware of Christian history.
Having such people think they can come here and kill people they find blasphemous or merely insulting is a whole different thing. Our laws are very different and visitors here need to respect the differences as much as prudent visitors to Islamic countries should respect their laws. Not doing so in either case will result in a lot of unpleasantness, and it should.
Personally, I'd be pleased if all the desert religions would disappear, I find them all divisive and damaging. That is not likely to happen, so my job is to accommodate them as far as I can. That doesn't stretch to tolerating Christians who bomb women's clinics or who try to pass discriminatory laws and it doesn't stretch to Muslims who think they have the right to kill anyone who offends their religious scruples.
I'm left with the Steven Weinberg quote, "With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." I resent the hell out of pussyfooting around bad behavior and outright criminality because god, not in my country with its secular government.
That's really where the line is.