Tomorrow, 20th May, is the official “Lets Draw Mohamed day”. Given the high degree of offense this causes, is it ethical to support it or participate in it?

The short simple answer is “Yes“, however, it is still appropriate to mull over this so that as we move forward, we do so with a clear understanding as to why this is the clearest, most logical, and ethical answer.

To start, I’ll lay a foundation that underpins the answer. There are two very fundamental and well-recognized human rights that have emerged, and there is general consensus for the support of both. These are as follows:

“Freedom of Thought” – everybody should be free to believe whatever they wish, however rational or irrational it might be “Freedom of Speech” – everybody should have the right to criticize

Where the above all falls apart is when “belief” steps in and says:

“Only my belief is correct, any other belief is wrong and merits a death sentence”

“Any criticism of my belief is not only offensive, it is so abhorrent that it merits a death sentence”

When you point this reality out, the most common reply from many believers is some variation of “Oh but my specific shade of belief is the correct one, all the others out there committing such evil deeds are not ‘true’ believers like me“. There are of course fundamental problems with this counter-claim, but valid criticism of irrational but benign beliefs is not our topic, so lets put that to one side and focus on the irrational and lethal beliefs we need to contend with.

Today we have a stark reality that includes …

Death sentences for criticism of a belief

Riots of thousands that includes the burning of embassies and slaughtering of staff due to the burning of a book or the existence of a cartoon.

Threatening the lives of cartoonists to the point where the threats are so credible that people have to go into hiding.

Pulling the plug on entire aspects of the Internet because of the irrational response of specific believers unable to tolerate other viewpoints

Elected officials of large countries suggesting that merely burning a book constitutes a ‘threat to global peace’.

When faced with such intimidation and threats you have a choice. You can either remain silent and so implicitly allow the insanity to prevail, or you can protest, not using weapons or violence, but instead by deploying satire and humor.

In essence, “Lets Draw Mohamed Day” is a valid but totally benign criticism of an utterly irrational belief that is behaving in a completely immoral way. As for the claim that it is “offensive” to participate in this valid criticism of this utterly irrational belief for which there is not one single credible jot of evidence, well I find their truly silly claims to also be utterly offensive, so if we apply their standards, then they would need to immediately stop believing such offensive nonsense.

Here are a couple of links …

The facebook Lets Draw Mohamed page

The Website is here

Happy drawing folks …

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