Scarcely two days into 2010, we’ve gotten a stark reminder of how free speech is still threatened by religious fanatics: Kurt Westergaard, the Danish cartoonist who drew the image of Mohammed depicted to the right, was attacked at home Friday night by a murderous, ax-wielding religious fanatic. Fortunately, neither Westergaard nor his 5-year-old granddaughter, who was with him at the time, were harmed. They escaped to a panic room built into the house for just this purpose and summoned police, who shot and wounded the attacker when he refused to surrender.
This isn’t the first time Westergaard’s life has been threatened by crazed Muslims. As I reported previously, he’s been the target of multiple death threats since the Mohammed cartoons were first published in 2005, and in 2008, three other men were arrested by Danish police and charged with plotting his murder.
In an October interview with the conservative National Post (which notes ruefully that Westergaard isn’t much of a fan of Christianity, either), the artist was unrepentant:
“As I see it, many of the immigrants who came to Denmark, they had nothing. We gave them everything – money, apartments, their own schools, free university, health care. In return, we asked one thing – respect for democratic values, including free speech. Do they agree? This is my simple test.”
The best way to defend this brave man is to ensure that he’s not the only target. There has been too much embarrassed silence and self-censorship over this affair in the halls of Western journalism. We need more images and drawings of Mohammed, not fewer, to show Muslim thugs that their religious laws have no power over us – and to ensure that they’ll have no single target, if they persist in the belief that they can avoid criticism by murdering all their critics. (Any Daylight Atheism readers have artistic talent?)
It’s not just lone fanatics, but governments that are getting in on the anti-free-speech game. Sadly, Ireland’s new blasphemy law, which criminalizes the publication of matter “that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion”, has just taken effect. (Atheism is not similarly protected from offense, in case you were wondering.)
However, we should count ourselves fortunate for having the smart freethinkers at Atheist Ireland – who promptly challenged this idiotic piece of medievalism by publishing 25 blasphemous quotes, against a wide variety of religions, as a way of testing the new law and exposing its foolishness. Will the government dare to prosecute them? Stay tuned!