In Praise (and Defence) of Blasphemy

Jawahara Saidullah,

How can you say that burning books is bad? Don`t you see that reading or buring books will have the same effect upon Salman Rushdie`s finances. So, to burn a book the fundo still has to buy and thus makes Mr. Rushdie richer:)

Continued From #1

An example of blasphemy would be to tell others that `` Your belief in Allah is correct. But Prophet Mohammed was not his messenger. That messenger is me.``.

You have not elaborated what do you mean by ``blasphemy``? Or what does it mean to you? Questioning is not blasphemy? To question whether Prophet Mohammed really received revelations from Allah is not blasphemy. Its an innocent query from a doubtful which is to be replied.

Blasphemy is when you stand before a crowd in a temple and tell them ``hey you fools, what is the fun worshipping this piece of stone?`` Or stand in a mosque and tell the people there ``hey you fools, before whom you are bowing down, because there is no Allah``. This is blasphemy because you are forcing something on to the others without giving them a convincing reply. Jesus as well as Prophet Mohammed were considered blasphemious in their times because they had no convincing reply to what they were saying or doing.

Sorry to say that it is not your birth-right to question somebody`s faith in something in which you do not have any faith in it. Just saing that I dont believe in this or that is not going to help. If you want others to believe in you then you must also give the explanation for what you say.

The things would have been clearer if you had indeed committed a blasphemy in your article. Or atleast I didnt find one.