David f wrote:

“..it is one thing to despise a belief system and another to despise the human beings who hold that belief. I am not sure you make that distinction.”

As I have made abundantly clear many times including on this thread, people are entitled to hold whatever beliefs they wish and to evangelise for those beliefs.

See my post of Sunday, 19 September 2010 8:15:54 PM

“I do not wish to deprive Muslims of their civil liberties. I respect the right of Muslims to believe what they want and to do "dawa" - ie evangelise - for Islam. But I loathe and despise the belief system called Islam. I have nothing but scorn and contempt for people who attempt to appease such a vicious ideology.”

You question whether I make a distinction between beliefs and the people who hold them. In Christian terms, do I hate the “sin” and not the “sinner”? I have a twofold answer:

People’s rights do not depend on my – or your – opinion of them. Even if I despise an individual he or she still has a right to express his / her views and should suffer no “prejudices” or “discrimination” to use your words. So, in that sense, my making the distinction you suggest is irrelevant.

But, yes, there are some views and behaviors I consider so abhorrent that it leads me to despise the person holding them. When Cat Stevens declares on BBCTV that he wishes to see Salman Rushdie burned alive I hold him beneath contempt. When people who should know better – such as Foxy on OLO – make excuses for this VERMIN I am astonished.

Why do I consider Islam – I should say CONTEMPORARY Islam – to be the worst of the CONTEMPORARY religions?

Actually I don’t. But I focus on Islam because that’s the one people seek to appease. Nobody tries to appease the Catholics for example.

It is the appeasement that makes Islam so dangerous.

Dear stevenlmeyer,

I agree with your opinion of Cat Stevens. I feel the same way about contemporary Christians who make excuses for Calvin who had Servetus condemned to death. Servetus was burned at the stake. One of their excuses is that Calvin wanted Servetus run through with a sword rather than burned alive.

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=10725 contains my essay which includes that subject. The spirit of John Calvin is alive and well. The essay includes other Christian excuses. Christians who defend Calvin's atrocious behaviour are no better than Cat Stevens.

LOL David f

The ‘ol Islamic Defence Reflex or IDR. We dare not subject Islam or a Muslim to a bit of critique, analysis, satire and scorn (CASS) without also expending a bit of CASS on Christianity. To do otherwise would be to risk being labeled and “Islamophobe” or even a “racist”.

A CASS attack on Islam must be “balanced” with a CASS attack on Christianity. Dems de rules.

However in picking on Calvin you have chosen one of my pet aversions. I grew up in South Africa where the Calvinist Dutch Reformed Churches were using the bible to justify Apartheid. Calvin featured large in our history lessons though somehow they never got around to mentioning Servetus. They did a good job on the Spanish Inquisition though.

Back then I never thought about drawing cartoons of Calvin. Wonder what would have happened had I done so.

All this being said there are a few differences between ol’ Calvin and Cat Stevens.

Calvin has been dead over 400 years. Stevens is still very much alive.

There is no general APPEASEMENT of Calvinists.

Calvinists might defend Calvin but almost nobody else, certainly no self-proclaimed atheists, would. You won’t find CJ MORGAN using the word “Calvinophobia”. Foxy won’t be making excuses for him. Pericles won’t be equating Calvinophobia with racism.

There is no general APPEASEMENT of Calvinists.

Calvinists are no longer burning anybody. In South Africa they’ve even done a mea culpa on Apartheid.

There is no general APPEASEMENT of Calvinists.

If you write a disparaging biography of Calvin you will not need not walk around with 8 bodyguards after the manner of Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

There is no general APPEASEMENT of Calvinists.

If a publisher declines to take on your biography it will likely be because he thinks nobody, not even Calvinists, will be interested. He won’t decline because he fears angry Calvinists

There is no general APPEASEMENT of Calvinists.

You get the picture David f.

BTW you did not have to go back to Servetus to find an example of Christian Schrekligkeit. The Catholics burned Bruno in 1600.

My sister, 32-year-old Marwa el-Sherbini did not have a body-guard to protect her from the hatred that Stevenmeyer (+Horus) promotes and Mac believes is deserving.

Marwa, a pharmacist who was four months' pregnant and wore the the hijab, was involved in a court case against her neighbour after he called her a terrorist (sound familiar, steve and Mac). She was due to testify when he stabbed her 18 times inside the courtroom in front of her three-year-old son.

<<On August 21, 2008, Marwa was with her then 2-year-old at a playground in the Dresden suburb of Johannstadt. She had arrived in Germany together with her son and husband, Ali, three years prior to the incident from Egypt. Ali holds a fellowship at the renowned Max-Planck-Institut

On the playground, an argument arose between Marwa and and the 27-year-old Alex, where he insulted her with words like “slut”, “Islamist”, and “Terrorist.” After an official complaint was filed, a local court fined the man 780 Euro. The prosecutors felt that the punishment was too soft, and the man proceeded to appeal the decision. As a result, the appeal was heard by the State Court in Dresden in July 2009.

During the proceedings on the morning of July 1st, in addition to the accused and his state-assigned counsel, both Marwa’s 3-year-old son and her husband were in attendance. The routine process was running without incident, when the situation radically changed in a matter of seconds. As Marwa wrapped up her statement to the court, the accused man lunged at her with a knife he had brought with him. In front of her child, Marwa was stabbed eighteen times in less than 30 seconds. Both the defense attorney and Marwa’s husband attempted to get between the man and Marwa, resulting in Ali being stabbed. Two police officers, who stormed the hall, took Ali for the attacker, shooting him in the leg. Only afterwards could the real attacker be identified and taken into custody.

Marwia died right there in the courtroom as a result of the stab wounds.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/07/433730.html
http://www.thelocal.de/national/20090703-20359.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/07/muslim-woman-shot-germany-court
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc_GdndOHzc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50f9QrrMAGg >>

It is people like stevenmyer who should not be appeased.

Their behaviour is selfish and callous and deserving of nothing but contempt.

Not once have i read anything except insults under the banner of the 'right to insult'. His behaviour is an insult to civilisation and decency.

Mac,

Your remarks were about the Qur’aan, the Prophet and his companions: all HISTORICAL. Let me remind you of what you said:
<<I'll leave the textual analysis of the Quran to the experts, many report it as a collection of contradictory nonsense,a record of the depradations of a desert bandit and his followers and of course, vicious anti-semitism>>

I asked you who are the “many” who make these reports (about the qur’aan, the Prophet and his companions) and you respond with websites, not books (let alone book of any serious scholarship). IF you’re trying to link criminal acts to the teachings of Islam, then please do so: but provide the scholarly evidence! I’m asking you to provide EVIDENCE that supports your statements about my religion.