Josephus,

I take it from your posts that your religion is a
missionary one. That for you it is not enough to
worship one God; it must be the right one and in
the right way. Well, you are not alone in thinking
this. But religions should not compete.

And for your information No. I do not accept either
family or religious failures. On the contrary, I
pray for both with all my heart. Perhaps you should
do the same instead of judging?

Bazz,

We do have hate speech laws which protect against calls
for violence against groups or individuals. A distinction
should be made between hate-speech - which amounts to
an attack on a religious group that is sufficiently
hateful or extreme and may incite violence, and an
attack on the group's beliefs - which should be permitted
under freedom of expression.

But here we need to exercise discretion and common sense.
The criticism should not be in the form of sweeping
generalisations inferring that all members of a
particular faith community follow their religion in
exactly the same way or that a particular faith community
should be thought of in the same negative way.

That unleashes greater intolerance and discrimination
and does not allow for individual differences and may
even incite violence.

You brought up the Islamic religion. The Islamic
religion is the world's second largest religion with
approx. 1.9 billion followers in 51 countries.
The religion is not practiced in exactly the same way
in each country or faith community. They have
different cultures, different languages - and
different customs. They can't all be placed into the
one box. As neither can other faiths.

We can't lump them all together. Even Christian
communities - depending on the community, the pastor,
the people, their practices and beliefs will vary.

Well Josephus, actually the author is said to be Allah but Mohammad
is said to have had it dictated to him by Gabriel.
One problem is that there is no evidence that Mohammad even existed
in the early 600s. He might be a fictional figure generated many
years later. Possibly he was modeled after another prominent person.
I don't know much about that part of the puzzle but it
appears some historians are studying that angle.
One article I read said that the grammar was more like the grammar of the Syrians.
Someone studying in that area might need a good life insurance policy.

This whole thread is predicated on the notion that religions are seeking protection from criticism. But no evidence of that has been offered.

Apart Mohammedanism, I don't think religions are indeed seeking protection from criticism. They are simply seeking the right to practice their religion free of outside interference.

The entire thread is based on a false assertion.

Foxy, it is easy to say that all moslems do not follow the demands of
the Koran, because they do not. Otherwise there would not be movements
that are trying to have the Koran revised.
However the highest authorities in Islam state that anyone advocating
such changes are apostates and deserve death.
The Koran is the word of Allah and cannot be changed.
I agree that Islam is different to other religions otherwise Martin Luther
would not be the well known figure of history that he occupies.
In the UK Islamophobic remarks are considered hate speech and an offense.

Mhaze, the Organisation of Islamic States has moved in the UN to get
the General Assembly to change the Human Rights to make Islamophobia
a criminal offense in member country's legislation.
It was moved by Pakistan if I remember correctly.
They have a majority assent but I think it is stalled somewhere.
Perhaps it needs a 2/3 majority.

Bazz, there are hundreds of documents claimed to be from God / Allah including the Book of Mormon another religion. However The Christian Cannon of 39 OT and 27 NT Scriptures has been selected writings from known sources of thousands of scripts written by Scribes, prophets and eye witnesses followers of Jesus. The Hebrew Torah of Judaism only contains 5 books written by scribes during the life and journey of Moses. There is no dispute about the history of Mohamed who was a murderer and polygamist and in civilized culture a pedophile, and to his followers a hero.