Notes from Evil Bender

PZ has some thoughts on fundie Muslims going batshit crazy over Salman Rushdie being knighted in Great Britain. Now, I’m on record repeatedly as saying that we should practice tolerance for others’ religious beliefs (or lack thereof), and I stand by that assessment. But the reason for that tolerance is that no set of views has a right to special privilege: every view deserves to be heard, and no view has the right to use hatred and violence to silence others.

But if you take a fundamentalist of almost any stripe, they don’t recognize that. Or, more precisely, they understand the rhetoric well enough to pretend to care about fairness while supporting their own ends:

Pakistan’s minister for parliamentary affairs, Sher Afgan Khan Niazi, who proposed the resolution condemning the honour, branded Rushdie a “blasphemer”.

She told MPs: “The ’sir’ title from Britain for blasphemer Salman Rushdie has hurt the sentiments of the Muslims across the world. Every religion should be respected. I demand the British government immediately withdraw the title as it is creating religious hatred.”

What a clever and entirely disingenuous argument: withdraw the title out of respect for Muslims. Nevermind the complete contempt that shows for those who are not Muslims. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Religious tolerance, in the rhetoric of fundies, means “don’t attack my beliefs and especially don’t attack my right to attack yours beliefs.”

And of course it isn’t Islam these people are defending, it is their own fundamentalist interpretation of it. Listening to these breathless attacks, you’d think that every Muslim in the world hates Rushdie, which just isn’t so. But to the fundies, no doubt, anyone who thinks otherwise isn’t really a Muslim. I wonder where we’ve heard that before?

Religion does not and should not have a special place in the realm of tolerance. We should tolerate others beliefs because we wish for our own beliefs to be tolerated. But we must never be deceived by those of any faith who would hide behind a mask of tolerance to avoid criticism while simultaneously attempting to silence anyone who disagrees with their warped version of reality.