Charlie is back

Last week, we were shocked by the acts of terror in Paris. This week, Charlie Hebdo is back with a new issue. That’s great.  The artists and cartoonists are brave.  

I think duck liver is a hype, but I always liked the French cheese, and the French attitude to freedom of speech. Charlie Hebdo’s satire offends the Muslims. That’s fine. They just have to learn to live with it, like the Christians, Jews and Satanists have learnt.

What’s holy for you is not holy for me.  Mocking the gods and prophets can be fun, for sure. But blasphemy is more than entertainment. Blasphemy is an important part of the freedom of speech. Religion mixed with a political agenda is a bad combo, because it makes the agenda indisputable. Who are you to challenge God?

• Imagine Obama coming to The House proposing a new law received from God, and the Republicans could do nothing to stop it. 
• Imagine the Labor party coming to the Parliament with a political program given by God, and Cameron had to approve it right away. 

The French and the Americans (I think) were the first to develop a secular constitution. This is very important, splitting governing, legislative and religious power. Turkey is Muslim-secular, but develops in the wrong direction. Many Muslim countries are stuck in their political-religious swamp. The list of ridiculous laws and rules coming out of religion is endless:

• Women are not allowed to watch football games (Iran)
• Women are not allowed to drive cars (Saudi)
• Death penalty for blasphemy (Pakistan)
• Separate ski lifts for men and women (Iran)
• One-hour marriage with prostitutes (which makes prostitution compliant with the Quran; Bahrain).
• Men can’t sit next to women on airplanes (orthodox Jews)
• Women can’t become priests (Catholics)
• Priests must live in celibate (Catholics)
• Ban on condoms (Catholics)

None of these rules come from God. They were invented by powerful people as tools to control people. When rules can't be justified by rational arguments, the easiest solution is God. No wonder religious authorities  who make up such laws and rules (and their Prophets and Gods) become subject to satire and blasphemy.

The French author Michel Houellebecq once said that “among all ridiculous religions, Islam is the most stupid”. He was taken to court in Paris for this statement, but was acquitted based on freedom of speech. They are all about equally bad; I dislike religion in general. 

I have plenty of religous books in my shelf; the Bible, the Quran and the Book of Mormon, and I have read a fair part of them (but far from everything). Sharia is mostly useless as legislation for the modern world. But taking the worst of the Bible, it would make a pretty bizarre law too.

Some of the religious texts can be quite entertaining. Once we had fun drinking beer and reading load from the Quran in a pub up north. I think the pub was a safe place for our blasphemy. It's an unlikely place to meet jihadists and inquisition.

In Satan we trust >:)

(Cover page of this week's issue of Charlie Hebdo; link to WIkipedia. The text above Muhammsd's head says "Everything is forgiven".)

My bookshelf

There's nothing important I have to say. I just wanted to make å test, to see if I can write a post on my cell phone, including upload of a picture. I will need to check later how it appears on the computer. The picture is of my office bookshelf, a part of it. There are some science books, of course, and a couple of oddities. On the Road by Jack Kerouac, and the Quran. I bought the latter on sale for half the price. It's a pretty useless book. The two-volume green book is more useful. It's kind of my Bible >:)

Quran and Corona

This evening, after work, I went downtown to have a beer with a friend. I took the bus, and had half an hour to kill before we met (one hour between buses). I went to
a music store to buy some drum sticks (closed), then to a bookstore that had lots of books on sale. These are the books I bought:

o Notes from Underground by Dostoyevsky
o Russia - People, History, Politics and Culture
o Sex 365: A Position for Every Day (gift for my old lady)
o The Quran (not on sale, still popular; believe it or not)

At 6 pm I arrived at the bar. She was there already. We had a good time; drinking Corona and talking about life, the universe and everything.

After a while I pulled up my books to show her. We started to read here and there in the Quran, searching for the verses that forbid alcohol and pork, the verses that forbid pictures of God and Muhammad, the verses that justify repression of women and stoning of unfaithful wives. She was reading load. I didn't have my reading glasses.

What a wonderful view she was: A young woman in a bar with the Quran in one hand and a Corona in the other.