Robert Spencer

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Pamela Geller

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Bat Ye'or

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Brigitte Gabriel

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Daniel Pipes

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Debbie Schlussel

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Walid Shoebat

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Joe Kaufman

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Wafa Sultan

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Geert Wilders

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The Nuclear Card

Reddit Will Destroy Islam With Dumb Memes

Posted on 29 June 2012 by Ilisha

Atheism

In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s apparently a desperate shortage of anti-Muslim ridicule on the Internet. Dissatisfied with the web of  hate sites that have proliferated in the last decade with millions of dollars of funding and promotion, a supposed “ex-Muslim” has begged atheists to go on the offensive:

We ex-muslims are a very small minority, and there’s really nothing we can we really do to change anything. We can’t form orgnaizations or voice our thoughts in most Muslim countries. We practically have no rights whatsoever besides the right to go to jail or be hanged or beheaded for our blasphemy.

But the voice of millions of atheists like all of you would significantly help us. It brings into world attention our plight, and all the horrible things Islam is responsible for, and how it has oppressed and destroyed many of our lives. It would at least help change some laws that would benefit us ex-muslims.

I heard that Ayaan Hirsi Ali (an exmuslim) has replaced Hitchens as the one of the Four Horsemen of New Atheism. Maybe this is a cue that we need to concentrate more against the Religion of Peace?

Many atheists heeded the call, demonstrating once again they too can be hateful and intolerant.

Reddit Will Destroy Islam With Dumb Memes

by Adrian Chen, Gawker

Attention Muslims of the world: Better get your Muslim-ing in ASAP because atheist users of Reddit have decided to “go after” your puny religion. Rest in peace, Islam. You had a good thousand-and-a-half-or-so years but you’re no match for image macros and rage comics.

The atheism section of Reddit is a popular venue for insufferable non-believers to swap screenshots of the interminable Facebook comment flame wars they wage against their fundamentalist friends and Christian relatives. No religious-themed Facebook post will go un-commented on by these fearless logic warriors. But now Reddit’s atheism brigade has turned the full brunt of its attention to Islam, after a user claiming to be an ex-Muslim asked for their help.

Finally, someone on the internet will criticize Islam!

Often these sorts of campaigns end up in a frantic fundraising drive, but it looks like the bus monitor lady has used up all the internet’s money-raising mojo for the week. Instead, anti-Islam memes are flooding the front page of Reddit; Lolcats for people who sleep with a copy of God Is Not Great under their pillow. There’s a “Scumbag Muslim” meme, and a “Most Interesting Mohammed” meme, and this cartoon about how Islam has been “raping children for 1400 years” that is like something your 75 year-old racist great uncle would forward to you in an email. In fact a lot of the memes that Reddit users have been voting to the front page in their supposedly witty “war” on Islam are predicated on the same gross stereotypes of Muslims as rampaging terrorist-rapists favored by the likes of the shithead Pastor Terry Jones. There’s even a similar obsession with burning the Quran. (That last picture also happens to use a Hindu to represent a Muslim. But what the hell, they’ve all got turbans.)

Atheists on Reddit decrying a religion as the practice of intolerant douchebags is as ridiculous as… well, atheists on Reddit decrying a religion for treating women like sh*t.

(Comment from Garibaldi): I will also add that it seems Reddit Islam (r/islam) won the internets in this war waged upon them by the militant atheists. The goal of atheists who partook in this was to provoke a reaction from the backward, evil Muslims, and in fact the opposite occurred–most Muslims responded with grace and tact.

The deluge of racist and hateful anti-Islam/Muslim memes and comments also afforded Muslims a wellspring of support from various groups, including atheists themselves who vehemently disagreed with the whole campaign, Christians, Jews and Buddhists.

This campaign can be compared to the Everybody Draw Muhammad Day, which this year passed without much notice in May.

  • Shoulder Monkey

    DrM,

    i am not slighted at all by your beliefs. i could care less what they are. i don’t know you personally so i am not going to judge your character.

    what i am offended by is the fact that children are indoctronated into believing that non-believers like myself are workers of iniquity, are to be feared and hated for this, and deserve nothing short of eternal torment. this is bigotry. it is institutionalised, publicly funded bigotry that is sponsored by adults and inflicted upon children. and i am offended by it. christianity and islam are different religions, but i call them both bigoted tripe for exactly the same reason.

  • http://Aayjay.wordpress.com AJ

    Ahh…. I see Believing Atheist has been put back on the case and Steve is off…is this a coincidence that you both are atheists, both from London and your presence seems to alternate on LW?

  • Graham

    DrM,

    This is nothing but the same old “no true scotsman” fallacy the Christians often employ to de-legimize other Christians with whom they disagree; those people make us look bad therefore they must not be true Christians. Just because the state doesn’t do whatever you consider to be the authentic Islam, doesn’t mean it isn’t a religous theocracy. And not having been to country doesn’t mean one has no knowledge of it, in this day and age with communication and media. Also, spare me the “it’s all the west’s fault” canard, it’s really getting tired. One more time I’ll ask you, if an atheist were to say, go on saudi television or some other public forum, declare their atheism and present arguments against Islam, there would or would not be a reprisal from the state? A simple yes or no will suffice here.

  • Believing Atheist

    Where did this person here that?:

    “I heard that Ayaan Hirsi Ali (an exmuslim) has replaced Hitchens as the one of the Four Horsemen of New Atheism. Maybe this is a cue that we need to concentrate more against the Religion of Peace?”

    The four horsemen are no more with Hitchens’s death, and if anything Victor Stenger is the replacement for Hitchens since he was one of the original members of the New Atheist movement
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Atheism

  • DrM

    Graham,
    Wrong again. Let me ask you again when was the last time you were in a Muslim country, particularly the American Kingdom of Saudi Arabia? Yeah, thought so, so spare me your condescending views of a part of the world you have no knowledge of. You’ve brought up the Saudi “religious police” aka Muttawa as way to ignore and dismiss the secular nature of the Saudi state. Well, you failed. The “Vice and virtue squad” as alarmist western state media refer to them not a “religious police force” but a part of the Saudi Intelligence(mukhabarat). If they were truly a “religious police force” they go after the unislamic “royal family,” or usurious banks, amongst other things( esp rich Saudi party animals). The Muttawa, like the Saudi state are secular but masquerade as religious, a bunch unarmed, overweight buffoons in thobes who neither know Islam, nor live Islam. Their real purpose is intimidate and prevent any local protests. I’ve had a number of run ins with when I visited on various occasions, last time was in Medina in 2007. I sent the Muttawa packing after embarrassing him in a 2 minute theological “debate.” Shouldn’t have messed with Dr.M.
    That’s the difference between those with real world experience verses those goggling their way through the internet engaging in atheist strawman arguments.

  • http://aayjay.wordpress.com AJ

    @Sal” This idiot thinks commpounnds ie. ghettoisation is what Islam is about. Never mind the lack of rights for maids and other third world labour, little more than slaves.”

    For an idiot like you that does not understand the word “compound” – it refers to a planned developed community in Saudi Arabia – i.e. houses, club house, swimming pool, parks, playground, general store such as carrying different foods, etc. People are not kept there by force – they have a choice to live in a community with other expatriates or to live outside a compound. Expatriates choose to live in a compound since they like to live with people from their own countries or religions. There are Muslim compounds and non-Muslim compounds in Saudi Arabia and some mixed compounds as well. The non-Muslim compounds have their own rules which generally do not comply with the official religion of Saudi Arabia. So everything goes. I have never seen a slave here. I do see Sri Lankan, Filipino and Indian maids around. Their standard fee is SAR 1800 – they live and eat with you free. I am actually glad that Saudi Arabia is always brought into the picture, thanks to Steve, and we can start unraveling some myths and common fallacies about it.

  • http://aayjay.wordpress.com AJ

    Steve,

    I find it ironic that a person like you that spends all their time promoting religious intolerance worries about what happens in Saudi Arabia.

  • Steve

    “your Saudi Arabia fallback response is incredibly tired by this point”

    I just find it rather ironic that somebody choosing to live in Saudi Arabia is busy spending so much time being outraged about what happens elsewhere. Her anger would be better directed at the government where she lives.

  • tarig

    //Shame on Loon Watch, for allowing this type of garbage. The insolent idiot AJ is ignoring the spread of Saudi version of Islam (Salafi) This version teaches that Jews and Christians are hell bound unless they convert.//

    all sects of Christianity teach that all none Christians go to hell unless they accept that Jesus is God, do you have an issue with the entire religion of Christianity?

  • HGG

    “Would you like your god to make us all live in Saudi Arabia where we would probably all be killed”

    As much as I find despicable the whole “I’ll pray to my God to take away your ability to criticize my religion” nonsense that I’ve read here, your Saudi Arabia fallback response is incredibly tired by this point.

    Why do you insist about that?

  • HGG

    “An old woman made a habit of throwing rubbish on Prophet Muhammad pbuh whenever he passed by her house, which he would do daily on the way to the mosque. Even when the old woman threw rubbish on him, he would pass silently without showing any anger or annoyance.

    One day when the Prophet pbuh was passing by, the woman was not there to throw the rubbish. He stopped and asked a neighbour about her well-being. The neighbour informed the Prophet pbuh that the woman was sick in bed. The Prophet politely asked permission to visit the woman. When allowed he entered the house, the woman thought that he had come there to take his revenge when she was unable to defend herself because of sickness. But the Prophet pbuh assured her that he had come to her, not to take any revenge, but to see her and to look after her needs, as it was the command of Allah that if any one is sick, a Muslim should visit him and should help him if his help is needed.”

    Never heard that before. It’s a nice story.

  • Sal

    Why has this blog become a pimp for Saudis?

    Shame on Loon Watch, for allowing this type of garbage. The insolent idiot AJ is ignoring the spread of Saudi version of Islam (Salafi) This version teaches that Jews and Christians are hell bound unless they convert.

    This idiot thinks commpounnds ie. ghettoisation is what Islam is about. Never mind the lack of rights for maids and other third world labour, little more than slaves.

    Disgusting.

  • Steve

    @AJ, USA and europe don’t have open immigration but legal immigrants are protected within the law the same as everybody else and have freedom to practice their religion or not to practice a religion. There is a lot of money in saudi arabia so it attracts people who prefer to eat than be free, that’s not really anything to be proud of.

    In the unlikely event of me ever meeting a “creator” I would hope I would be judged on living a decent life rather than my lack of obeyance to a ridiculous set of laws written down years ago and mostly misunderstood and interpreted in myriad ways.

  • http://aayjay.wordpress.com AJ

    Let’s investigate this Saudi bashing a little…

    Does Saudi Arabia boast freedom of speech and religion for all?

    Does Saudi Arabia invite immigration to their country promising that all religions will be protected?

    NO to both! So who is a hypocrite here – the country that promises and doesn’t deliver or the country that doesn’t? Saudi Arabia still gets swarmed with people from all over the world and is among the top 5 countries that people go to (and not immigrate to). Why does France or the USA or countries in Europe have open immigration if they will not be protecting their people? (Insh’Allah more about this to follow on my blog)

    So Steve do you have anything better than your “Saudi Arabia Deflection” up your arse-nal?

    And in answer to that atheist comment:

    To be accurate of what the Saudis actually do – they don’t allow public expression such as a religious building in order to obey a hadith in their minds. But within your compound or area of living – you are free to fornicate as much as you can, roam around nude as much as you can – in fact there are compounds in Saudi Arabia where ABAYAS are prohibited – can you believe that, have a uncircumcised penis as much as you can, drink booze as much as you can, not pray or not believe as much as you can and the rest. The religious police KNOWS but have no interest or authority. Why would they kill an atheist like you when there are millions of Hindus, Christians and other people here? At least be honest when you try to do propaganda from your London Office of Atheists International. But hey if you try to do that Zombie type of a parade that your friends did in Pennsylvania, you will be on a fast track to meet your Creator and once you meet him, you will be very sorry that you didn’t believe in him on earth.

  • Graham

    @DrM

    So I suppose those reports of religious police running around the country trying to keep the sexes segregated and enforcing “Islamic morality” in other ways are just phantoms, made-up western stereotypes and atheist chiches? I should just believe that any Saudi citizen can go to the town square and proclaim loudly that Islam is nothing but a load of bunk and nothing will happen to them? You’re right, I’ve never been to the kingdom, so I’m going off what might be called common knowledge about the country. Maybe wikipedia isn’t the best source, but if anything on this page is to be believed it seems to confirm my “atheist cliches”

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_religion_in_Saudi_Arabia

  • Khalid

    Militant ANYTHING is bad.

    This “new” atheism is to (according to wikipedia) “fighting religions influence wherever it arises”.

    It calls people to ridicule and harass people of religion but if this were a homophobic pastor calling them a “dumb rebel” the puerility would stand out distinctly to the militant atheists.

  • tarig

    @steve, I think the best way to answer that question is with a story.

    //An old woman made a habit of throwing rubbish on Prophet Muhammad pbuh whenever he passed by her house, which he would do daily on the way to the mosque. Even when the old woman threw rubbish on him, he would pass silently without showing any anger or annoyance.

    One day when the Prophet pbuh was passing by, the woman was not there to throw the rubbish. He stopped and asked a neighbour about her well-being. The neighbour informed the Prophet pbuh that the woman was sick in bed. The Prophet politely asked permission to visit the woman. When allowed he entered the house, the woman thought that he had come there to take his revenge when she was unable to defend herself because of sickness. But the Prophet pbuh assured her that he had come to her, not to take any revenge, but to see her and to look after her needs, as it was the command of Allah that if any one is sick, a Muslim should visit him and should help him if his help is needed.

    This is a story Muslims tell to their children to highlight that no matter what someone does to you, patience and decency is the path that you should follow. The vast majority of Muslims know this story, and the majority of Muslims look to live their lives based on the example the Prophet set when it comes to how to treat your fellow Man/Woman and even animals, (and before you come back with all the Mohammed pbuh was a pedophile/warmonger/insert insult of choice, i suggest you read back on this site as Danios and TAM have already debunked it all!). So no, I don’t think a single Muslim on this site would want you to be sent to Saudi, in fact the majority of Muslims, including Saudis themselves, hate their government, a government that wouldn’t be in power if it wasn’t for them being propped up by western powers none the less! Instead we would pray that you see the error of your ways, and if you don’t, forgive you for any upset you may have caused us. That’s the majority Muslim viewpoint, not ‘bomb them’. Unfortunately it only seems to be the rednecks of the Muslim world that get any sort of media coverage, so you would never know that, unless you decided to visit a Muslim country yourself, unlikely me thinks!

  • http://www.drmaxtor.blogspot.com DrM

    Dainos said :

    “Surely you realize not all atheists are alike? Just like all Muslims are not alike?”

    Absolutely. That was the first line of my previous post “All atheists aren’t the same, some are nice decent people…” I’ll take an honest atheist over a crooked theist any day.

    Graham,

    Nope, you’ve got it wrong, so spare me the knee jerk atheist cliches. I’m fairly certain you haven’t been to many(or any) Muslim countries so don’t presume to tell me what goes on there. You have a superficial and stereotypical understanding of Saudi Arabia, like the typical ignorant westerner. This is the common misconception even some uneducated Muslims have as if Saudi Arabia is some sort of Islamic utopia because of the locations of Mecca and Medina. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again it : Saudi Arabia is a secular state which masquerades as a religious one. Anybody who has lived or visited there, and the studied the history of this British created, and now American “kingdom” and the Protestant-like “Islam”(which isn’t synonymous with all Salafis) it uses as a shell, knows this. If they really wanted to persecute atheists, they would have hanged every one of their “royal family” members going all the back to Ibn Saud who got paid 5000 pounds a month to do their dirty work.

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/GargamelGold?feature=mhee CriticalDragon1177

    @Graham

    No one here is saying that atheists or other religious minorities are not persecuted in places like Saudi Arabia. However you have to keep in mind that Muslim countries aren’t the only ones that persecute religious minorities, today or historically. Also how the people in Saudi Arabia, including the people running the country interpret Islam, is not same as other parts of the Islamic world, or the average Muslim living in societies where his religion makes him a minority.

  • Danios

    Another fine example of why I can’t take atheists and their idiotic arguments seriously.

    Surely you realize not all atheists are alike? Just like all Muslims are not alike?

  • Graham

    Another fine example of why I can’t take atheists and their idiotic arguments seriously. Lying, promoting myths and outright bigotry and racial profiling is not “discussing Islam.” The level of absurdity, coupled with a persecution complex is beyond pathetic and hypocritical.

    I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you are just ignorant about the reality of religious oppresion in Saudi Arabia, or else you wouldn’t call what is in fact religiously-sanctioned state policy there just a myth and a symptom of a “persecution complex” on part of atheists. It’s not bigotry, or racial profiling to acknowledge the reality that in Saudi Arabia, and in all parts of the Muslim world, atheists are not free to speak their minds. That’s no western “we’re better than them myth”…it’s just a fact.

  • Graham

    “How about a prayer for all the atheists over here on LW (and other places) that spread vileness about Islam? May God give them guidance or may He take away their abilities to destroy Islam or hurt Muslims – through talk or through action – for good and forever. Amin! (Please keep on adding Amin).”

    Well I think you’ve just demonstrated your own inability to converse intelligently on these matters, being that you you’re resorting to praying for your deity to use mind-control on those with whom you disagree. Really, even if we’re going to accept for a moment that Allah is indeed real, and can intervene in debates by using a magical lobotomy on those arguing against Islam, how is that in any way fair play? Perhaps you should consider actually respecting the intellectual autonomy of those you’re debating instead of praying for them to be brainwashed?

  • DrM

    Shoulder Monkey,

    All atheists aren’t the same, some are nice decent people, many are social misfits lacking basic manners, and unable to hold a civilized conversation. This phenomenon is found especially of YouTube where you’ll find no shortage of atheists happily engaging in bigotry and generally pedestrian low class behavior. Now the problem with your argument is your sense of exceptional self importance and ignorance. You believe Islam is just like Christianity(which is incorrect) and hence “tripe.” Yet you feel so slighted at the thought of ending up in jahanem. But I thought you didn’t believe that “tripe” so why act all offended? You judge me as a cave man high on fairy tales, but I can’t think that you’re a primitive minded neanderthal believing in mathematical impossibilities, shackled to your ego unable to understand the temporal and spiritual. You can’t have it both ways.

    Stevie Blunder said :

    “@AJ, how would you like your god to act to take away the ability of atheists to discuss islam? Would you like your god to make us all live in Saudi Arabia where we would probably all be killed?”

    Another fine example of why I can’t take atheists and their idiotic arguments seriously. Lying, promoting myths and outright bigotry and racial profiling is not “discussing Islam.” The level of absurdity, coupled with a persecution complex is beyond pathetic and hypocritical.

  • Steve

    @AJ, how would you like your god to act to take away the ability of atheists to discuss islam? Would you like your god to make us all live in Saudi Arabia where we would probably all be killed?

  • http://aayjay.wordpress.com AJ

    Geji,

    How about a prayer for all the atheists over here on LW (and other places) that spread vileness about Islam? May God give them guidance or may He take away their abilities to destroy Islam or hurt Muslims – through talk or through action – for good and forever. Amin! (Please keep on adding Amin).

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