Controversy broke out last February after a Pennsylvania judge, citing insufficient evidence, dismissed a harassment against a Muslim man who allegedly “attacked” an atheist marching in a Halloween parade as “Zombie Muhammad.”
Zombie Muhammad turned out to be Ernest Perce V, the director of the Pennsylvania chapter of American Atheists. Though the American Humanist Association (also an atheist organization) carried a more balance account of the incident, the controversy quickly went viral all across the looniverse, with sensational headlines and baseless claims the judge was a Muslim (he wasn’t), and that he applied Islamic Law in the case (he didn’t). They also claimed the judge had denied Zombie Muhammad’s right to free speech, scolding him and saying:
Before you start mocking someone else’s religion you may want to find out a little bit more about it. That makes you look like a doofus…
Here in our society, we have a constitution that gives us many rights, specifically, First Amendment rights. It’s unfortunate that some people use the First Amendment to deliberately provoke others. I don’t think that’s what our forefathers really intended. I think our forefathers intended that we use the First Amendment so that we can speak our mind, not to piss off other people and other cultures, which is what you did.
I don’t think you’re aware, sir, there’s a big difference between how Americans practice Christianity – uh, I understand you’re an atheist. But, see, Islam is not just a religion, it’s their culture, their culture. It’s their very essence, their very being. They pray five times a day towards Mecca. To be a good Muslim, before you die, you have to make a pilgrimage to Mecca unless you are otherwise told you cannot because you are too ill, too elderly, whatever. But you must make the attempt…
Then what you have done is you’ve completely trashed their essence, their being. They find it very, very, very offensive. I’m a Muslim, I find it offensive. [Unintelligble] aside was very offensive.
But you have that right, but you’re way outside your bounds on First Amendment rights.
Read the full story: Pennsylvania “Sharia Court”: Loons Jump the Gun AGAIN on Ginned up “Legal Jihad”.
However, Perce was by no means deterred from expressing his right to free speech. In fact, he’s now planing to publicly whip and flog a Quran to protest the “Year of Religious Diversity,” and he’s invited fellow atheists and Christians to join him:
American Atheists state director to desecrate Quran if state House doesn’t drop “Year of Religious Diversity” resolution
The director of the state chapter of American Atheists plans to desecrate the Quran when the state House of Representatives reconvenes in September if the House doesn’t drop its “Year of Religious Diversity” resolution under consideration in its State Government Committee.
Ernest Perce V, who recently was under fire for a controversial Harrisburg billboard he designed and paid for protesting the “Year of the Bible” resolution the House adopted this year, said he plans to whip, or flog, the Quran in the Capitiol Rotunda at noon on Sept. 24 should the House not agree to nullify the resolution before it reconvenes from summer recess that day.
Even though Perce heads the state American Atheists organization, he is staging this protest individually and not under the American Atheists umbrella.
Like the Year of the Bible resolution adopted in January, Perce said the Year of Religious Diversity resolution, or House Resolution 771, illegally intertwines religion and state.
The Year of the Bible resolution is being challenged in federal court by the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Perce, who also was at the center of a recent court case after he said he was attacked during the Mechanicsburg Halloween parade for marching in the parade dressed as “Zombie Muhammad,” said he takes issue with the resolution specifically because of a subsection that refers to the Bible, Quran and other religious books.
According to HR 771, “these revered books impart great wisdom and beauty to believers and are appreciated and respected by nonbelievers as well.”
Perce said he plans to thrash the Quran with a nine-tail whip 85 times and a single whip six times to protest the resolution’s number.
“I am a nonbeliever and for (the House) to assume we respect these books is asinine,” Perce, a Harrisburg resident, said. “I will let other atheists come with me (to protest). I want Christians to lash the Quran, too.”
Although many atheists pride themselves on rational skepticism and their supposedly evidence-based conclusions, An Atheist’s Guide to Mohammedanism published on the American Atheists national website is filled with factual inaccuracies and drips with overt hatred and hostility. The invitation to Christians, traditional targets of contempt and ridicule, to join Perce in bashing the Quran is an interesting new development, and perhaps another sign that Islam is the new favorite target of militant atheism.
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