Some have celebrated the attack on Salman Rushdie. This, and the death threats that his supporters have received, inevitably feeds into stereotypes of Muslims. But wait, Mohammed never, ever, ever, supported violence, and we shouldn’t too. We must support freedom of speech.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uTZJCVNEfNprnBR92hyoDVCcEhK2Vi_p/view?usp=sharing
Platitude of the Day 
Bravo to Julie Siddiqi for not side stepping the Rushdie issue.
Yes, it is sad that people will pick on Muslims generally for the attack, but as she says, they will have to bear the words patiently. As she quotes Muslims sending death threats for words spoken, she can hardly do anything else.
As a middle aged white atheist bloke living in middle class suburbia, it would be quite easy to joke that, well, if you weren’t a Muslim then you wouldn’t have to worry, would you? But being stuck in a rather backward and inward looking religious community, I think in this instance it is brave of Siddiqi to stand up for free speech for authors, musicians, actors and activists against the hardliners that she must meet regularly.
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Agree 100% with PaulT.
This was Mona-esque, which will usually qualify it for a ‘Bravo!’
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Yes, it was a brave and articulate effort from Julie Siddiqi this morning (although, having taken the decision to talk about the attack on Salman Rushdie in the first place, it’s not clear what other line she could have taken).
Ms Siddiqi quoted one of Muhammed’s alleged sayings to the effect that his followers should be patient and not respond to their opponents or critics with violence. The unspoken implication here is that, in the end, the IMF will make sure that they do triumph over their opponents. We would think it was unacceptable – or at least in very bad taste – if a Christian TftD speaker insisted on telling us that all unbelievers would be cast into outer darkness – although it might make TftD rather more interesting if they did. Still, sauce for the goose and all that.
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