Back when I was discussing the islamic cartoon controversy I made some pretty abstract and theoretical arguments to the effect that any principle which justified criticizing Jyllands-Posten for publishing the cartoons also justified criticizing Muslims for spreading their faith. Reading some comments over on Volokh I found a much more clear and concise way to make the point (thanks Bleu).

Rather than worry about atheists who may or may not find Islam’s claims offensive what about idolaters or polytheists. If one reads the Quaran (or the bible) one finds a great many passages saying very offensive things about people who engage in either of these practices. Additionally both of these books say very harsh and offensive things about magic/witchcraft which actually does result in discrimination/hatred/dislike of Wiccans.

Obviously this tells us we shouldn’t legally suppress material for being religiously offensive or insulting. If so the Quaran and the Bible would have to be the first things to go. However, I think we can take the argument a step beyond this. Simply being a Muslim (or Christian) and encouraging the spread of your faith or the continued printing of your holy book makes one just as guilty as Jyllands-Posten. In fact the evidence that Islam, Christianity and similar religions can incite hatred, violence and other atrocities is much stronger than evidence we had that mildly offensive cartoons could cause such harm. Therefore by teaching your children your religion, by openly expressing affiliation and thereby making it easier for others to join and especially by preaching or trying to convert people one is doing something much worse than Jyllands-Posten did.

Hopefully this is a more clear explanation of why I am willing to say that Jyllands-Posten did something unwise but not ‘blamable.’ Sure it probably would have been better if they hadn’t published but it sure as hell would be better if all the Christians and Muslims stopped advocating their religious beliefs (or better just stopped believing).

Also objections that the smack talked about idolatry, magic or polytheism isn’t really serious don’t fly. Some guy may be getting executed in Afghanistan for converting to Christianity so I think we can take it as given that many people take these crazy ancient rules seriously. Besides it is totally inconsistent to demand we look to what the Quaran says instead of what Muslims believe when asked if Islam encourages terrorism/violent jihad (disturbingly huge percents of Muslims in the middle east say yes) but then refuse to look at that book when we want to know if Islam is saying offensive things about Wicca.