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Freedom shouldn’t be squelched by fear

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Editor,

The slaughter of French cartoonists by far-right religious nuts was heinous. The cowardly reaction of media who won’t publish/air the latest Charlie Hebdo cover for fear of offending terrorists is insulting to everything we stand for. Charlie Hebdo cartoons are online, though. Look at them with this caveat: insecure, humorless zealots may take offense.

Pope Frank recently noted that freedom of speech should be limited when it insults religious beliefs. Ipso facto, religious terrorists should be sheltered as if they were child molesters in the Holy See.

Churches and states have sanctioned religious terrorism from time immemorial; the Inquisition, the Crusades, “honor killings” of women. Saudi Arabia flogs bloggers for insulting Islam, USA lawmakers restrict reproductive rights until women resort to coat hangers, the Vatican harbors pedophiles planet-wide. But, let’s not talk about that, it might provoke somebody.

Zealots have abused and murdered women and children from St. Ignatius where Catholics molested deaf boys to Casper, Wyoming, where extremist Evangelicals crucified Matthew Shepard for being gay, to Pakistan where Muslims shot 15-year-old Milala in the head for seeking education for girls.

Far-right religious nuts bomb women’s clinics, murder doctors in cold blood, and assault women for freely exercising their rights. American women cannot safely receive legal reproductive healthcare in privacy because holy hospitals adhere to “beliefs” while ignoring law and freedom. We repudiate Sharia Law, but ignore this blasphemy of liberty. 

Massacring cartoonists who illustrated religious injustice is what it finally took for the world to notice. Now, don’t let anybody change the subject: Je Suis Charlie, Matthew, Milala, Raif, 9/11 victims, and all the men, women and children who have suffered or died from religious terrorism since the dawn of dogma.

Wanda LaCroix
Arlee

 

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