We are absolutely ripe for reintroducing blasphemy laws in the UK & it comes from the shift to postmodern thinking I've just written about.
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Part of what I looked at was the intense sensitivity to language postmodernism has brought us. We've not really had this even in religion.
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'Blasphemy' certainly existed in Christian history but 'heresy' was much more significant.Swearing has always included religious obscenities
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Records show ppl receiving fines from the Church for saying things like 'Mary was a whore & Jesus a bastard' in high medieval period
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This was bad enough for the Church to feel a penalty in order. Much milder swearing related to holy figures & bodily functions was ignored.
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Because they weren't meant as a theological argument. We know how common this was from the number of sermons asking ppl to stop doing it.
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However, a polite & humble suggestion that the bread & wine might not actually turn into the body & blood and all manner of hell unleashed.
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Or behaving in a way which suggested you might think the Church was wrong on a theological matter.
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This is very different to what we see with Islamism today. Heresy still seen as a big problem but 'insult' & 'disrespect' even worse.
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Part of this comes from the 'honour' culture in which Islam was born & developed but, in the west, it is compatible with postmodern culture.
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The sensitivity to language. Language as violence & oppression. Cultural relativity with a focus on lifting up minority cultures.
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This makes the heirs of western postmodernism very open to understanding 'blasphemy' as injury. It ties in with its own ideas of blasphemy.
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This underscores the need for western liberals to ally with Muslim liberals in defence of free speech & resilience to ideas u really dislike
End of conversation
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