[Buddha-l] Return of blasphemy?

[Joy Vriens]

Hi Dan,

I see you are in shape and doing fine as usual. :-) I will leave 
Ramadan, the neocons and the left aside and will move straight onto the 
denigration. As you say, this is what religions themselves do, and have 
always done. I would even add that is how they came into being and 
survive. It must be organic. Religions/sects/schools whatever also love 
to hide their origins, that is other religions/sects/schools, and need 
to differentiate themselves from them. With too much similarity, the 
slightest difference becomes emblematic and will always be frowned upon.

As for your proposal to substitute denigration by the slightly more 
useful criterion diffamation, I am afraid I don't share your lukewarm 
enthusiasm. "Truth" and "true" are not exactly  the first ideas that pop 
up when I see a religion. So then to point out things that are (even 
less?) "not true" about it would be very hard. I am afraid we would run 
out of leeway.  But if it will find Tariq Ramadan guilty, then it may 
still be worthwhile. Otherwise we could always find another criterion.

Your conclusion sounds about right to me.

Joy

"Which criticism is "fair" (and we should be even more afraid of a 
culture that does not tolerate criticism)? Maybe in the post-modern 
world, we all need to become duplicitous denigrators like Ramadan, 
finding a way to maintain a veneer of "tolerance" as we promote our lies. "