[Buddha-l] Return of blasphemy?

[Jo]

Pedro says: "At least in the west, the tendency is to "respect" other
people's religions."
This goes for parts of the "East" too: in India, the writer Taslima Nasreen,
was banished from Calcutta (Kolkata) because her views had hurt the
religious feelings/sentiments of Muslims, or so various Muslim organisations
claimed. She previously had been forced to flee her home country of
Bangladesh because her books, critical of various Muslim tenets (she had the
audacity to say that the Koran should be re-written), incurred threats on
her life. Fatwas were issued against her. 

Again in India, the Deepa Mehta's film _Water_, about the poverty-stricken
lives of Indian widows sent to live in widow houses in Banares (Varanasi),
had her sets in that city torched by Hindus who said her film hurt the image
of India in the rest of the world, also because the film focused on unsavory
aspects of Hindu religion that Indians don't like to admit. See,
http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/28/water.html 

" One key protester had taken a boat out into the middle of the Ganges,
consumed poison, tied a rock around his waist, and jumped into the water,
yelling that Deepa Mehta and her film were his reason for attempting
suicide. Days later the press revealed that the man, who was rushed to the
hospital and survived, was a professional suicide attempter, employed by
various political parties to attempt his own execution for various political
reasons. This had been his sixth suicide attempt, and this was the reason
given for closing the film down. Law and order was in jeopardy.
... Deepa Mehta was threatened with arrest for aiding an attempt at suicide
and was forced to leave Varanasi. The crew were also advised by the
government to leave the city immediately, as our safety could not be
guaranteed."  Eventually Mehta moved her film production to Sri Lanka, where
the film was completed; it was released in 2005.

Respect for religion in parts of the East is often enforced with death
threats.

Joanna