The implicit implication seems to be that anyone who isn’t gay or female doesn’t matter very much.

Thanks.

A bit drastic surely? They should be held up to ridicule as being totally inconsistent perhaps (well definetly), but shooting people for inconsistency of thought would rather thin the population. We’d run out of Liberal Democrats in a couple of hours… (sorry, couldn’t resist).

Anyone has the right to protest, so long as it does not involve intimidation (physical action or threats of violence). There is certainly no right not to be offended (one of the more useful libertarian phrases) so there has to be the right to protest to point out you are offended.

Frankly, anyone who said we should allow Nick Griffin onto the BBC then said we should ban the Islam4UK march, should be shot.

I wouldn’t like it much if some playwright put on a performance in which my mother, my wife or one of my kids was portrayed as a transexual. So I can quite understand why those who enjoy a close personal relationship with Jesus Christ might be a bit miffed too.

Well not in the UK anyway…

Look! Over here! He’s being racist! Forget what I’m doing, look at him!

We are in the UK, you whatabouterry cunt.

If everyone thought like me I’d shoot first.

Well not in the UK anyway…

a) in what way is Islam an “embattled minority”? Maybe in parts of the UK, but there’s a whole world out there ….

b) and no, you can’t modernise religion. Catholicism is more repressive, etc than the C of E because it has remained truer to the Bible. The C of E has pretty much imploded because it has tried to reconcile itself to the modern world.

c) Sarah Maple states that her art ‘was supposed to be a commentary on the contradictions that you have if you’re Muslim in a western society”. She should be more positive, and present them as a celebration of the freedoms she has as a Muslim in a western society.

It’s terribly confusing.

As to this:

‘And no, I can’t “walk away” from religion. “Spirituality” is an imperfect and misunderstood word for something very crucial inside me. And the fact that almost every attempt to give institutional expression to that whatever it is has been so appallingly flawed doesn’t diminish its importance.
And i can’t be the only one to feel like this, or religion wouldn’t play so important a role in human society and history.
It makes me uncomfortable to say this: but spirituality is as important to my identity as sexuality. And like my sexuality, it can’t be suppressed or denied..’

…it sounds like your ‘spirituality’ is all about YOU, not about some god or other.

> There are plenty of ways one could challenge Islam’s attitude towards women’s rights and so on, that couldn’t so easily be interpreted as sticking two fingers up at a religion adhered to by a billion people

I’d be interested to hear more detail about those ways.

LC on the whole seems remarkably silent about about women’s rights under Islam, all the while covering women’s issues at high frequency.

For example, on a thread about faith schools I was surprised that not a single person, (not even the outspoken Laurie Penny!) commented on the islamic primary school’s web site that says:
“What age groups do you cater for? Al-Noor is a mixed school teaching children between the ages of 4- 11 years old Insha Allah. Children are taught about the etiquette of segregation and how to interact with children of a different gender.”

> I am glad you made the distinction between Islam, which is a nebulous concept,
> and Muslims, who are real people.

I’d agree entirely that Islam the religion is different to Muslims the people who follow it.
Except I’m not sure what you may mean by ‘nebulous concept’.

Islam being on the whole more proscriptive about day-to-day life than many other religions – it has many non-nebulous, concrete out-workings.

Er, Leviticus?

“A man shalt not lie with another man; God hates that”, etc etc etc

Everyone says Avatar ripped off Dances With Wolves. But did no one spot the clear parallel between the Navi taking down the human helicopters and machines, and the Ewoks bringing the Empire to its knees on Endor?

You might be interested to know that they killed Chewbacca 11 years ago: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewbacca#Death

I personally adhere to the Force theory. After all, wasn’t Mr Solo proven wrong?

I am glad you made the distinction between Islam, which is a nebulous concept, and Muslims, who are real people.

There is no scriptural basis for all sorts of discrimination perpetrated in the name of one religion or another. But you have to be careful. People who actively despise religion, ignoring that it can be a powerful motivator for acts of kindness, will use your suffering to attack all believers.

@Kate B

There are plenty of ways one could challenge Islam’s attitude towards women’s rights and so on, that couldn’t so easily be interpreted as sticking two fingers up at a religion adhered to by a billion people, and then expecting them to come round to your way of thinking. If you want to push people away, ridicule them. If you want them to change their mind and see your point, engage with them in a constructive manner.

That doesn’t mean you’re spiritual beliefs are not wrong. The human mind is a fantastically complex organ that tricks our ‘minds’ in all sorts of ways every day – just think about how your brain fills in parts of the scene that your eye doesn’t actually take in properly. Which is more likely, really, that there is some sort of invisible, unprovable force controlling everything (cf. Han Solo), or that we all just have imperfect, damaged understandings of the world around us?

And no, I can’t “walk away” from religion. “Spirituality” is an imperfect and misunderstood word for something very crucial inside me. And the fact that almost every attempt to give institutional expression to that whatever it is has been so appallingly flawed doesn’t diminish its importance.
And i can’t be the only one to feel like this, or religion wouldn’t play so important a role in human society and history.
It makes me uncomfortable to say this: but spirituality is as important to my identity as sexuality. And like my sexuality, it can’t be suppressed or denied..

“Jesus Queen of Heaven is a literary work of fiction exploring the artist’s own personal journey of….”

It’s just a work of fiction, not a ‘literary’ work of fiction.

“This work is not intended to incite or offend anyone of any belief system. However, we respect your right to disagree with that opinion.”

I can hear the organisers thinking ‘Hey, controversy gets bums on seats’.