Blasphemy Day 2012 -- know the enemy

For Blasphemy Day International this year, I'm doing something a little different -- rather than actually committing blasphemy, I'll present a few quotes which illustrate how contemptible religion can be, and why the right to freedom of expression in attacking and disparaging religion absolutely must be upheld and defended without compromise, no matter who is offended -- as Hussein Ibish eloquently reminds us.

Know the enemy:

I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way - all of them who have tried to secularize America - I point the finger in their face and say, "You helped that happen."

--Jerry Falwell, on the September 11 attack

Yes, I believe the attacks are God's punishment because we are in a moral decay in this country, with abortion, forcing children to be taught about homosexuality, removing God from the schools, sexual immorality on television and in our government. And this is God's way of punishing the wicked.

--James Dobson

Islam makes it incumbent on all adult males, provided they are not disabled and incapacitated, to prepare themselves for the conquest of countries, so that the writ of Islam is obeyed in every country in the world. But those who study Islamic holy war will understand why Islam wants to conquer the whole world.....Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. They are witless. Islam says: Kill the unbelievers, just as they would kill you all!

--Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

We should fully understand our religion.  Fighting is a part of our religion and our Sharia.  Those who love God and his Prophet and this religion cannot deny that.  Whoever denies even a minor tenet of our religion commits the gravest sin in Islam.

--Osama bin Laden

If the people will let us alone, we will preach the gospel in peace.  But if they come on us to molest us, we will establish our religion by the sword.  We will trample down our enemies and make it one gore of blood from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. I will be to this generation a second Mohammed, whose motto in treating for peace was "the Alcoran or the sword."  So shall it eventually be with us -- "Joseph Smith or the sword!"

--Joseph Smith, 1838

[A woman] should stay at home and get on with her spinning, she should not go out often, she must not be well-informed, nor must she be communicative with her neighbors and only visit them when absolutely necessary; she should take care of her husband and respect him in his presence and his absence and seek to satisfy him in everything.....she must not leave her house without his permission, and if given his permission she must leave surreptitiously.....If a friend of her husband calls when the latter is absent, she must not open the door nor reply to him, in order to safeguard her and her husband's honor.

--Al-Ghazali, Muslim theologian (1058-1111)

Men are in charge of women because God has favored the one over the other and because they support them from their means. So righteous women are obedient, and in the [husband's] absence they guard what God wishes them to guard. As for women from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them, and reject them in bed, and beat them; and if they obey you, take no action against them. Verily God is high and great.

--Koran 4:34

The unbelievers spend their wealth to hinder [others] from the path of God, and they will continue to do so, but in the end they will have regret, and they will be defeated. And the unbelievers shall be gathered together in Hell. In order that God may separate the wicked from the good, [you must] pile the wicked one upon another, heap them up, and cast them into Hell. They will be the defeated ones.

--Koran 8:36-37

If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

--Leviticus 20:13

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whoso-ever shall do, and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

--Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:17-19