He goes on to add, “There must be limits to free speech when it comes to religion.”
It reminds me of the quote attributed to Ayatollah Khomeini, “There are no jokes in Islam.” And President Obama in 2012, “The future must not belong to those who disrespect the Prophet.”
WTF? This is all dangerous nonsense. Yes, you can and should be able to make fun of the faith of others, just as you should be able to make fun of all things. If there are no jokes in Islam it’s about fucking time they made some. And no, Mr President, the future should belong to all of us, those who disrespect the Prophet, those who respect him and those who couldn’t give a flying fuck about him or any other figure supposedly in touch with some god or other.
I used to think when I was younger that religion was pretty much a busted flush. It had its chance to lord it over us and who in their right mind wants a repeat of that? Of course, I reasoned without Islam, stuck in the Dark Ages, and a Christianity which would be happy to gag us all again. Religious leaders detest the idea that people should be free to mock them. Fuck them all and fuck their multiple godheads with them.
ETA: The Pope also said “One cannot make war [or] kill in the name of one’s own religion, that is, in the name of God.” So your title is a trifle misleading.
And as far as the link in the OP, limiting free speech on religion is the only way to keep religion alive! Duh. No wonder the Chief In the Dress said that. In ten seconds I can grab at least 20 pics of Jeebus schtupping a velociraptor or T-Rex, but one picture of Muhammed the molester on a newspaper means we just shut up? Religion and its practices/rules/laws should be called into question each day as more murder arises.
That seems to be the same story mentioned a few messages back.
Apparently it goes beyond stupidity into outright criminality – the church has reportedly refused to refund the money for the funeral. Apparently they use a version of the Adulterous Bible with the missing “not” one Commandment further down the list, creating the Thieves’ Bible version.
The Pope should win some kind of award for “most quotes misconstrued or misinterpreted by the media and people in general.” He is not speaking ex cathedra every time he says something, or else dogma would dictate that San Lorenzo de Almagro is the Holiest football club.
Err… just saying, “The future must not belong to those who disrespect the Prophet.” is very different than “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.” The former sounds like some RW misquote revealing Obama’s secret religion, capitalization and all.
I didn’t know until I read the linked article, and I’m still not sure, in what sense the Pope meant “You cannot.” When people say “You can’t” do something, they could mean that it’s against the law, or against the laws of physics, or against good manners, or against good ethics, or just that they wish you wouldn’t do it.
From the context of the article, my best guess as to what Pope Francis meant (though it’s still just a guess) is “You cannot make fun of the faith of others” without expecting them to get upset and respond. As far as I could tell, he was telling people to restrict their own speech, not advocating laws against free speech.
