Ep#195 - Blasphemy In The West

This week on The Knight Tube, Stephen Knight (@Gspellchecker) welcomes the return of counter-extremist Liam Duffy. Liam has recently released a report chronicling the problem of violence in response to perceived ‘blasphemy’ in the west. They will discuss the high profile cases and the effect this has had on freedom of expression in the West. Watch the video version: www.youtube.com/gspellchecker                                                                                                                                                                      0:00 Intro 01:02 Have we failed to make any progress on the issue of Islamic ‘blasphemy’ in the west? 01:14 What is ‘The Counter Extremism Project’? 05:41 How are we defining ‘blasphemy’? 08:27 Sensitivity surrounding Islam’s prophet Muhammad 14:32 The chilling effect on free speech: Is it now just a bad idea to publish cartoons that will inevitably inspire violence? 18:03 Elon Musk and should Muhammad cartoons violate Twitter’s rules? 23:56 Are modern blasphemy controversies in the west almost exclusively Islam related? 28:45 The reaction to the attempted murder of Salman Rushdie in New York 35:09 The silence from the UK Government on the Batley teacher forced into hiding. 38:10 Will we see more isolated attacks rather than largescale ones? 44:11 UK ‘hate speech’ laws as secularized blasphemy codes. Report: Violence Against Perceived Blasphemers In The West – From Khamenei’s Fatwa To The Present: https://www.counterextremism.com/sites/default/files/2023-06/Violence%20Against%20Perceived%20Blasphemers%20in%20the%20West_July%202022.pdf Stephen Knight’s Substack: www.sknight.substack.com Support the podcast at http://www.patreon.com/gspellchecker Also available on iTunes, Stitcher, YouTube & Spotify.