We are much more enlightened in the West. We don’t jail people for insulting Islam. We simply excoriate them as “racists” and “Islamophobes,” ostracize them from polite society, and rejoice when they’re deplatformed by the social media giants. We are much more advanced in the West.
“Iranian spiritual leader sentenced for ‘insulting Islam,’” Middle East Monitor, August 19, 2018:
An Iranian court has sentenced the founder of a spiritual movement to five years in jail, his lawyer told ILNA news agency on Saturday, after he was accused of corrupting Muslims.
Mohammad Ali Taheri, founder of Erfan Halgheh, which calls itself “Interuniversalism” in English, was arrested in 2011 and charged with “insulting Islamic sanctities” and “spreading corruption on earth”.
Taheri was sentenced to death by a Revolutionary Court in 2015, but acquitted on appeal in 2016. The court then re-imposed the death sentence in 2017, but the five-year sentence replaces it….
Taheri founded Erfan Halgheh after receiving what he claims were “spiritual inspirations” that empowered him to connect with a larger “cosmic consciousness”.
He practised his beliefs, along with his thousands of followers, in “healing sessions” often involving alternative medicine….
Amnesty International says he is a prisoner of conscience, targeted for the “peaceful exercise of his rights to freedoms of belief, expression and association”….
Crusades Were Right says
His REAL crime:
Not being a Mohammedan in an Islamic state.
Kufar1 says
I find Mr. Spencer (pbuh) very funny. Let’s hope the stupid islamist mortimer won’t chomp on this and excoriating me for merely elevating Spencer. Mortimer wants monopoly on language and reserves certain phrases of praise for Muhammad only.
We are much more enlightened in the West. We don’t jail people for insulting Islam. We simply excoriate them as “racists” and “Islamophobes,” ostracize them from polite society, and rejoice when they’re deplatformed by the social media giants. We are much more advanced in the West.
gravenimage says
Kufar!, Mortimer is not an Islamist. He is an Anti-Jihadist.
graven.image says
Sorry, that should have been Kufar1.
Peter Buckley says
Well, the mullahs are clearly losing control now-locking up anyone who doesn’t conform. Are they locking up “moderate” muslims yet? The final nail in the coffin…………
Why, in the end, future generations of Iranians will be grateful to the mullahs for revealing the true face of Islam:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/25/opinion/islam-conversion.html
The clock is ticking………..
KWJ says
Losing control now? They’ve been doing it since 1979. They even imprisoned some high schoolers who were “different”…not toeing the line enough. Some athletes were killed, women, thousands.
“Corrupting the earth” is the same as “making mischief in the land” which is trying or perceived to be trying to persuade Muslims to some other belief, as the Qur’an says.
This is par for the course. Funny, last year a man was performing undercover weddings for gays, but unfortunately he was caught. Their Basiji (moral police) also operate in plain clothes and act as informants like FBI guys. When gays are caught and alleged to have sex they get the equivalent of a virginity test, anally of course. Besides, pre-marital sex (zina) is a grave sin and men and women shaking hands can get you to jail for a lashing. Islam sucks, especially the sharia. It’s just control and rituals, and Muslims yearning for spirituality that isn’t much there in Islam. A religion or ideology can’t be that good when you are forced into or not allowed to leave it without consequences. Many mullahs have been corrupt hypocrites.
mortimer says
A very kindly, gentle man who practices energy healing is dangerous … but how?
Islam is DANGEROUS to everyone, especially have you have the smallest disagreement.
Jean says
mortimer.
Anything that helps humans connect to the divine is, of course, an immediate threat to the power of the demonic over mankind. Simple.
It is for the same reason that islam prohibits music, art, friendship between men and women, sex in connection with love, and keeping dogs as pets. All these activities open peoples’ sensitivity to the bliss of the divine. Once man remembers his spirit, Muhammad’s doctrine is immediately revealed as nothing but ashes, dust and suffocation to the soul. The soul then breaks free. Starts to seek the true values in life.
All the violence in Islam is to prevent this from happening.
So of course this mild man, Mr. Taheri, is a threat to Muhammad’s power.
ibrahim itace muhammed says
mortimer, you mean you hate Islam because of prohibition of sex outside marriage you call friendships between men and women or sex for love?you said such things like sex outside marriage brings you closer to divine bliss. This is exactly what the satan you call Holy Spirit inspires to mithraist christians. As such all mithraist christians will go to hell together with Satan who inspires them to do evils. scums of horrible bad smells!!
StellaSaidSo says
Sensible people despise Islam because it is complete bollox and a threat to life on this planet. Only fools take such primitive, barbaric nonsense seriously.
WPM says
Ibrahim itace farthammed
There is no friendship in Islam, Islam is a slave master mentality .There is friendship without any sex involved between people of the opposite sex,you have trouble understanding that keeping your women covered under car tarps .Never talking to them outside of barking orders at them demanding they serve your every beck and call or face a good beating. Your mothers wipe you asses until you reach your early 20s then you expect your wives to kiss your asses even when you openly cheat with your girls that the “righthand” possesses .Your remain infantile emotional in your relationship with women even in old age ,reacting violently on any slight to your fragile infantile ego. As far as sex goes it is all a power trip to your Mohammites like everything else you are either a master or a slave no one has equal footing in any relationship be it “friendship , business, . or husband and wife. The trouble is you cannot leave others outside of your cult of death and violence along .If anyone outside your cult brings doubt that the violent misery{Islam} you follow every day that cannot bring any real happiness to your life it sends your Islamic infantile ego into fits of rage.
gravenimage says
The vile ibrahim itace muhammed wrote:
mortimer, you mean you hate Islam because of prohibition of sex outside marriage you call friendships between men and women or sex for love?
………………………………
Ibrahim itace muhammed is *admitting* that he considers friendship between men and women to be “sex outside marriage”–indeed, women have been murdered by Muslims for merely speaking to an unrelated man.
Perhaps even more appalling, he has said–repeatedly–that anyone who marries for love should be killed. *Ugh*.
More:
you said such things like sex outside marriage brings you closer to divine bliss. This is exactly what the satan you call Holy Spirit inspires to mithraist christians. As such all mithraist christians will go to hell together with Satan who inspires them to do evils. scums of horrible bad smells!!
………………………………
Of course, Mortimer never said any such thing.
And note that Ibrahim itace muhammed–of course–has not a word of criticism for the persecution of this poor man. But then, why would he?
FYI says
“Insulting islam”.
Why,that could be absolutely anything ….you want it to be.
{It’s like that Soviet trick of accusing an otherwise loyal communist of being a “counter-revolutionary”: a convenient way to get rid of someone and difficult to defend against}
Insults to islam?…
Sneering at a koran?
Laughing out loud in a mosque at the imams speech ..while imitating his apparently high-pitched voice?
Mischievously placing a whoopee-cushion under an ayatollah’s chair?
{death penalty surely…}
Standing up during “prayers” and saying “Hey,why can’t we all just get along”?
Suddenly praying in Hebrew:A language allah doesn’t relate to..
Bringing a list of those 10 commandments into a mosque and asking muslims
do they 1)understand them and 2)can they follow them?
Asking the imam is it ok to bring in trapeze artistes,cartoonists,female singers and jugglers into the mosque as part of that islamic “inter-faith community” show..you know the sort that muslims like to put on to show how much they respect every other religion?
Inviting the mosque regulars to a beer, bacon sandwich and and music festival?
Make it up yourself:you can see how easy it is to manufacture some offense to islam.
Jennifer says
Britain jails people for what it’s government terms ‘insulting Islam’ and also bans anyone who might insult Islam or even argue or debate about it’s history and laws.
If it’s not possible to do either, these people will be censored, harassed and persecuted.
Britain is low on the list of countries with freedom of speech and the Press, only in place 40 on the list by Reporters without Borders.
Jennifer King says
Britain jails and bans people whom they think ‘insult Islam’ or even argue and debate it’s history and laws. If they can’t be jailed or banned, then they are censored, harassed and persecuted.
DHazard says
“spreading corruption on earth”
Now that’s a clearly worded criminal violation. No room for interpretation there. A rule like that could NEVER be abused. It even narrows down the location (earth) of the offense (spreading corruption).
gravenimage says
And straight out of the Qur’an.
gravenimage says
Islamic Republic of Iran: “Cosmic consciousness” movement founder imprisoned for “insulting Islam”
……………………..
This *poor man*. “Cosmic consciousness” sounds a tad silly–but harmless and much preferable to Islam.