A reasonable Muslim response over atheism billboard

by Salman Hameed

Freedom of speech today is one of the frequent arenas of clashes in the Muslim world. How should one respond to an offense against religion? Who gets to decide what is an offense? Mired in all this is a changing definition of religion - from public to personal. The impact of these issues is, of course, even more for Muslims living as religious minorities in the West - and a checkered history of threats against Salman Rushdie to the Danish cartoon fiasco.

So it is refreshing to see a reasonable response to a bilingual billboard promoting atheism in Paterson, NJ, about 2 blocks from an Islamic center. Here is the billboard:

A similar billboard in Hebrew drew criticism from the Hasidic Jewish community, but here is the response from the Islamic Center:

While the billboards have been criticized by the Hasidic Jewish community, some Muslims, including members of The Islamic Center of Passaic County, which is two blocks from the billboard location in Paterson, have reacted with equanimity.
The executive director of the center, Mohamed Elfilali, said he had heard no complaints from the Muslim community. 

“It’s clearly freedom of speech, and one ought to respect that.” Mr. Elfilali said. “It calls for people of faith to question the deity of god, which is something essential and fundamental in the Muslim tradition, where people ought to not only believe in god but question our intellectual faculties to come to that conclusion.” 

He said that the $15,000 spent on the billboards might be better diverted to charity, but added that the Center planned to invite Mr. Silverman to a forum.

Read the full article here.