Richard Dawkins event cancelled over his 'abusive speech against Islam'

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- olweasel
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Richard Dawkins event cancelled over his 'abusive speech against Islam'
OP - July 24, 2017, 11:42 PM

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Richard Dawkins has denied using “abusive speech against Islam” after a California radio station cancelled a book event with the scientist, citing his comments on Islam, which it said had “offended and hurt … so many people”.

Dawkins, whose bestselling study of evolution, The Selfish Gene, was named the most influential science book of all time by the Royal Society last week, was lined up to speak about his memoir A Brief Candle in the Dark at an event hosted by Berkeley’s KPFA Radio in August.

But KPFA subsequently informed ticketbuyers that the event had been cancelled. “We had booked this event based entirely on his excellent new book on science, when we didn’t know he had offended and hurt – in his tweets and other comments on Islam – so many people. KPFA does not endorse hurtful speech,” said KPFA in an email to ticket buyers, which Dawkins later published on his website. “While KPFA emphatically supports serious free speech, we do not support abusive speech. We apologise for not having had broader knowledge of Dawkins’s views much earlier. We also apologise to all those inconvenienced by this cancellation.”

Dawkins, the author of anti-religious polemic The God Delusion, called the decision “truly astonishing”, and a “matter of personal sorrow”. He had listened to KPFA “almost every day” when he lived in Berkeley for two years, he said, and had previously been grateful for its “objective reporting and humane commentary”.

“My memory of KPFA is that you were unusually scrupulous about fact-checking. I especially admired your habit of always quoting sources,” he wrote to KPFA in an open letter he shared on his website. “You conspicuously did not quote a source when accusing me of ‘abusive speech’. Why didn’t you check your facts – or at least have the common courtesy to alert me – before summarily cancelling my event?”
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https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jul/24/richard-dawkins-event-cancelled-over-his-abusive-speech-against-islam

"Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well."
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- olweasel
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Richard Dawkins event cancelled over his 'abusive speech against Islam'
Reply #1 - July 25, 2017, 12:32 AM

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Just to be clear, when Dawkins says things like this, he’s referring to repeated acts of terrorism in the name of Islam, female genital mutilation, gay people being thrown off of buildings, the suppression of education in Muslim-majority nations (especially for women), the death penalty for apostates, people fearing for their lives because they dared to draw Muhammad, the victims of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, and the censorship of even mild criticisms of Islam. I know that because he says it all the damn time.

He also says very clearly — to anyone willing to listen — that he fully supports the rights of Muslims to believe as they wish and that it’s moderate Muslims who are frequently the victims of the extremists.

Just take that line from the Telegraph for a moment, the one about Islam being the “most evil religion in the world.” Here’s what Dawkins said in context.

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“It’s tempting to say all religions are bad, and I do say all religions are bad, but it’s a worse temptation to say all religions are equally bad because they’re not,” he added.

“If you look at the actual impact that different religions have on the world it’s quite apparent that at present the most evil religion in the world has to be Islam.

“It’s terribly important to modify that because of course that doesn’t mean all Muslims are evil, very far from it. Individual Muslims suffer more from Islam than anyone else.

“They suffer from the homophobia, the misogyny, the joylessness which is preached by extreme Islam, Isis and the Iranian regime.

“So it is a major evil in the world, we do have to combat it, but we don’t do what Trump did and say all Muslims should be shut out of the country. That’s draconian, that’s illiberal, inhumane and wicked. I am against Islam not least because of the unpleasant effects it has on the lives of Muslims.”

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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2017/07/24/kpfas-reasons-for-canceling-a-richard-dawkins-event-are-worse-than-we-thought/

"Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well."
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- yeezevee
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Richard Dawkins event cancelled over his 'abusive speech against Islam'
Reply #2 - July 25, 2017, 02:23 AM

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40710165

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https://kpfa.org/

Statement on Cancellation of Richard Dawkins Event

KPFA cancelled a book event with Richard Dawkins when members of our community brought our attention to Dawkins’ abusive speech against Muslims.
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The speech we reviewed included assertions during his current book tour that Islam is the “most evil” of world religions, Twitter posts denigrating Muslim scholars as non-scholars and other tweets.

We serve a broad and diverse community, including many Muslims living under threat of persecution and violence in the current political context. Islamophobic rhetoric stokes that threat. While Mr. Dawkins has every right to express his views, KPFA has every right not to sponsor and profit from an event spreading them. That is what we’ve done.

KPFA’s events organizers notified Mr. Dawkins’ publicist at Random House when we first started considering cancellation of his event, and again once we made the final decision to do so, which was before notice was sent out to ticket holders.

We have since extended an offer to Mr. Dawkins to discuss this matter on KPFA’s airwaves, a forum where his assertions can be engaged and challenged, but KPFA will have no financial stake in promoting them. He has not yet responded.

Well it is silly radio station it is not Univerity of Berkeley .. who cares

https://kpfa.org/donate/donate-your-vehicle/

donate some nuts and bolts to these fools ., they are still living in that Civil Rights era by advertizing Martin Luther King

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gct4KpDjLUM

Do not let silence become your legacy.. Question everything
I renounced my faith to become a kafir,
the beloved betrayed me and turned in to a Muslim
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