Why is China opposed to “defamation of religion”?

Greetings.

Jewish date:  11 Nisan 5770 (Parashath Ṣaw).

Today’s holidays:  Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent (Roman Catholicism), Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel (Greek Orthodox Christianity), Feast of Mansur al-Hallaj (Thelema).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Repower America | We got next”, “Take Action: Send Congress Your State's Invoice for Foodborne Illness.”, and “MoveOn.org Political Action: Republican Leaders: Condemn the hate”.

New cool software:  Ancient Semitic Scripts, which is a collection of fonts for Hebrew and Aramaic based on historic texts.  Mac OS X users can put the font files (things ending with “.ttf”) into the Fonts folder of the Library folder (personal or system).

Topic 1:  More anti-Semitism:  “Not the White Response” and “Muslim-Jewish tensions roil a Swedish city”.  The first article deals someone saying something outrageous and then trying to rationalize it, thus metaphorically only stuffing his foot further into his mouth.  The second deals with anti-Semitic hate crimes in Malmo, Sweden, much of them connected with Islam.

Other religious persecution:  “Pakistani Christian couple refuses to convert: husband is burnt alive, wife raped by police”, “Christians Face 1,000 Attacks in 500 Days in Karnataka, India”, “Kidnapping reflects fears of Pakistan minorities”, “Christian Woman Jailed under Pakistan’s ‘Blasphemy’ Laws”, “Islamic Extremists in Somalia Kill Church Leader, Torch Home”, “RUSSIA: Lutheran extremists?”, and “RUSSIA: Who initiated anti-Jehovah's Witness and anti-Nursi campaigns?”.

Image of state religions which really ought to include atheism via Wikipedia

Topic 2:  “UN rights council slams 'defamation of religion'”.  This article has me puzzled.  Islamic countries are infamous for promoting prohibiting “defamation of religion”, the intent being to protect Islam from criticism or condemnation, whether it be fair or not.  However, China, of all countries, supported the resolution.  China, you will recall, is an officially atheist country.  The only way I see around the discrepancy is that China wants atheism protected from defamation as a religion, though this may be pushing it.

For the record:  I am opposed to this resolution because it seeks to squelch legitimate debate.  If one cannot make decent replies to criticism but has to squelch it, then one should be questioning whether one is right in the first place.

Topic 3:  For today’s religious humor, based on the next major Jewish holiday, Pesaḥ (Passover):  “Tough Love” and “All Together”.

Peace and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

Hate crimes, anti-Semitic libel, and demonic possession

Greetings.

Jewish date:  17 Kislew 5770 (Parashath Wayyishlaḥ).

Today’s holiday:  Saint Day of John Damascene (Roman Catholicism).

Worthy causes of the day:  “Petition For Jewish Rights In Jerusalem And Judea & Samaria” and “MoveOn.org Political Action: Senator Reid: We're Counting on You”.

Topic 1:  “EXCLUSIVE Analysis: Sorry, Islamophobia Pimps – 67% of US Hate Crimes Against Jews”.  This is genuinely surprising, since anti-Semitic hate crimes in the US do not get a lot of press, but this is FBI data being discussed here.  Considering there are a few million Jews in the US, the chances that any Jew being the victim of a hate crime in any given year is going to be on the order of 0.1% (back-of-the-envelope calculation), which would explain why it is easy to forget about the problem:  most Jews in the US are never going to suffer from it.  On the very bright side, religion-based hate crimes in the US are sufficiently rare (measured in per million), that few of any of us, even groups which complain about bias, ever become victims.  This is a nation which early on decided that religious tolerance was a value, and while there are always jerks out there unwilling to tolerate someone who believes differently, the vast majority of us are successful.

Topic 2:  “Stop the Spread of the Swedish Blood Libel”.  I cannot make up the atrocious quality of reporting documented in this article.  The repeated use of falsehoods frequently presented as truth (“factoids”) is a form of argument from repetition and is fallacious.

Topic 3:  Just to end on a lighter topic, some religious humor:  “MOM!! Call the priest!”:



I have no idea where this business of anyone being possessed levitating comes from, and any information on the topic would be appreciated.  I do know that demonic possession, on the other hand, is mentioned a lot in the Gospels, where the possessed manifest mental illness.

Shabbath shalom.

Aaron