JUST two days after a New South Wales adviser was sacked for saying that Islam was a violent religion spawned by the “terrorist Mohammed”, scores of people were injured when Muslims in Bangladesh rioted over a change to the country’s constitution.
Protesters were demanding that the vow of “absolute faith in Allah” – removed last month by the government to strengthen the secular nature of the original 1972 constitution – be re-instated.
Earlier today, Bangladeshi police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at thousands of Islamic activists, and scores of demonstrators and police officers were injured during the anti-government clashes in the industrial towns of Fatullah and Kanchpur, outside the capital Dhaka
Fatullah, home to hundreds of factories making clothes for top global retailers, was hit by hours of fighting as police battled with 600 protesters – mostly madrassa students – who threw bricks and blocked roads.
Kanchpur, the main highway linking Dhaka with the port city of Chittagong was turned into a battleground as police broke up protesters who were armed with bamboo sticks.
Chanting ‘There is no God but Allah’”, up to 3,000 protesters blocked the highway in the morning and burnt tyres, said district police chief Sheikh Nazmul Alam.
He said at least 12 police officers were injured in clashes as police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to clear the road.
Joseph Adams: branded a 'bigot' and a 'racist' for suggesting that Islam was less than peaceful
Meanwhile, Joseph Adams, who worked in the electorate office of the Smithfield Liberal Andrew Rohan before being sacked for posting anti-Islamic comments on his Facebook page, has apologised for “not thinking politically” when he said, among other things, that:
Muhammad was the first terrorist in the name of Islam.
Adams, who posted selected excerpts from the Koran on Facebook which he said proved “Islam promotes killing, not love”, said:
What I did was a mistake, I did not think it would be used for political purposes. In my mind I was living in a free society where we value free speech. Why should religion be a taboo subject?
But Premier, Barry O’Farrell, did not agree. Late on Friday a government spokesman said in a statement:
The comments were totally inappropriate and the staff member has already been terminated.
Hat tip: BarrieJohn (Adams report).
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
July 10th, 2011 at 1:11 pm
Well, it must be almost 48hrs since the muslims were last upset so it must have been time for them to rampage.
The is something about Islam that drives people to act like petulant children.
July 10th, 2011 at 1:15 pm
I hope secularists down under get a campaign going to have Joseph Adams re-instated, this is just anti-democratic political harassment of someone who has simply told the truth.
July 10th, 2011 at 1:33 pm
Well said Joseph Adams you should be state premier not some spineless windbag like O’Farrell.
Yawn – -muslims offended again,christians in the US offended by gay marriage,jews offended by a possible ban on religious slaughter of animals in Holland……….
Maybe I could get a job in the growing industry of ‘taking offence’
Let’s see now……
1. Update CV/resume
2. Pick stupidest religion which allows maximum offence to be taken …………..no, I give up,so many to choose from.
Oh well just have to become a politician and cave in like a stranded jellyfish every time someone waving their particular holy book takes offence…now THERE’S a growth industry!
July 10th, 2011 at 1:34 pm
The staff member has already been terminated.
Is O’Farrell a Muslim too?
July 10th, 2011 at 1:35 pm
I hope that means “the staff member’s employment has already been terminated”….
July 10th, 2011 at 2:18 pm
“the staff member has already been terminated.”
he’s been killed?
July 10th, 2011 at 2:26 pm
These muslim fanatics cling to the bizarre idea that people can be threatened or abused into believing. They are so shallow in their thinking that they accept statements given at the end of a club or brick as indicating a change of mind and belief. I suppose the facts of their religion and the statements in their Holy Book are so incapable of withstanding rational discussion that this is the only recourse they have. In any civilised debate they would be exposed as what they are: superstition driven fools enmeshed in outdated nonsense.
July 10th, 2011 at 3:16 pm
Graham: That’s what I meant!
Broga: What could have been more idiotic than asking people to “recant” when they were surrounded by piles of faggots awaiting the torch? People only change their minds in the face of reason – you can’t frighten them into believing something.
July 10th, 2011 at 3:41 pm
I can see why Adams was let go. People trying to get elected or stay elected cannot have members of staff shooting their mouth off, even on their own time and even accurately, about how terrible a specific religion is. He’s entitled to say what he likes, of course, but his employer is entitled to fire him if saying what he likes damages the employer’s chances of getting elected. It is an unfortunate reality of democracy that free speech has consequences, sometimes pretty unfair ones, and democratically speaking the ones who get all upset over someone pointing out what is an accurate assessment of Islam are liable to be in the majority (or at least large enough to cause a problem). Lots of people don’t like the implication that a whole religion is violent – not just Muslims, but moderate Christians, people who are spiritual and confused but well-meaning lefitsts who want everyone to just get along.
Saying such things on his facebook page was deliberately antagonising of Adams, and while I don’t believe that religion should have a special immunity to insult, saying anything like that in public is political suicide, whether it’s insulting a religion or just a football team. People are petty and often incapable of taking criticism. Religion just tends to up the ante and Islam (in an admitted generalisation) moreso.
July 10th, 2011 at 4:19 pm
Well, if that’s all they’re rioting over, I’d hate to open up a Tescos over there.
July 10th, 2011 at 6:44 pm
>“the staff member has already been terminated.â€
he’s been killed?<
Yes, it seems this fat but honest political kitchen maid has been killed for telling the truth. It's not the first time, and won't be the last.
July 10th, 2011 at 6:47 pm
For thousands of years now, Christian fanatics have made life on the planet much more bloody and immeasurably more painful than it should be. That situation is now being eclipsed by bloodthirsty Muslim fanatacs who threaten to make anything nasty Christianity has done seem like a bake sale in comparison. How any thoughtful person can still believe that organized religion is in any way good for humanity is beyond me.
July 10th, 2011 at 7:25 pm
Freedom of speech, Australia! To appease a bunch of religious madmen, someone who shoots his mouth off, is sacked? Come on, there is at least a glimmer of truth in the man’s statements, and there is no reason anyone should apologize.
July 10th, 2011 at 7:31 pm
It seems to me that shooting your mouth off without really thinking about it is what this kind of people actually do. Surely if he was a thoughtful person who had said these things after carefully thinking them through, then he would not have come out with the instant apologetic retraction the second someone takes offense.
July 10th, 2011 at 7:50 pm
So this is about the 7,000 time Muslims have been offended this week.
July 11th, 2011 at 12:46 am
@Barriejohn
The Church may have been vicious but it wasn’t naive. In countries subject to the Inquisition penitents were kept on a short leash after any recantation. In Spain they would have had to attend a penitent parade every week as well as permanent surveillance – for the rest of their lives. This fear and intimidation is ordinary life for almost every forward-thinking Muslim in the world today.
July 11th, 2011 at 7:27 am
You’re absolutely right, Mr Gronk: it was all about keeping people in line. Heretics were publicly humiliated even after recanting, and never trusted again. Cranmer made umpteen recantations, and should by rights have been absolved, but Mary had him burned anyway. No surprise then that in his final speech, though the wording had been agreed in advance, he deviated from the script and virtually said, “Sod you lot, I still believe what I believed before”, and that when he got to the bit that went: And as for the Pope, I refuse him, as Christ’s enemy, and Antichrist with all his false doctrine, they pulled him down from the pulpit and hurried him off to the stake. They published all his recantations in a damage limitation exercise, but the public weren’t fooled!
I loved this from the moment that I was first introduced to it:
http://www.stthomasu.ca/~hunt/braytext.htm
July 11th, 2011 at 8:20 am
“In my mind I was living in a free society where we value free speech.”
Oh, well said sir!
“Why should religion be a taboo subject?”
because so many people are apathetic, or scared.
The only difference between a true islamophobe and a dhimmi, is that the islamophobes want everyone else to be dhimmis, so they can hide among the sheep – like Odysseus!
Calling people who are NOT afraid of islam or muslims an islamophobe is, of course, Orwellian New-Speak.
July 11th, 2011 at 8:50 am
The Australians have a real problem now:
http://washingtonexaminer.com/.....gle+Reader
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ne.....6091923217
July 11th, 2011 at 8:52 am
And New Zealand:
http://www.newkerala.com/news/.....24644.html
July 11th, 2011 at 8:52 am
@Mr Gronk: The church, and the current Muslim outfit, are and were anxious to ensure their subservient flocks did not think, inform themselves or express opinions. I guess the terror inflicted blocked off many from even daring to think. If they did think then the message was that they had better keep their thoughts to themselves.
A particularly vicious and recent example is that of Damon Fowler, Basrop, Louisiana, who dared to protest about an illegal prayer in his school. He became homeless and was hounded by the community. At all costs block people’s minds; do not allow in the light of reason or the practice of free speech. These are the enemies of superstition.
July 11th, 2011 at 1:06 pm
Islam is an aggressive,imperialist ideology that promotes violence and oppression. THAT’S THE TRUTH . Scream it! don’t let the lackeys of would-be moslem oppressors get away with it!
July 11th, 2011 at 2:23 pm
The pope and many others have said that Atheists are not human, so can they please lose their jobs as I must say I am deeply offended.