Saladin the Skeptic?

Reading through Thomas Asbridge’s The Crusades, I ran across this little snippet about Saladin:

That summer, one marked distraction was provided by the prediction of an impending apocalypse. For decades, astrologers had foretold that, on 16 September 1186, a momentous planetary alignment would stir up a devastating wind storm, scouring the Earth of life. This bleak prophecy had circulated among Muslims and Christians alike, but the sultan nonetheless thought it ridiculous. He made a point of holding a candlelit, open-air party on the appointed night of disaster, even as ‘feeble-mind[ed]‘ fools huddled in caves and underground shelters. Needless to say, the evening passed without event; indeed, one of his companions pointedly remarked that ‘we never saw a night as calm as that’.

Say what you want about Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn, but the man had style.

The Man with Three Wives

Islamic Beauty

man says to shower curtain, you look gorgeous today, dear. islamic woman replies, i'm over here.

[via]

Simpsons: I Will Not Laugh When…

bart simpson writing on chalkboard: i will not laugh when they say that islam means peace

Free speech and religious (in)tolerance (again) (continued)

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about some guys who want homosexuality to carry the death penalty in the UK.

Well, today three of them were convicted of hate crimes.

On balance, I think that this is a good thing. They put leaflets through peoples’ (including gay peoples’) letterboxes entitled Turn Or Burn and Death Penalty?, which said that homosexuals should be stoned or burned to death and that capital punishment is the “only way to rid society of homosexuality”. To me, that’s a long step over the free speech line and a short hop from incitement, via threatening behavior.

I’ll update this when the men are sentenced. In the meantime, it’s over to you again UFers: Should I abhor what these men say but fight for their right to say it? Or should I hope to see them jailed?