Offending the Usual Suspects

Please do head over to Richard's blog, Linen on the Hedgerow, and read his latest post which has offended the usual suspects.His tongue-in-cheek suggestions to Catholic school pupils compelled to visit a non-Christian place of worship have drawn charges that he is a bigot and a racist from some sensititve souls.

I don't know whether Richard is a litigious man (I would be if I could afford it), but I would guess that being accused of being a racist is a libel, actionable, and could be pursued in Court.

I should not be necessary to state that objecting to a false (non-Catholic) religion is 'racist' only to the perceptions of the intellectually challenged, and that it is no more 'racist' than disliking Quakerism, or curry, or roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, or Wagner. I dislike them all.

As for 'bigotry', in the sense of total unswerving commitment to what one regards as the truth, I am all for it.

A British Muslim friend of mine, born in Pakistan, remarked to me many years ago that Allah created life at various levels: vegetable, animal, and human. He added (and immediately lost my respect) that Allah created a lower form of human life, the hubshi (black men and women) who exist to serve the non-hubshi.

Now that was racism, and he ceased with immediate effect to be a friend.