Richard Dawkins Berkeley Event Canceled Over Tweets Critical of Islamism
Dawkins: “I make no apologies” for condemning “the misogyny, homophobia, and violence of Islamism”
Richard Dawkins is a writer, biologist, and outspoken atheist. He has long been a hero of the left and was scheduled to do an event at Berkeley hosted by a local progressive radio station.
The event has been cancelled however, due to some tweets by Dawkins which were critical of Islamism.
The Patheos blog reports:
Berkeley Cancels Talk By Richard Dawkins Because Of His “Abusive Speech” Towards Islam
Richard Dawkins was slated to give a talk with a radio station in the city of Berkeley to discuss his latest book: Science in the Soul: Selected Writings of a Passionate Atheist.
However, the talk was canceled.
KPFA, the Berkeley radio station that sponsored the event gave the following reason:
Dear Richard Dawkins event ticket buyers,
We regret to inform you that KPFA has canceled our event with Richard Dawkins. 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. While KPFA emphatically supports serious free speech, we do not support abusive speech. We apologize for not having had broader knowledge of Dawkins views much earlier. We also apologize to all those inconvenienced by this cancellation. Your ticket purchases will automatically be refunded by Brown Paper Tickets.
Sincerely,
KPFA Radio 94.1 FM
Here’s a sample of the offending tweets:
“You’re a homophobic misogynist.”
“But I’m a Muslim.”
“Oh, SORRY, I didn’t mean to insult your culture.”https://t.co/8fQYmYGwLb— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) July 10, 2017
OK, it’s the NY Post: https://t.co/83vhm3oRhx But it happens to be true. Sadly, very true. And utterly disgraceful.
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) July 1, 2017
Berkeleyside has more including a statement from Dawkins:
KPFA cancels Richard Dawkins’ speech because of his tweets about Islam
Dawkins challenged KPFA’s interpretation of his tweets through a press release issued by the Center for Public Inquiry. In 2017, his Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science merged with the Center for Public Inquiry and Dawkins holds a board seat.
“The idea that I have engaged in abusive speech against Islam is preposterous, which even the most rudimentary fact-checking by KPFA would have made clear,” Dawkins is cited as saying in the press release. “I have indeed strongly condemned the misogyny, homophobia, and violence of Islamism, of which Muslims — particularly Muslim women — are the prime victims. I make no apologies for denouncing those oppressive cruelties, and I will continue to do so.”
Rod Dreher of the American Conservative makes an excellent point about all of this:
It is interesting to know that in the eyes of progressives like these, some religions are more worthy of consideration than others. Islam, generally speaking, is vastly more illiberal than Christianity. Somehow, though, Islam falls under the protecting veil of progressivism.
Other reactions have been similarly critical of the banning of Dawkins, including from Bret Weinstein, the Evergreen State College professor who suffered abuse at the hands of social justice warriors, and his brother Eric:
Berkeley used to be Free Speech Center! Now KPFA Cancels Richard Dawkins talk because he criticizes Islam? Shame! https://t.co/TDvhuDEkBX
— Lawrence M. Krauss (@LKrauss1) July 21, 2017
The Left continues its slow suicide by intolerance, emboldening the right: Richard Dawkins deplatformed in Berkeley. https://t.co/IE07fzsB7B
— Steven Pinker (@sapinker) July 21, 2017
Glad they only deplatformed @RichardDawkins . At some point they'll escalate to defenestrating (if they can figure out the window latch). https://t.co/dbHtu8AfwX
— Bret Weinstein (@BretWeinstein) July 21, 2017
VOICE OVER: We've secretly replaced Free-Speech America w new improved Sharia-compliant blasphemy-free America. Let's watch folks' reaction! https://t.co/xMWqzPnwPe
— Eric Weinstein (@EricRWeinstein) July 22, 2017
Featured image via YouTube.
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Comments
Hilarious in the stupidity and hypocrisy.
This clown free to spew anything he likes at Christianity but say something against Islam? Out you go.
One more reason not to take most liberals or atheists seriously.
It’s kind of comical to watch Dawkins get caught targeted by the climate of hate which he worked so hard to build.
couldn’t happen to a ‘nicer’ dolt.
watching the left eat its’ own is a fine pastime – pass the popcorn, extra butter.
No, Dawkins is intelligent and consistent. He’ll gives opinion no matter who is offended. I admire the man.
What makes him a clown? That he also puts down Christianity? I like they guy. At least he’s consistent.
Do you know whatever happened to LJ’s NQ site? It seems to have disappeared completely from the net, even from the Way Back machine at archive.org.
It’s funny how the Left does the “we must be respectful” mantra when it comes to Islam and Islam only.
Christianity? Judaism? Say whatever you want! Fire Away!
Such hypocrisy.
Hypocrites certainly, but coward may be more accurate. These Profiles In Putty would never think that the principle of free speech is really a bulkward against tyranny and is worth standing for. This explains why they so readily yield to the fear of Islam which is nothing but tyranny.
they don’t want to be Charlie Habdo’d –
https://www.google.com/search?q=want+to+be+Charlie+Habdo%27d&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
I guess like me you missed all the objections they have raised to Dawkins’ comments against every other religion. Insults against Jesus are okay but Mohammed must be defended?
They still haven’t figured out that free speech concept, have they? The place is an embarrassment.
So, does this mean that to be a leftist these days you accept theism, as long as the god you accept is the leftist approved god of Islam?
They’d better be careful. I’ve heard that Science is a jealous god!
More people will turn away as the left sets upon a progressive slope.
Funny, because Dawkins is actually just another of the death-cult’s apologists. “Misogyny, homophobia, and violence” are identifying properties of ordinary, pedestrian Islam. Yet he goes along with the conspiracy to pretend that it’s some artificial concept, “Islamism”, which is the real villain.
Not true. Dawkins is harsh toward all religions.
Wrote a best-seller called The God Delusion. One of the other actors in the current drama is Jerry Coyne, Who frequently cites Pew Research showing that two-thirds of Muslims in the world support imprisonment or death for heresy and apostasy.
Obviously not. He’s letting Islam off easy, by pretending that its blatant crimes are really the fault of its imaginary evil twin.
Tyranny loves tyranny !
So I despise Dawkins. He’s an arrogant jerk. Far from being a master stroke that brought Christianity to its knees, The God Delusion just revealed a novice in history and philosophy. He is, without a doubt one of the most overrated people on the planet.
All that said, he has the right to speak out on anything he likes. In terms of defending western values, his attention is far better focused on Islam (he, like seemingly all Brits, has a talent for the cutting insult). But even if this was going to be another hate screed against Christianity, Berkeley chickening out is a disgrace.
Arrogant, perhaps, but consistent. He does not follow the current SJW trends.
I don’t know that anyone disagrees with you. We’re just enjoying the show!
You reap what you sow!
Dawkins was more than happy to be a party to the left, but all of a sudden he is the witch tied to the stake of liberism!
Good Luck Dawkins!
The Left’s behavior is so maddening and utterly morally bankrupt. The record presents the following for analysis — a 1,400-year history of belligerence, conquests, atrocities and persecutions of non-Muslims, committed under the Islamic banner; the explicit and repeated vilification of non-Muslims and exhortations to violence against non-Muslims that are contained within the supremacist document known as “the Koran” and presented as allegedly constituting Divine command; and, of course, the continued embittered, belligerent and violent behavior of Muslims worldwide who seek to impose their ideology upon others and who are unwilling to comport themselves in accordance with secular democratic norms of behavior. In sum, a record of a transparently supremacist, belligerent and totalitarian ideology of hate that stands in stark opposition to notions of secular democracy, individual freedom and religious pluralism.
And, yet, the Left deems criticism of this ideology to allegedly constitute “hate” speech? History will rightly judge these Leftist fools to be feckless collaborators, as evil as anyone who aided the Nazis in their conquests and evil deeds.
Why is the left enforcing Islamic blasphemy laws? Because they are rapidly converting to Islam. No joke.
Black Lives is already Islamofascist. It is an offshoot of the original Black Panthers, who all converted to Islam, and it’s leadership is all either Muslim (Colin Kaepernick’s girlfriend) or Islamophilic.
As the fascist left gets more and more fascist and America continues to reject them, Islamofascism will appeal ever stronger. First, it gets labeled a race. Never mind that it is nothing but an ideology, it gives white leftists a chance to join a victim race/group, which is the criterion of legitimacy of legitimacy in their native leftist ideology. They would LIKE to be able to join, if the Islamic ideology is compatible enough, and oh yes it is.
Small “o” orthodox Islam (there is no capital “O” Orthodox Islam) is a religion of murdering everyone who disagrees you or criticizes you, which is exactly the mentality of fascist Antifa “anti-fascists,” and the center-left also supports anti-democratic “resistance.” They are not out in the streets with Antifa, but just as the entire body of Sharia supporting Muslims (about 50% of all Muslims) are quietly supportive of Islamic terrorism, so too does the entire anti-democratic “resistance” left support anti-conservative political violence.
That is the fundamental compatibility between the left and Islam. The left dreams of political mass murder. Islam actually does it, while adding an irresistable allure for leftists. If they convert they can attack and call themselves a victimized minority at the same time.
This WILL happen. It IS happening, and it is going to feed on itself. They already call Palestinian attackers victims. They already call blacks who get shot while committing attempted murder victims. Of course they want that same privilege for themselves, to be able to SCREAM victimization as they attack. It IS them. They are already Islamic in their hearts.
Well said Alecrawls!
I absolutely love the reactions of the Weinstein brothers!
He is one of the few who will say anything bad about Islam. The exception that proves the rule.
That in itself is a contradiction in terms. In a public forum free speech includes all speech and ideas, whether hateful, abusive, congenial or laudatory. A definition of free speech that does not include the entire umbra of speech is not free speech but speech subject to a prior constraint so that the speech conforms to an idea deemed to be true. But who determines what ideas are true or false? (Note, I have not reached the question of whether KPFA is a “public forum.”)
The answer is found in a1978 case in which the Village of Skokie, IL, was held to have violated the 1st Amendment rights of the National Socialist Party of America which was denied a parade permit to march in Nazi uniforms and display othe Nazi regalia. At that time Skokie was then predominantly Jewish with many holocaust survivors living among them.
Circuit Judge Pell wrote “Under the First Amendment there is no such thing as a false idea. However pernicious an opinion may seem, we depend for its correction not on the conscience of judges and juries but on the competition of other ideas.
In the words of Justice Jackson, ‘every person must be his own watchman for truth, because the forefathers did not trust any government to separate the true from the false for us.’ . The asserted falseness of Nazi dogma, and, indeed, its general repudiation, simply do not justify its suppression.”
This post is not intended to be nor should it be construed as an endorsement or promotion of Nazi ideology. This case is however well worth a read. It examines the prior Supreme Court cases on hate speech and holding that suppression of hate speech is barred under the 1st Amendment. The full case is found at 578 F.2d 1197
Of course the question continues of whether the Left actually believes that Islam and Muslims who practice it are not guilty of misogyny, homophobia, and violence, or this is just some form of pandering to Islam? If it is the former, then the evidence of this being true is so overwhelming that it becomes beyond insane to give them any credibility. If it is the latter, they one must question why they are defending those who have continually attacked America and the West. None of this takes away from the overarching insanity of those who demand or want everyone else to believe in this tripe as fact. Are these fools incapable of seeing reality because, if they are, then it should be intuitively obvious that this kind of delusion makes it impossible to argue, let alone communicate with them, on any level.
Dawkins is a hero not just of the left. Get this: I’m a Trump supporter and Dawkins has been a hero of mine since I was a kid.
The irony is delicious! More, please! I love it when libs eat their dead.
Yes but, Dawkins’ views on the importance of genetics (and thus the importance of genetic differences) was sure to get him in trouble with leftist orthodoxy sooner or later anyway, as his views regarding genetics inevitably clash with the sunnier/more hopeful Rousseau/Freud view that environment trumps all.