these sort of statements denying people freedom of speech just proves to me that not having faith in any sort of dogma is the right thing to live by.

You are misinterpretting what I said originally. I never said atheists have no place commenting on religion. I said atheists have no place commenting on matters of faith since they have none.

The bottom line is that violent people will always be violent and will use whatever excuse they deem necessary.

I’m not saying your argument is a perfect parallel, but it certainly rings the same chime.

Also, your statement, “women were told they could not vote because they did not actually believe there were canidates” makes no sense whatsoever and screams of a Chewbaca defense. If I were to take that sentence and reverse it (since it is supposed to be an equivalent to my statement), it would be, “an atheist was told he could not comment on religious affairs because he does not believe there are religions.”

To prevent further confusion I will state that I *do* believe there are religions in the world. I’d also like to point out that all this garbage about it being a religious matter is bullocks. My post was about two groups of people arguing over what I would consider “speech”. The event in question lead to a considerable amount of violence and rioting.

Regardless of what the “speech” was about, the action of these Muslims was unacceptable. I think most religious texts are full of absurdities and that indoctrinating people into these beliefs is, in an abstract kind of way, poisoning their minds. However, you will never see me resort to violence as a form of protest (unless my right to be free from religion is somehow taken away =).

When fighting a battle of tenets, a civilized man will arm himself with logic and reason. These weapons, when wielded by a true believer, can defeat the greatest of armies and overcome the most powerful of tyrants.

“A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished.” -Friedrich Schiller