During the Global Atheist Convention in Australia this week, there were a handful of Islamic demonstrators:
Obviously, I wasn’t there and I don’t know what happened beyond what you see in that clip. But I think there’s still something to learn from it.
I love that it looks to be a completely peaceful demonstration (perhaps thanks to the security detail there). I love that the atheists are just standing around the Muslim protesters, taking pictures, hurling words right back at them (“You can speak. We don’t have to listen!”) as if they were animals at a zoo.
Their signs, their words, their beliefs — none of it has any impact. There are so many atheists surrounding them and they all know how foolish the demonstrators are that the whole protest becomes a sight to be seen and not worth taking seriously. Instead of running away scared, we laugh at them. Because they’re incapable of dialogue, judging from the way they yell and the ignorance depicted on their signs, they’re not people with anything substantive or meaningful to add to the conversation. So there’s no reason to take them seriously.
There’s power in standing together.