In keeping with the very reason that the New Atheist movement has discredited itself and is conceptually dead—their unwillingness to take on Islam (see elucidation of this point at this link)—I wonder…oh, how I wonder…
I wonder if any atheists anywhere, specifically and especially the New celebrity Atheists have made any comments at all on the fact that Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi claims that Extramarital sex leads to earthquakes:
Tehran, Apr 17: An Iranian cleric has proclaimed that inappropriately dressed women leading to extramarital affairs are the reasons behind the devastating earthquakes that frequently rattle the country.
Speaking to worshippers at the Friday prayers here on Apr 16, senior cleric Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi said, “Many women who dress inappropriately … cause youths to go astray, taint their chastity and incite extramarital sex in society, which increases earthquakes.”
“Calamities are the result of people’s deeds…We have no way but conform to Islam to ward off dangers,” the religious leader is quoted as saying in newspaper reports.
The Islamic laws prescribe a strict dress code for women. Females are expected to cover hair and bodily contours in public or face punishment and fine.
However, the cleric was probably referring to the women who appear on the streets with well-fitted clothes and layers of make-up as the evil forces behind the natural calamities.
Let Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson or the likes say such a thing and atheists are all over it like an elephant in musth but let a Muslim say it and…and nothing; let’s just keep bashing Christianity!
Consider one small example as Richard Dawkins wrote the following in The God Delusion (pp. 301-302):
In illustration of the dark side of absolutism, I mentioned the Christians in America who blow up abortion clinics, and the Taliban of Afghanistan, whose list of cruelties, especially to women, I find too painful to recount.
An entire book that bashes Christianity but as for Islam or even the Taliban in particular: side step and wipe brow (for a dissection of Dawkins’ folly on this point, see George Tiller, Abortionist Murders, and the Richard Dawkins Correlation).