Regardless where you fall in the political spectrum a troubling trend is beginning to appear in the media where the cartoons published by Charlie Hebdo are being focused on as a possible reason behind the terrorist attacks. Most of the pundits who are doing this begin their apologia something like this, “I abhor violence and think no justification exists for terror BUT when you look at the satire of Charlie Hebdo….”

Let us get one thing clear. Islam is a lie. Islam is a lie just as any other religion is a lie. Mohammed did not talk Allah. Allah does not exist. Allah is not the one and only god. Mohammed is not Allah’s only prophet. The prophet did not die and ascend to heaven on a winged chariot or a horse. The prophet did not split a rock with a touch. He did not split the moon.

People who believe these lies are delusional in their thinking and this delusion should be treated with savage mockery and disrespect. No site in Mecca is any holier than my own toilet. No submission to God exists. Sharia law is a sham. Sharia law does not supersede any other law instituted anywhere.

This extends to any religion which ignores reason, science, and secular human values for their own set of myths and superstitions. Jesus, if he even existed, is not the “son of god.” Moses did not talk to a burning bush. Abraham did not hear the voice of god commanding him to kill his only son, Isaac.

Sam Harris: “If you wake up tomorrow morning thinking that saying a few Latin words is going to turn them into the body of Elvis Presley, you have lost your mind. But if you think more or less the same thing about a cracker and the body of Jesus, you’re just a Catholic.”

Religion deserves no somber respect. No set of lies and made up stories has ever achieved any kind of deferential reverence and veneration such as delusional religious beliefs. If I were to say to you, for instance, “well, The Kwisatz Haderach is capable of accessing all ancestral memories and possesses organic mental powers that can bridge space and time” or “The Lisan al-Gaib is prophesied to one day come from outer space to transform this world into a more peaceful world” then you would be, in all likelihood, what are you talking about? If I were to give you the book of Dune, written by Frank Herbert, and tell you solemnly that this is my holy book and that Herbert‘s words were directly revealed to him by the one and only Reverend Mother, then I have no right to be offended if you laugh at me and turn around and throw the book in the trash.

Hell does not exist. No afterlife exists. Jihad is violence in the name of power, not in the name of any god. No virgins await in paradise. Heaven is a made up place. I have no duty to seriously consider and defer to any claims of heaven or morals or the afterlife of any religion or of any of the three Abrahamic religions specifically.

In fact, I retain EVERY right to mock faith and point out inconsistencies and contradictions and resist fantasy at every opportunity. I have the right to drown out the voices of the street preachers with savage ridicule and contempt and with a mega horn if I so choose. If you are of an attitude of “Charlie Hebdo mocked and satirized my religion so maybe they brought this on themselves” then forget you, no, YOU brought mockery and satirization upon yourself when you persisted in believing in bronze age superstitions and myths handed down by illiterate goat herders.

How weak is your faith that you must persecute and kill those who make fun of your religion? Is your God that much of a paper tiger? People make fun of me all the time, for my appearance, for my voice, for any number of reason and I don’t declare a Jihad on them. How weak is your prophet that he needs YOU to defend or avenge him? Forget Mohammed if he can’t take a joke. Forget Jesus nailed up on the cross. Forget Moses and his harelip. “Hey Peter!” “What Master?” “I can see your house from here!” Forget you Peter, I hope you pissed on your own face when the Romans hung you upside down and put a fire under your head.

Cabu, the brilliant cartoonist and painter, was killed in the attack on Charlie Hebdo. The man was also an animator and a spot on political satirist on par with Gary Trudeau. Cabu had an only son, Mano Solo, who died almost 4 years ago to the date because of HIV complications. Mano was a haunting and beautiful singer/songwriter. I can imagine Cabu mourning the loss of his son and oblivious to the fact that religious forces would soon conspire against the ending of his own life.

Here is an unforgettable song by Mano Solo, I post this song in remembrance and in support of the victims of the Charlie Hebdo newspaper massacre: