France: Artist Sparks Near Riot After Projecting Koran Verses Onto Bridge

Muslims are downright amazing, aren't they?

If the real Mohammed were to time travel to this century and he met up with a pack of wild Muslims, they'd probably accuse him of blasphemy, tear him limb from limb, put his severed head on a stake, and march it through the public square on international television.

From AFP:

A Moroccan artist on Wednesday suspended one of his works from a major arts festival in southern France after his projections of Islamic calligraphy onto a bridge nearly set off a riot when local Muslim youths saw pedestrians walking on the words. 

Mounir Fatmi’s exhibit at the month-long “Printemps de Septembre” art festival in Toulouse was meant to be shown at weekends, when cordons would be in place to insure the projections could not be walked on, as this is considered blasphemous by Muslims. 

But late on Tuesday the video, made up of stylised calligraphy of verses from the Koran and “Hadiths” (sayings) of the Prophet Mohammed, was projected – by mistake – onto the city’s busy Pont Neuf. 

According to Toulouse Police, the reaction was rapid. Up to 80 young people, many called in from the city’s housing estates, gathered on the bridge to stop pedestrians from treading on the verses. 

One woman was slapped after she accidentally walked onto the projection, police said, although some protesters claimed she had deliberately provoked them. 

Police sent in a riot squad, but a local imam and representatives of the Muslim community went to the scene and successfully appealed for calm.

But wait, there's more:

University atheist society ordered out of freshers’ fair for displaying ‘blasphemous’ pineapple called Mohammed

• Reading union staff claimed fruit caused ‘distress and upset’ to other students
• University accused of ‘pandering to the hurt feelings of the devout’

From the  Daily Mail: 

Offending fruit: An atheist society at Reading University were ejected from the freshers’ fair after displaying a pineapple labelled with the name of the Prophet Mohammed

A group of atheist students were thrown out of their freshers’ fair because they included a pineapple labelled ‘Mohammed’ on their stall.

The Reading University Atheist, Humanist and Secularist Society (RAHS) said they wanted to celebrate free speech and promote their upcoming debate ‘Should we respect religion?’

But they were ordered to remove the offending fruit by union staff who said their actions were causing ‘upset and distress’ to a number of Muslim students and other societies.

RAHS refused, citing that they had labelled the pineapple after the Islamic prophet to ‘encourage discussion about blasphemy, religion, and liberty’.

A spokesman said: ‘We wanted to celebrate the fact that we live in a country in which free speech is protected and where it is lawful to call a pineapple by whatever name one chooses.’