9/11 Anniversary Statement

Dr. Ed Buckner, President of American Atheists, issued the following statement to commemorate the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and the pressing issue of religious intolerance:

"Thomas Edison, son of New Jersey, famously said 'Religion is all bunk.' We strongly agree and vigorously oppose the folly encouraged by religions at every turn. But, as the ninth anniversary of a deadly attack in the name of the god they followed, by religionists, on America approaches, we want to be an equal opportunity condemner of violence and injury done in the name of any religion.

"We wholeheartedly deplore Christian pastor Terry Jones of Gainesville as he prepares either to burn Qur'ans or not burn them as extortion for changes he wants, because we insist that all 'holy' books are better read than burned, because Bibles and Qur'ans alike are full of outrageous nonsense along with whatever good and true things human beings may have written in them. Book-burning must remain legal but should be avoided by decent people. We demand that Christian leaders world-wide declare that pastor Jones is being indecent and false to their religion.

"We note that religion is not merely intellectually harmful (in the abstract), as we unreservedly oppose the barbaric notion of putting an accused adulterer to death, especially by stoning. We demand that Islamic leaders world-wide declare that the leaders in Iran who think it right to stone Sakineh Mohammdi Ashtiani are immoral and false to their religion.

"We vigorously oppose those intolerant Christians and Jews in the U.S. who are willing to ignore the First Amendment to the Constitution and oppose the location of a mosque only on religious or pseudo-religious grounds. We demand that Christian and Jewish leaders declare that any from their ranks who seek to deny religious liberty to Muslims or others deserve none for themselves.

"We confidently declare that freedom in general and free speech in particular are meaningless unless religious and anti-religious expression of all kinds are possible, no matter how rude or 'blasphemous' it may appear to adherents. If governments or violence can be used to prevent criticism or ridicule, then the followers in question have admitted that their beliefs and ideas are weak. We demand that Islamic leaders world-wide openly condemn efforts to make Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard or Dutch politician Geert Wilders live in fear because they dared to oppose or satirize Islam."

American Atheists Vice President and Communications Director Dave Silverman said that the 9/11 anniversary "should be a signal to all Americans to reflect on our constitutional freedoms, especially the fact that we have separation of church (or mosque, or temple and State)."