I have never heard of anyone in the developed world who would be afraid to criticize Al-Qaeda or the Taliban or Isis. Actually I have never heard anyone NOT criticize them when talking about them.
We do criticize them. A lot. But there are certain boundaries where people get scared.
Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses is the key example. Many refuse to translate it. It used to take courage for book stores to sell it.
It’s a bit weird how this became the cause for religious extemists. It’s not a hateful book. It received good reviews in Riyahd and Tehran when first published.
But I’m old enough to remember bookstores refusing to sell it. Multiple translators have been killed.
A similar line exists with visually depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
People get killed over this.
ChatGPT won’t show an image of the Sultan Mehmet II, but has no such qualms about the Sultan Sulieman the Magnificient.
I can’t get it to depict anyone named Muhammad, can you?
