Islam does not accept criticism by tradition - really?

Anyone who thinks that the religion of Islam does not accept criticism by tradition should read this article:

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/islamic-history-is-full-of-free-thinkers--but-recent-attempts-to-suppress-critical-thought-are-verging-on-the-absurd-9993777.html

I have met lots of Muslims in the the course of my work and my family have Muslim friends. All of them are horrified at what happened to the French journalists and Jewish people who were killed in the recent attacks in Paris.

Some of my Muslim friends are not Muslims at all as they are atheists or agnostics but they are reluctant to admit this to their families. I have worked with apostate Muslim colleagues who ignore Ramadan: in the UK and Western Europe they have the perfect right to do so. This right must be defended. Equally the right to worship and to hold the belief in a faith must be defended too.

Only a secular society can defend everyone's  right to have freedom of conscience. The opponents of a secular society would do well to consider this. There has been terrible religious repression in Western Europe throughout history; even Christians have been at each others throats. Western European society has had a terrible history and bigots of all kinds have murdered Jews, Muslims and non-believers with equal vigour. Nazism was a kind of religious fervour  - Adolf Hitler was impressed by mysticism.

To achieve peace there is a trade off: the religious must accept the rights of the non-religious to criticise belief in a God and religious worship. Murdering people who do not have the same beliefs as you is totally unacceptable and the secular society must be defended at all costs to protect the rights of everyone.