This Friday, you’ll see the Illini Secular Student Alliance out on the Quad, touting our nonbelief in broad daylight and encouraging others to do the same. We’ll be celebrating Blasphemy Day, an international holiday established a few years back in recognition of the 2005 controversy surrounding a Danish newspaper’s depiction of the Prophet Muhammad.

So, what will we be doing on the Quad? Are we looking for trouble or seeking to convert others to the secular persuasion? Far from it! We’ll be out enjoying the same fundamental right our religious counterparts practice in the same location almost daily … the right to free speech!

Illini Secular Student Alliance members will be inviting passersby to add their own blasphemous ideas to our “Wall of Blasphemy” poster and to sell their souls for tasty, tasty cookies. Our goal is not only to raise awareness about nonbelief and nonbelievers on campus, but to illustrate the importance of First Amendment rights, no matter the topic of one’s speech.

It goes without saying that not everyone who encounters our activities will enjoy them. Perhaps some students might even condemn us, and that’s okay. We realize that we’re a minority — that’s the very reason we need to make our voices heard. We hope to demonstrate how fortunate you and I are to live in a country where such behavior is legal, when so many countries worldwide have laws condemning those who publicly state their nonbelief (or, frequently, simply the wrong belief) to death.

So stop by our table this Friday, even if you don’t intend to participate, and feel free to speak to us about anything you like. It’s your right, too!

*Max McKittrick,*

Illini Secular Student Alliance Member