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Slandering Muhammad Is Not a Crime

Carl469 Wrote: Oct 03, 2012 10:54 PM

There is no "duty" of individual self-censorship except in a police state. Why should I have to censor myself every time there is the slightest possibility someone might be "offended?" Tough luck. I don't call for restrictions on the speech of others any more than I call upon them to restrict mine. Yelling "fire" in a crowded theater isn't a good analogy. The sole purpose of such yelling is to trigger a panic. By contrast, criticizing (or "mocking") Islam, the critic isn't trying to create a chaotic situation in the present moment.

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Slandering Muhammad Is Not a Crime

Addressing the U.N. General Assembly last week, President Barack Obama tried to explain this strange attachment that Americans have to freedom of speech. He was handicapped by his attraction to a moral principle whose dangers the journalist Jonathan Rauch presciently highlighted in his 1993 book, "Kindly Inquisitors": "Thou shalt not hurt others with words."

During the past few weeks, the widespread, often violent and sometimes deadly protests against "Innocence of Muslims," a laughably amateurish trailer for a seemingly nonexistent film mocking the Prophet Muhammad, have demonstrated the alarming extent to which citizens of Muslim countries -- including peaceful moderates,...

Related Tags: Free Speech United Nations Political Correctness Radical Islam Crime Barack Obama Muhammed Radical Muslims