I've been trolling around the blogosphere, and it seems these Danish cartoons continue to take up a lot of people's time and effort. The argument rages: free speech or provocation? Blasphemy or meaningless scribble?
Herewith, my final word on these things--at least until somebody issues a fatwa on me.
I've heard just about enough people saying variants of "I believe in free speech, but...."
No, you don't. You either believe in free speech, or you don't. For speech to be truly free, it must not be limited--by definition!--to things of which you approve.
This saw cuts several ways. Many human rights tribunals have trampled on people's right to free speech--to say out loud, for example, that the Holocaust was a fable. In a truly sane society, we would issue no sanctions on people who said such things, merely expose them for the fools they are. For no matter what they may believe, there is enough documentary evidence to the contrary.
Likewise, in a country which believes in freedom of speech, we each one of us have the right to talk about God--to say "My God is great" and "your God sucks the big hairy one". I happen to believe that any God that sanctions killing another human being because of scribbles on paper sucks the hairy rigid phallus of Satan. (I'm speaking metaphorically: I don't believe in Satan, myself.) But I'll say that out loud to anyone who asks; I've just written it here.
I'm sorry to say this, but it really is only Muslim extremists who get worked up like this. Non-extremists--the vast majority--of Muslims might be insulted by a depiction of their Prophet (may all peace and blessing be upon him), but they won't burn a building or decapitate a stranger over it. No, their attitude is probably more akin to what devout Christians feel when they consider Sunday shopping or what devout Jews feel when they think about eating shellfish, or what Jehovah's Witnesses feel when they think about blood transfusions. These are all blasphemies under somebody's code of ethics, but they're all perfectly normal things in this society, and you don't see protests, let alone riots, because of them.
I think it very important for extremists and non-extremists alike to consider why those cartoons were penned in the first place...just as I think it very important for people in Western democracies to consider why 9/11 was, in some eyes, entirely justified. Extremists of each faith--Muslim or Yankee-Doodle-Dandyism--won't bother, of course. They lack peripheral vision. But that shouldn't stop the rest of us.
1 comment:
Hey Ken. I agree with you re: free speech. It is either an absolute right, or no right at all. Noam Chomsky once defended a holocaust denier saying in a free society he has a right to say it. He didn't agree with what he said, but more rational people understand that freedom of speech doesn't mean everyone has to agree with what is said.
That being said, for me, this was never an issue of freedom of speech. Ezra Levant had all the right in the world to print the cartoon. The question for me was always, should he have?
Good post. I too am done talking about this :) Back to peak oil and climate change for me. And maybe some more basketball.
Post a Comment