Muslims around the world are screaming about these cartoons, drawn in a Danish newspaper to test free speech.
I've come of age in a world where it is abundantly acceptable to blaspheme and grotesquely distort Jesus Christ. It makes me angry, and Muslims have every right to be angry about these cartoons. In fact, I expect them to be. My empathy runs out when they threaten censorship or violence. Free of speech is a two way street that allows for stronger ideas to advance. Occasionally, that means free speech is blasphemous or crude, but those forms of free speech should be defeated by better ideas, not by censorship or violence. After all, it is not the believer who will have to answer for it one day, it is the blasphemer, right? Still, Muslims around the world do not share that respect for the power of free speech. So today, as a good Norwegian grandson, I stand by the free speech of the Danes.
I've come of age in a world where it is abundantly acceptable to blaspheme and grotesquely distort Jesus Christ. It makes me angry, and Muslims have every right to be angry about these cartoons. In fact, I expect them to be. My empathy runs out when they threaten censorship or violence. Free of speech is a two way street that allows for stronger ideas to advance. Occasionally, that means free speech is blasphemous or crude, but those forms of free speech should be defeated by better ideas, not by censorship or violence. After all, it is not the believer who will have to answer for it one day, it is the blasphemer, right? Still, Muslims around the world do not share that respect for the power of free speech. So today, as a good Norwegian grandson, I stand by the free speech of the Danes.
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