The Twilight of Freedom of Speech

[Meta Blog]

The West's current failure to staunchly defend our freedom to speak and criticize is explained by the injunction to love our enemies.

By Onkar Ghate

To fathom our government's contemptible treatment of a handful of unbowed journalists, you must see the roots of that treatment in the moral ideal Christianity bequeathed the West.

In the face of the intimidation and murder of European authors, film makers and politicians by Islamic militants, a few European newspapers have the courage to defend their freedom of speech: they publish twelve cartoons to test whether it's still possible to criticize Islam. They discover it isn't. Muslims riot, burn embassies, and demand the censorship and death of infidels. The Danish cartoonists go into hiding; if they weren't afraid to speak before, they are now.

http://ObjectivismOnline.com/blog/archives/000636.html

[dark_unicorn]

<strong>The West's current failure to staunchly defend our freedom to speak and criticize is explained by the injunction to love our enemies.</strong>

<em>

By Onkar Ghate</em>

To fathom our government's contemptible treatment of a handful of unbowed journalists, you must see the roots of that treatment in the moral ideal Christianity bequeathed the West.

In the face of the intimidation and murder of European authors, film makers and politicians by Islamic militants, a few European newspapers have the courage to defend their freedom of speech: they publish twelve cartoons to test whether it's still possible to criticize Islam. They discover it isn't. Muslims riot, burn embassies, and demand the censorship and death of infidels. The Danish cartoonists go into hiding; if they weren't afraid to speak before, they are now.

http://ObjectivismOnline.com/blog/archives/000636.html

It's a shame that moral cowardice is still par for the course, and that the few who have the courage to speak up against what is obviously a disease in the heart of the middle-east find themselves alone and staring down the barrel of a gun. Unfortunately these days in order to have a right to free speech, you also need to be packing heat.