Aohell

Dang Those Danes!

The recent publication of drawings of the Prophet Muhammad in Denmark has caused a worldwide outrage. Well, what did they expect?

It's not a case of freedom of speech, but of using "fighting words". Those aren't protected precisely because they disturb the peace.

Were I to insult one of your relatives and cast aspersions on your genetic heritage, implying miscegenation with animal strains, and to do so in language undignified, I would be right in expecting an eventual punch in the mouth. I would have had it coming to me because of my acting like a jerk and insulting you and your family. People react violently to certain words or images, and it's because they were intended to provoke.

The Muhammad drawings did just that. To hide behind the shelter of free speech is passive-aggressive behavior at its worst. I say that because insisting this is something they should be tolerating has led to riots around the world which have claimed lives.

I do not want to produce something that will enrage people to the point where they take someone else's life. That is wrong. It is not free speech, but irresponsible speech - criminally irresponsible. And it's not just Muslims who can lose their tempers. There are Christians in the anti-abortion movement willing to kill doctors who perform abortions. There are Jewish settlers in Palestine willing to assassinate Israeli leaders who seem likely to hand back land to Arabs. This all goes deeper, if you'd like me to go there.

This is not to say religion is evil. It isn't. But there are people who take their religion so seriously that they will react violently to major blasphemies. Yes, there are those who deplore blasphemies and move on with their lives, but there are many, many more willing to kill those who gravely affront their beliefs.

I do not support the Danish artists who behaved so irresponsibly in their offensive acts. I do not support people who stir up trouble with insulting, insensitive remarks, especially when they know what kind of response those acts, those words, those images, will generate. It's not free speech when others pay for it in blood.