Freedom of Speech vs. What Now?

CNN is reporting that this most recent dust-up between muslims and newspapers is, and I quote "being portrayed as a battle between freedom of speech and respect for religious beliefs."

Whoever is portraying it that way is being too kind to the folks in the "don't draw Mohammed" camp. What we have here is a battle between Freedom of Speech and Tyranny.

If you point guns at people to make stop saying something, you are not demanding "respect for religion." You are an aspiring tyrant, using the threat of force to shut the mouths of those over whom you wish to rule.

Take a page from the Mormons -- we (I am one, in case you missed it) have been maligned in the press for longer than our Church has been around. We've had notables like Mark Twain and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle badmouth us. Anti-mormon literature isn't just the pamphlets you might get from activists -- it's actual LITERATURE, like you might find on a high-school reading list. And much of it is far, far more sacrilegious than any picture could be.

But we didn't point guns at anybody when we asked for retractions. No, we've worked for a long time now to foster respect by respecting the rights of others to believe what they will, and asking them politely to cut it out when they're mean to us. We understand that without freedom of religion and freedom of speech there wouldn't be a Mormon left alive anywhere.

If the peaceable followers of Mohammed can't get that much straight, if they can't NOT threaten westerners with kidnapping, and point guns at people who don't subscribe to their beliefs, then they have no business participating in global government, much less western European societies.

I'm not going to advocate a violent response, as emotionally satisfying as it might be. No, I think Chris Muir has the right idea: buy Danish products. The muslim boycott of Danish goods is a very acceptable form of protest, and NON-muslims who believe free speech is more important than respect for religious tyranny (calling it what it is) can offset that boycott by going out and buying some nice Havarti.

Which, now that I think about it, is also very satisfying. If I had to choose between turning Palestine into a smoking crater or eating a chunk of Havarti, I'd choose the Havarti EVERY TIME.