The right not to be offended
The French magazine Charlie Hebdo printed cartoons insulting to Islam. You know, the Danish cartoons from a year ago, those cartoons; and the Union of French Islamic Organisations and the Paris Grand Mosque is suing.
It was “born out of a simplistic Islamophobia as well as purely commercial interests”, says the UFIOaPGM.
OK protesters and lawsuit filers, once more, real slow… you say mean things about Christianity and Judaism all the time. And we don’t much like it, but in a free society, we let you say those things all you want. The bargain is this: in return we get to say anything we want about your religion, for any reason whatsoever. It’s up to you to make your religion respectable. Demanding respect (often under threat of legal action or even violence) doesn’t work. You can only get fear that way, not respect.
Or is fear all you were after? Sometimes looks that way.
- John Milton, Aereopagitica
Turkey likes to use fear to get respect as well. I was just listening to an NPR program about an author who wrote a fictional book about a topic that she can go to jail for. And some people in Turkey are even willing to kill over.
I think it has to do with an Armenian genocide or something. Oops! I wasn’t suppose to say genocide according to the Turkish government.
Just found the link: From NPR: Nobel Winner Searches for the Heart of Turkey
Yep, webs, there is indeed a law on the books in Turkey saying that to mention the Armenian “genocide” is an insult to Turkishness and is therefore forbidden. This is one of the sticking points against Turkey’s entry into the EU.