Freedom of expression in the West is hokum, I say. It's hypocrisy dressed up as high virtue. Worse still, it is now used as a missile aimed mainly at Muslims. <\/p>\n
Freedoms are sacred and easily snatched by the powerful and it is a blessing to live in a country where prime ministers and princes are berated with impunity. Authoritarian states, like Saudi Arabia and China, remain unenlightened because they suppress the human voice. But I also believe that freedom without responsibility amounts to anarchy. <\/p>\n
As do those European nations which have collectively agreed that Holocaust denial is an offence, that minorities should be protected from hate speech and that individuals have the right to privacy. Quite a list of limitations, eh? Libertarians proclaiming freedom of expression as an absolute, non-negotiable Western value say nothing on those restrictions. <\/p>\n
If that manifesto was real, Kate Middleton would have to put up and shut up about those pictures, David Irving, the anti-Semitic historian, would be allowed to publish his revolting spiel and not be imprisoned, as he was in 2006 in Austria, and we would have no libel or defamation laws. <\/p>\n
None of that is permitted, because in good societies there have to be curbs on what can be said, published or broadcast and sometimes freedom has to give way. <\/p>\n
With Muslims, there is no restraint, or even fairness. Charlie Hebdo, the satirical magazine in France which printed demeaning cartoons of Prophet Mohamed, wanted trouble, so its editor could appear a really big man. <\/p>\n
And because many Muslims are instantly and irrationally aroused to extreme frenzy, he expected it all to go off and his magazine to make money and martyrs. <\/p>\n
Well, it didn't happen. French Muslims were banned from demonstrating, denied that democratic right. The anti-Islam internet film made by some dodgy Americans (we think) got the fire and fury it wanted. Throngs came out, people died, for no good reason, on either side. <\/p>\n
Muslims need to calm down, grow up, learn to debate and become more self-aware. Western liberals who feel they have a duty to incite Muslims need self-awareness too and a bit of honesty. They don't provoke Jews, Hindus, or Christians to test their liberalism. <\/p>\n
We have recently had a lot of Salman Rushdie. A memoir, hagiographic TV programme, a film of Midnight's Children, luvvie tributes have affirmed his eminence. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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\nFreedom of speech an ideal to be revered but restrained<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"