how do you differentiate freedom of speech from license to insult? You can't.
I can say George Bush is a big fat idiot -- and that's my opinion. I'm sure he would be insulted if he read what I wrote, but that's okay -- he doesn't have to agree with me. Nobody does. It's what I personally think.
Ditto for religion. I can say the Koran is a good book, the Bible, too -- just like Alice in Wonderland and Gulliver's Travels and a bunch of other good books I have read. I might enjoy reading the stories in them, and I might find some personal insight among their tales (but perhaps not - maybe I think they're all a bunch of baloney) -- but I don't have to revere them and honor them. YOU do that if you feel that way about them, but I don't have to follow suit.
THAT is freedom to criticise religion.
(And THAT is also why the Danish newspapers and cartoonists will forever have my undying respect and gratitude! Kudos to them for pissing off a lot of people to prove the point that nothing should be above criticism.)
how do you differentiate freedom of speech from license to insult? You can't.
I can say George Bush is a big fat idiot -- and that's my opinion. I'm sure he would be insulted if he read what I wrote, but that's okay -- he doesn't have to agree with me. Nobody does. It's what I personally think.
Ditto for religion. I can say the Koran is a good book, the Bible, too -- just like Alice in Wonderland and Gulliver's Travels and a bunch of other good books I have read. I might enjoy reading the stories in them, and I might find some personal insight among their tales (but perhaps not - maybe I think they're all a bunch of baloney) -- but I don't have to revere them and honor them. YOU do that if you feel that way about them, but I don't have to follow suit.
THAT is freedom to criticise religion.
(And THAT is also why the Danish newspapers and cartoonists will forever have my undying respect and gratitude! Kudos to them for pissing off a lot of people to prove the point that nothing should be above criticism.)