Friday 13 February 2009

Religion and free speech

In the light of the Geert Wilders controversy, it's well worth reading this defence of the right to criticise religious belief from Johann Hari.

1 comment:

KelvinKid said...

According to Politics Home the Wenders issue has unusually polarised Lib Dems 50/50. We appear to be a microcosm of that. I see no reason to ban criticism of religion but that does not mean that all criticism is acceptable. You wrote on the comment stream to the previous post about his film Fitna "I agree that it is anti-Islamic propaganda and as such it is repugnant. But it doesn't incite violence." Sorry Bernard, I think that is naive. This film does not explicitly advocate violence, it has no third-party commentary for one thing. However, by editing together images in an emotive way, I think it clearly intends to foment both hatred and violence. You seem worried by a slippery slope, I am worried about evident racism. On balance, I think our democracy is sound enough to ban Wenders without harming itself.

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