Thursday, January 8, 2015

Defending free speech is defending Western Civilization and Human Rights

I don't agree with a lot of Charlie Hebdo's politics, and its cartoons tend to be over the top and offensive not only to Muslims, but Jews and Christians too. Jews and Christians shrug it off. Muslims, certainly these Islamist Terrorists, not so much. Like the Anchoress, I defend Charlie Hebdo's right to offend. We can not allow ourselves to self censor in fear of these radicals, we need to defeat them.  

So if Charlie Hebdo cartoons are not your taste, the Anchoress has a selection of classics:

Botticelli, Mohammed in Hell (illustration from Dante's Inferno)
Is Mohammed in hell?
I hope not. I wouldn’t wish damnation on anyone, and with God all things are possible. Even the perpetrators of yesterday’s slaughter are capable of being forgiven when, God willing, they are swiftly found and just as swiftly sent on their way to the afterlife.
But as we face this endless war–and it is a war, with every computer and newspaper and city a battleground–we must not yield to intimidation and threats.
And for now, that we means we must offend.
The New Yorker did a good commentary too: Who to blame for the Charlie Hebdo attacks:
But the murders in Paris were so specific and so brazen as to make their meaning quite clear. The cartoonists died for an idea. The killers are soldiers in a war against freedom of thought and speech, against tolerance, pluralism, and the right to offend—against everything decent in a democratic society. So we must all try to be Charlie, not just today but every day.
Folks on the left love to bring up how in the West the Catholic Church tried to suppress thought and free speech.  Most of their examples go back to hundreds of years, but we got beyond that with the Enlightenment. Our Constitution is a reflection of the concept that people have the natural and unalienable right to think and say what they want. You are not free unless you can say and think what you want. To those on the left who want to engage in relativism on Islamic violence, you have completely missed the point. I do not care what Muslims think. They are free to practice their faith, provided it does not interfere with me. You deal with attacks like this by responding back with appropriate and directed force to destroy those who would destroy us.

Mark Steyn/Hot Air: Charlie Hebdo was a target due to Media cowardice


Mark Steyn: The Fire Rages and I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees
TOM: Muslim Fanatic Anjem Choudary defends attacks on Charlie Hebdo
Instapundit: Christopher Hitchens on today's Paris massacre
Instapundit: Show some backbone (people on the front lines in the middle east are doing so)
AoSHQ: For shame Bill Donahue
Lem's Place/Chip Ahoy: Je suis Charlie
AmPowBlog: First photos of Charlie Hebdo
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