Freedom of speech IS the right to offend

Submitted by Dinther (New Zealand), Feb 1, 2008 at 18:17

Maxime Verhagen does not understand what freedom of speech means, and I suspect never really thought about that concept of freedom.

Offence is always in the eye of the beholder and can not be avoided when there is freedom of speech. Even if the beholder is a population of millions muslims. There simply is no freedom of speech at all if it is not allowed to offend anyone.

Someone WILL always be offended.
If nobody can take offence by what you say then it is not worth saying under the freedom of speech banner.

It just blows my mind that a country that for decades has offered a refuge and place to live for millions of muslims is now held to ransom by the same people.

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