What do you do to the people who hurt you with words?

Submitted by Gary (United States), Jan 19, 2011 at 22:28

Dear Dr Pipes: Your reader Sadia from Canada has correctly said that freedom of expression can often be misused as freedom to abuse. The question is not whether the Mohammed cartoons were hurtful or not. They must certainly have been hurtful to Muslims. The point, however, is different and I hope that Sadia or some other of your readers can be convinced to understand it.

The point is what should a civilized society do to the people who hurt with their spoken word? Should they be killed? I hope readers Sadia and her brethrens can understand that killing people for their beliefs is not a good idea. Salman Rushdie said it the best when he said that there cannot be a freedom of expression without a freedom to offend because no matter what you say, you are bound to offend some one or the other. A lot of Islamic literature brands a lot of people who have done no crimes as infidels or sinners. To some this branding appears like a religious doctrine. To others it is abusive. But no one should be killed for it.

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