Free Speech

Submitted by Ferdinand Gajewski (United States), Feb 16, 2006 at 23:11

Is it anti-social and therefore sinful for Jews or Muslims, and particularly for Christians, to indulge their legitimate right to freedom of speech when: 1) the speech is uncharitable (if in doubt, Christians may refer to the Sermon on the Mount and St. Paul), 2) one has given sufficient reflection to one's action, and 3) one has given full consent of the will to the uncharitable utterance?

(When uncharitable expression comes from the mouths of the stupid, ignorant and mentally incompetent such persons are presumably not culpable in the eyes of the Most High.)

My initial post, incidentally, concerned abuse of Muslims in the West (please note the title) and did not intend to consider Muslim abuse of the West.

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".