New in PJ Media:
Most of us outside of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its friends agree that the stabbing attack on Salman Rushdie for having a less than fulsomely positive view of Islam’s prophet was wholly unjustified and that violence is never an appropriate response to words one considers offensive. Some analysts, however, are insisting that Rushdie crossed an unacceptable line, and while he shouldn’t have been stabbed, people should be more circumspect in exercising their freedom of speech.
In Minnesota’s Star Tribune Tuesday, Omar Alansari-Kreger asserted that “we share a civic responsibility to use our First Amendment rights to build bridges rather than reinforce divisions.” And in The American Conservative (TAC) Thursday, Michael Warren Davis unequivocally denounced Rushdie and presented a full-throated case for the idea that “free speech has limits—legal, yes, but also moral.” So: did Rushdie have it coming?
Davis states his case in simple and direct terms: “If someone insults your mother, you clock him. As a man, at least, there’s really nothing else you can do. It may not be strictly legal, but it’s perfectly honorable. Conversely, if you don’t want to get clocked, don’t insult anyone’s mother. Legally, he may be in the wrong. Morally, though, he’s right.” While this is a viscerally compelling argument, before you haul off and punch somebody, allow me to point out that as a man there may be plenty of other things you can do if someone insults your mother. A man is or should be much more than just a lout who goes around slugging people in response to insults. Right now, Catholics aren’t running around punching people because someone insultingly compared the rosary to an assault rifle.
If someone insults your mother, you can respond with your own insult. You can make a joke. You can leave. You can ignore it. Davis might insist that none of these are masculine responses, but then he claims that free speech has “moral” limits, and he seems to be a follower of the one who said: “If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matthew 5:39). Was the one who said that not a man?
The assumption that there is only one possible response to insult, and that is violence, is an echo of the jihadist assertion that he is tacitly defending (so it’s no surprise that he is defending it because he agrees with it). Iran recently responded to the Rushdie stabbing by saying it was his own fault for insulting Islam. Many jihadis speak about their attacks as if they were forced to do them and bear no responsibility; the victim bears all the responsibility because he or she insulted Islam.
There is more. Read the rest here.
Pray Hard says
In the eyes of moslems, we all have it coming.
somehistory says
and they would like nothing better than to give “it” to us. They are foaming at the mouth and champing at the bit to do just that.
gravenimage says
Too true.
tim gallagher says
The obvious thing is that it is only Muslims who carry on like the barbarians that they are and violently attack and kill people who exercise the basic right, in our civilised non-Muslim societies, to freedom of speech and criticise some aspect of islam. I cannot remember a Christian, a Buddhist or Hindu attacking people for criticising those religions. Islam’s primitive, barbaric attitude means that it can never fit into civilised societies. It is too intolerant and far too violent to ever fit in. “Did Rushdie have it coming?” Of course not. The problem is islam. It needs to be kept in its own crappy backward parts of the world. Meanwhile, the civilised people of the world can go on freely expressing their opinions without having to bother about the barbarians and their shitty religious ideology..
somehistory says
Tim, i agree that only mozlums react in this way.
I have been spit on, and had water turned on me, sprinkler and hose, and had dogs sicced on me when people heard me say something from the Bible that they didn’t like. and I never even threatened to retaliate, much less went on a stabbing rampage.
I know of some kids who had a gun pulled on them because they told a guy they were Christians. Neither they nor their parents did anything in return. All of this was worse than just saying something or writing a book.
Jesus said that those who are “peaceable” would receive a blessing and Paul wrote, “as far as it depends upon you, be peaceable with all men.”
Christians don’t retaliate against personal attacks, much less go out a-killing when some other person writes a book criticizing Christianity or mocking it.
Any person who did so and still claimed to be Christian, would be going against what Christ told us to do; but mozlums are commanded not to let anything ‘pass by’ without a fight, and a murder if possible
tim gallagher says
Sorry to hear about the trouble you had, somehistory. It takes courage to get out there and say things in public. Yeah, islam is nothing but trouble. It is totally intolerant of any person who criticises any aspect of islam and it doesn’t belong in any civilised country. It amazes me when I hear people still saying that islam is OK and it is peaceful. Everybody should have woken up by now because, by now, there is so much evidence of the violence that is produced by islam’s rotten and intolerant attitude.
somehistory says
thank you, Tim. It was not easy, but it was validation of what Jesus said would happen to those who love Him and try to follow Him.
I don’t think of it very often, but your comment stirred my memory.
Yes, by now the entire world should know that islam is only out to hurt, to take and to destroy the rest of us. I believe fear is one reason more people don’t acknowledge the dangers inherent in having mozlums in the communities, and a large number of people like to assume that everyone is just like them…maybe a little selfish, but not to the point of murder over nothing.
gravenimage says
Fine exchange, Tim and Somehistory.
tim gallagher says
Thanks, gravenimage. It is certainly a very slow process getting the vast majority of people in all our western countries to wake up to islam’s evil and totally intolerant nature. I’m hoping that it will happen some day.
gravenimage says
Me too, Tim. The biggest problem now, though, is not simple ignorance, but *willful ignorance*, which is much more difficult to deal with.
gravenimage says
Did Rushdie Have It Coming?
………………………..
Many–perhaps most–Muslims believe that he did. How many Muslims have championed Rushdie’s right to write whatever he wants without fear of murder? I cannot recall seeing *any* Muslim say this. The best we’ve gotten is some Muslims who imply that actually murdering Rushdie may be a slight overreaction–which still affirms that the normal Muslim reaction to anyone daring to say anything critical of Islam is unhinged rage.
And then we have the dhimmi thugs like Michael Warren Davis, who seem pretty fine with crushing freedom of speech if someone deems it “blasphemy”.
And note that this creep violates his own supposed stances–he has claimed that if you say anything insulting to someone’s mother that they have the right to physically assault you. Yet he himself has said that no woman should have the right to vote–surely *this* is insulting? Yet I doubt that Davis would be fine with the adult children of these millions of women slugging him in the mouth.
As is so often with those who want to crush freedoms, they just assume that the victims will be someone other than themselves. Never mind that if Islam really gets the upper hand in the West that fools like Davis–a Christian, and certainly not Muslim–will be persecuted just as will those who actually speak out against the horrors of Islam.
somehistory says
“fools like Davis-a Christian” I have to disagree with that. A Christian does what Jesus did to the best of his abiliity…as the Bible says, “He left a model for you to follow His steps closely.”
Jesus never “clocked anyone for insulting His mother,” nor did He say it was acceptable to do so; and instead, said, “Turn the other cheek.”
This davis clown doesn’t have “good fruit” that a Christian should produce. He may claim to be as many others do, but a “rotten tree produces rotten fruit.”
gravenimage says
Somehistory, I thought about writing “who calls himself a Christian”–that would have been more accurate.
Pope Francis also said that he’d punch anyone who insulted his mother–he used to be a nightclub bouncer, and it shows.
Of course, this thuggery is *anything but Christian*.
somehistory says
g, I figured since the pope said it, this guy thinks he can say it too and still appear to be one of the good guys. It doesn’t work that way, and a True Christian knows it. A real Christian follows Christ, not some guy behind high walls who doesn’t know Christ, but blathers about what is ‘right.’
gravenimage says
+1
Derek says
We have all accepted the status of a dhimmi by tolerating their onslaught, and paying them toll tax by way of jizia (with all governments sponsoring their institutions from our tax payers money), in submission. So having accepted that role as specified in the Qoran, it logically follows that we have given up or acquiesced to the qoranic way of life and dare not speak against Allah and his prophet.
Having said that, it is so obvious that the mullahs are using qoran only as an excuse to test the strength of the rest of the world and their lack of will to fight for what is right.
James Lincoln says
Derek says,
“…it is so obvious that the mullahs are using qoran only as an excuse to test the strength of the rest of the world and their lack of will to fight for what is right.”
Yes, Derek.
The West is being “stressed tested” by islamic world leaders in order to find either:
1. The point of failure.
or
2. The point of pushback.
somehistory says
“Rushdie stabbing ‘crime that Islam doesn’t accept’ – Muslim World League chief”
“The stabbing of author Salman Rushdie was “a crime that Islam does not accept,” Muslim World League Secretary-General Dr. Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Al-Issa said on Sunday in an interview with Saudi Arabian news outlet Arab News.
““Islam is against violence and can never admit any method of violence. Religious and intellectual issues, including phrases that may read in full or partly as offensive, cannot never be dealt with in these violent ways.”
Muslim World League Secretary-General Dr. Muhammad bin Abdul Karim al-Issa”
Source: TheJerusalem Post
somehistory says
“Al-Issa is not only the head of the Muslim World League, but also the president of the International Islamic Halal Organization and the former Saudi Justice Minister. Because of his standing in the Muslim world, American political figures praised the importance of his statements on the attack on Rushdie, which was motivated by Islamic extremism.”
gravenimage says
Thanks for that link, Somehistory.
Al-Issa is supposed to be a proponent of “moderate Islam”, but he’s the Minster of Justice in barbaric Saudi Arabia enforcing brutal Shari’ah law.
Here’s some of his Taqiyya from this article:
“Islam is against violence and can never admit any method of violence. Religious and intellectual issues, including phrases that may read in full or partly as offensive, cannot never be dealt with in these violent ways”.
Of course, this is utter bs. Saudi Arabia criminalizes “insulting religion”–Islam. That is *exactly* what Salman Rushdie has been accused of.
Just last year–under Al-Issa–a Yemeni journalist was sentenced to 15 years in prison for apostacy when he was accused of criticizing the “Prophet” Muhammed. I guess this is “moderate” because he wasn’t beheaded and crucified, the usual penalty. But there was no evidence presented and no witnesses.
I doubt Rushdie would have fared well in Saudi Arabia…