Natan Sharansky Quotes
A simple way to determine whether the right to dissent in a particular society is being upheld is to apply the town square test: Can a person walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm? If he can, then that person is living in a free society. If not, it's a fear society.
Natan Sharansky, Russian Dissident & Israeli Writer and Politician, The Case for Democracy, 2004
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
She was defending the right various media to display cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad which were very offensive to orthodox and traditional Muslims, many of whom had rioted in countries the world over. Many media outlets thought the cartoons too offensive to be displayed; others were too intimidated to display the cartoons and some displayed them anyway. Ali, born and brought up as a Muslim was one of the relatively few of that religion to defend the right of the publishers,
Danish fundamentalist Muslim Groups were demonstrating, protesting, and threatening Danes who wrote or published cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed. Other Europeans who had committed what Muslims thought to be blasphemy had been attacked and even murdered by Muslim fundamentalists. Led by Nasim Rahnama, some Danish Muslims, braved attack and possible death, and produced a petition of Muslims defending the right of freedom of publication. See {59932} & {59919}.
She had been jailed for “inciting to riot.” As she was released from prison thousands of well wishers greeted her.
Nixon’s views of free speech rights did not recognize the right of those who advocate revolution or government or system change in America. By his standard all of the Founding Fathers should not have been entitled to most of their early speeches. The Supreme Court repeatedly rejected his standard, distinguishing between speech to change or reform the government and illegal action to bring those changes about.
Ingersoll was considered to be the greatest orator and political thinker of his day, but his overt atheistic views curtailed his elected political career.
Natan Sharansky is an Israeli politician, human rights activist, and author who, as a refusenik in the Soviet Union during the 1970s and 1980s, spent nine years in Soviet prisons. He served as Chair of the Executive of the Jewish Agency from June 2009 to August 2018. Natan Sharansky currently serves as the Chairman of the Institute of the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) (www.isgap.org).
