Judith Butler Quotes
In the US the problem has been, for instance, that Nazis have rights of free expression, right? But other kinds of racist speech is not protected. And you have to link the speech to conduct or to a certain kind of threat against minority population. I know that in Europe, this kind of framework doesn't exist in the same way so it's very difficult to make the analogy.
Butler, Judith. "Reconfiguring Political Discourse." Interview by Harry Kreisler. Conversations with History, Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley, 21 Mar. 2006.
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,
The Grammar Curmudgeon
Islamic modernists like Serageldin are many among the educated Muslims but their views are often drowned out by the violence and extremist statements of the fundamentalists. This quotation is similar to statements by American Supreme Court Justices but surprises us when coming from a Muslim. But there are many who are as much committed to freedom of speech as most Americans. Even in America, some politicians have tried to make incitement a crime. John Adams’ Alien & Sedition Acts and laws of WWi are examples. However, in no Islamic nation have reformers had incitement removed as a crime as of 2011.
The 1st Amendment is almost absolute in its protection of speech. However, ironically the Untied States has much less internecine conflict with minorities better off than the nations where hate speech is illegal and criminal.
This is a typical statement of human rights policy by many countries. Essentially, some controlling authority states that rights are guaranteed except when it is “dangerous” or contrary to the country’s “best interest”. Of course then anything the authorities want to censor is classified so that it is an exception. To be a right, it must be guaranteed even when hateful, insulting and/or dangerous.
Judith Pamela Butler is an American philosopher and gender theorist whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminist, queer, and literary theory. In 1993, Butler began teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, where they have served, beginning in 1998, as the Maxine Elliot Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature and the Program of Critical Theory. They are also the Hannah Arendt Chair at the European Graduate School.
