Flemming Rose Quotes
What is one man's hate speech is another man's poetry.
Rose, Flemming. The Tyranny of Silence: How One Cartoon Ignited a Global Debate on the Future of Free Speech. Cato Institute, 2014.
In September of 2005 a Danish Newspaper published some political cartoons showing the hypocrisy of some Muslims who use Islam to justify murder of innocents and terrorism. Months later, many in the Middle East protested vehemently and Muslim riots broke out because the Prophet Muhammad's visage was depicted against Islamic tradition. Many Muslim leaders claimed that insulting religion was an “abuse” of freedom of speech including those from nations which regularly publish material that is virulent against Christians and Jews.
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.
Flemming Rose is a Danish journalist, author and Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. He previously served as foreign affairs editor at the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. As culture editor of the same newspaper, he was principally responsible for the September 2005 publication of the cartoons that initiated the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy early the next year, and since then he has been an international advocate of the freedom of speech.
