But what happened to the idea that we may disapprove of his opinion but we will defend his right to say it? I mean, the ACLU used to defend the right of Nazis to parade through Jewish neighborhoods. I thought that was ridiculous, but I at least admired their consistency. Where's the love of freedom of speech now in those quarters?
Wouldn't it have been better to tell the Moslem world we think the man is a jerk and his opinion revolting, but in our country, he has a right to be and act like a jerk? And further, couldnt' we say we expect all Moslems to behave like civilized people and if some extremists respond with violence, we will handle them with force, too? Wouldn't it have been better to assert that we will not be driven to abandon our freedom of speech because violent extremists claiming to defend the honor of all Moslems threaten violence against us?
Couldn't we point out that we've noticed that burning the American flag is something of a national sport in some places, yet we haven't carpet bombed them into glassy fields?
And perhaps we could point out that whole trying to murder the Pope incident while he visited Britain? As a Catholic, I haven't gotten all overly excited and did not threaten to take my revenge on the nearest Moslem because some nutball Moslems tried to kill my Pope. Heck, given the IEDs and beheadings those nuts usually carry out, a nice calm Bible burning would be a nice change of pace.
Steyn put it well in this piece:
So just to clarify the ground rules, if you insult Christ, the media report the issue as freedom of expression: A healthy society has to have bold, brave, transgressive artists willing to question and challenge our assumptions, etc. But, if it’s Mohammed, the issue is no longer freedom of expression but the need for "respect" and "sensitivity" toward Islam, and all those bold brave transgressive artists don’t have a thing to say about it.
Sensitivity is strictly a one-way street, these days. If Voltaire had been a hopped-up, backwoods, jihadi, he would have said, "I disapprove of what you say, and I will defend myself by causing your death if you exercise your right to say it."
In the war between civilization and the barbarians, the barbarians are given too much of an edge by our elites.
