Posted by
Adam Cassandra on Thursday, October 01, 2009 9:38:45 PM
Remember those Danish cartoons of
Muhammad? The ones that caused riots in Europe four years ago by
offended Muslims? (In case you don't, look below)
One of the cartoonists, Kurt Westergaard, spoke to a private group in
New York last night, and is scheduled to give a lecture at Yale
University tonight. Westergaard, who has received death threats from
irate Muslims since publishing his cartoon, believes that he is
fighting a "just cause."
In an interview, Westergaard said, "I am fighting for a just cause. And so you have
a moral alibi, which is good, and then I have only worked according to
our traditions in Denmark." According to Westergaard, those Denmark traditions include satire. "And, of course, there's been a lot of support
from the man which I meet in the street, the ethnic Dane who pats my
shoulder and says, 'Well done.' Then there's also been the Muslims who
have threatened me and cursed me … but I think the most reactions I
have received, they are very positive."
Westergaard said that Muslims need to understand that they are "not free of being mocked or being offended."
Members of Yale's Muslim Student Association find themselves "deeply hurt and offended" by Westergaard's presence on campus.
"As an institution purportedly committed to
making our campus an educational environment where all students feel
equally comfortable, we feel that by hosting Kurt Westergaard Yale is
undermining its commitment to creating a nurturing learning environment
by failing to recognize the religious and racial sensitivity of the
issue," a group statement reads.
It has been my experience that liberal universities love freedom of
speech when people are saying things they want to hear, but once a
speaker they disagree with tries to talk, their hateful rhetoric is not
welcome. Instead of letting speakers freely express their ideas, and
then attempting to combat those ideas with ones of their own, liberal
students usually engage in loud emotional displays of protest to keep
alternative views off the campus entirely.
It seems that many members of society believe they have some sort of
"right" not to be offended. The term "hate speech," and laws meant to
criminalize such speech, convey the widely held belief found around the
world that anything offensive should be illegal. Only the weakest of
minds can truly accept this premise.
If an idea, ideology, religion, belief system, etc., is found by an
individual or group to be offensive, instead of holding their ears and
screaming (or starting riots), the proper course of action to be taken
is as follows:
1. Respect the speakers right to speak, and actually listen to what the speaker has to say.
2. Analyze the arguments in a thoughtful and serious manner.
3. Compare these arguments to your own belief system, with an open mind that you may be wrong.
4. Make an informed and rational decision on whether you agree with the speaker's argument.
5. If you disagree, combat the speaker's ideas with logical and truthful information. Fight ideas with ideas, not physical force.
Rationally analyzing an opponent's arguments often leads to a deeper
understanding of one's own belief system, either strengthening those
beliefs, or leading to an abandonment of them. Remember that old
lesson that Mommy taught you, "Use your words, not your fists."