Pope Francis had several things to say this week about freedom of speech as it relates to the Islamic terrorist attacks in Paris. Among them are “there is a limit to freedom of speech” and “one cannot provoke, one cannot insult other people’s faith, one cannot make fun of faith.”
I have liked a lot of what Pope Francis has had to say since his election. I think he is good for the papacy, for Roman Catholicism, and indeed, for Christianity at large. But bluntly, this is asinine. There is no such thing as “freedom of speech, unless it upsets someone.” When we speak of protecting freedom of speech, what does he think we’re protecting? “Hello, how are you today?”? “Do you want fries with that?”? “Islam is a religion of peace”?
(Don’t call them violent. They’ll riot.)
It is precisely the speech that might make someone angry that must be protected. And there is no parody of Muhammad—however sustained, however irreverent, however perceivedly offensive—that anyone but a blood-crazed animal can say is worth the lives of 12 people. To be fair, Pope Francis did also condemn the attacks. But to essentially say yes, it was a terrible thing, but you also shouldn’t make fun of people’s religion, strikes exactly the wrong chord. It suggests an equivocation of the two offenses, which is obviously absurd.
(On a related note, this week Dennis Prager gave voice to something that’s bugged me for some time. Media sources referring to “the prophet Muhammad” is nothing short of fawning deference to Islam. Have you ever considered that? Do you ever hear a “news” outfit refer to “Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”? Or just Jesus? What’s the difference?)
When it comes to the blood spilled in Paris last week, there is no “yes, it’s bad, but…” There is only condemnation in the strongest terms. Civilized people do not murder one another over cartoons.
Until everyone (including the whole of Islam) is nodding, without asterisks, we have a big problem.
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Borrowing words from a Facebook friend, Pope Francis is talking about the *moral* limits, not the legal ones. Meaning, I CAN say anything I want, including lies and slander. Should I? No. I CAN say things that other people don’t like, I can provoke them and incite them to anger. Should I? No. (Moral) Should it be the government who prevents me from saying things that other people don’t like? No. (Legal)
That said, I’m REALLY hoping that the global warming encyclical isn’t the one to make me wonder if the cardinals made a mistake.
Also, funny how Daily Kos, etc. won’t cover what Francis said about abortion, probably because they haven’t figured out how to twist his words into approval.
From an article I read recently on Al Jazeera’s email chain about this very topic. Of course the higher ups think speech about Mohammed should be curtailed. Not all of their reporters agreed.
—
But Al Jazeera’s U.S. correspondent Tom Ackerman disagreed, in another portion of the leaked email chain.
“If a large enough group of someone is willing to kill you for saying something, then it’s something that almost certainly needs to be said, because otherwise the violent have veto power over liberal civilization,” Ackerman wrote. “When offenses are policed by murder, that’s when we need more of them, not less, because the murderers cannot be allowed for a single moment to think that their strategy can succeed.