Yeah, well, hate speech laws are themselves a pretty bad idea. Today it's "say nothing blasphemous about the Prophet" and then it's "say nothing blasphemous ab

Yeah, well, hate speech laws are themselves a pretty bad idea. Today it's "say nothing blasphemous about the Prophet" and then it's "say nothing blasphemous about the leading scholars". The cartoon controversy was started by Jyllands-Posten not because they wanted to offend Muslims, but because they believed that discourse about Islam and its role in society was being constrained by self-censorship and fear. Their purpose was to open that discourse by re-establishing the right of free speech. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/17/AR2006021702499.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02... The effort might have been dismissed as a juvenile stunt and an unnecessary provocation if the response had been a lot of angry criticism. The violence that has instead followed demonstrates the validity of their concern, and the necessity of their provocation.