Most people reading this article will agree that we do not want to live in a society in which it is illegal to publish outrageous fictions (let alone outrageous truths) about important religions. We do not agree with Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the chairman of the “moderate” Muslim Council of Britain, who once said that death would be “too easy” a penalty for Salman Rushdie. . . .Within a few basic limits of decency, libel and threats to civil peace, people should be free to laugh at religious faiths, and even tell lies about them.
If that is so, however, Christians (and other believers) are going to have to do a bit better than the Dean of Lincoln. For if the protection of the law is not available, the
protests of the faithful become all the more important.
It is an unfortunate side-effect of the benefit of free speech that people tend to think that, because things may be said, it does not matter if they are.
Isn't that last line brilliant? And, like ninme, I am thrilled to see the expression "load of old tosh" in print. I am going to have to find an occasion to use it in speech.
