Sharpe's Opinion

‘Nothing worth saying is inoffensive to everyone’

Johann Hari has been getting into a spot of bother with radical Muslims over his essay last week, and has written an piece for The Independent subtitled “The answer to the problems of free speech is always more free speech”.

The protestors said I deliberately set out to “offend” them, and I am supposed to say that, no, no offence was intended. But the honest truth is more complicated. Offending fundamentalists isn’t my goal – but if it is an inevitable side-effect of defending human rights, so be it. If fanatics who believe Muslim women should be imprisoned in their homes and gay people should be killed are insulted by my arguments, I don’t resile from it. Nothing worth saying is inoffensive to everyone.

Also worth quoting is his piece from last week which caused all the rucus:

All people deserve respect, but not all ideas do. I don’t respect the idea that a man was born of a virgin, walked on water and rose from the dead. I don’t respect the idea that we should follow a “Prophet” who at the age of 53 had sex with a nine-year old girl, and ordered the murder of whole villages of Jews because they wouldn’t follow him. I don’t respect the idea that the West Bank was handed to Jews by God and the Palestinians should be bombed or bullied into surrendering it. I don’t respect the idea that we may have lived before as goats, and could live again as woodlice. When you demand “respect”, you are demanding we lie to you. I have too much real respect for you as a human being to engage in that charade.

I don’t always agree with Johann Hari, but on this I’d stand shoulder to shoulder. Is it me, or is the religion debate seeming to be building up to something at the moment? I’m fascinated to see if all this chatter is going to lead anywhere.

Language Log, who began the post with “The UK is not the only secular democracy where freedom of speech is now under attack.”

UPDATE: Fixed the link… Whoops.