Free Speech Is Only Valuable If You Are Alive To Use It – Restrict Anti-Muslim Speech
By CANDI MOWLEY
Published September 15, 2012
Related: Film review: Innocence of Muslims Shines
Related: Obama To Restrict Anti-Muslim Speech
Partiots who fought in our Revolutionary War took to the battlefields shouting "live free or die." Of course, the Revolutionary War was fought in a time before the internet. In our modern era, a new phrase also must be heeded and with perhaps even more zeal: "restrict anti-Muslim speech or die."
Indeed, this week should be an eye-opener for any Westerner with any concern for the sensibilities of our Muslim brothers and sisters. A shoddy, poorly-written, acted and produced movie has cost four American lives and millions in damaged buildings and landscaping. There are no undocumented workers in Egypt to repair all those flower beds.
More importantly, this film has offended the sensibilities of millions of Muslims everywhere. The damage done to their sense of self cannot be quantified nor undone.
So now we are faced with a choice. Under existing law, horrible and ignorant people such as Morris Sadek – the apparent creator of Innocence of Muslims – are free to offend innocent and often impoverished Muslims all over the world.
Consider: What if Muslim riots reach the U.S.? What if patriotic Muslim-Americans decide that their allegiances are with Allah instead of George Washington or Thomas Jefferson? Why should larger society pay in blood for the rantings of insensitive fools?
After all, what good is free speech when you are dead?
It is believed that Abraham Lincoln first said that “the Constitution is not a suicide pact.” We now see the wisdom behind Lincoln's observation. After all, what good is free speech when you are dead?
The time is now for President Obama, himself a former Muslim and sensitive to their concerns, to craft a sensible and comprehensive plan to restrict baseless anti-Muslim speech. Any statements, cartoons or films that suggests that Muslims are anything but a peace-loving people must be restricted. Pres. Obama should issue an executive order without delay to put this measure into place because more lives could be lost.
If the alternative is death, the really is no choice.
Candi Mowley is a Senior Analyst with the Third Way, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
