Why Punishing Blasphemous Speech That Triggers Murderous Reactions Would Likely Lead to More Deaths

The Volokh Conspiracy ^ | September 15, 2012 1:02 pm | Eugene Volokh

[the anti-liberal]

I rarely post, but I think Eugene Volokh's comments on this issue can contribute meaningfully to this discussion.

If there are any excerpting requirements related to 'The Volokh Conspiracy' I apologize for not properly adhering to them.

[the anti-liberal]

And fwiw, I really don’t think the movie in question is the cause of all of this, that it’s been used as a pretext, and I’m ashamed that our administration and press haven’t come to this conclusion themselves.

[TigerClaws]

Pretext right. But ask why?

If its the film, public blames filmmaker.

If its a planned attack we were warned about, it’s on Obama.

Film is political cover. Libs are looking for reasons to blame America first anyway.

[the anti-liberal]

The original intent, payback for the death of AQ’s number 2 (pun intended) doesn’t get the suppression of our freedom of speech that blaming the “American made movie” does. As Eugene suggests, it’s a three-fer.

[Tennessee Nana]

WANTED: MOHAMMAD the INFIDEL

For murder, child rape, plunder, mayham, religious hate crimes

Considered dangerous: Shoot on sight

[Lurker]

It would lead to more deaths because Americans would get tired of seeing their friends and neighbors hauled away and they start shooting the folks who were doing the hauling. Just sayin’.

[Gene Eric]

>> Film is political cover.

The violation of the 1st Amendment in this case is far worse than the strikes against the embassies.

[Hardraade]

We should take their blasphemy-definitions and stuff them down their throat. With lard.

[the anti-liberal]

This brings to mind the question: why has our government been purchasing such large quantities of ammunition? (Not to mention the large amounts of explosive material (the specific type escapes me, but it was posted here a month or so ago) also purchased by our government, supposedly for dog training, except the quality and quantity clearly belie that reason.)

[the anti-liberal]

We should, unfortunately; we’re not in charge. Very frustrating.

[Joseph Harrolds]

Of all the strange crimes that humanity has legislated out of nothing, blasphemy is the most amazing - with obscenity and indecent exposure fighting it out for second and third place. [Robert Heinlein, Notebooks of Lazarus Long]

[the anti-liberal]

And you’d think that with the Left’s professed dislike of the early Catholic church’s behavior (the Inquisition and all of that), that they would equally dislike Islam’s present behavior. Unfortunately, the irony appears to be lost on them.

[Standing Wolf]

...I really don’t think the movie in question is the cause of all of this, that it’s been used as a pretext, and I’m ashamed that our administration and press haven’t come to this conclusion themselves.

I'm sure some of President You Didn't Build That's handlers are smart enough to have figured that out; they're just afraid we, the people might be able to figure it out, too.

Nuke Medina. Give the terrorist states 24 hours to sign unconditional surrenders under clearly specified threat to nuke terrorist state capitals and Mecca. Shove representative government, full civil rights for all, and open economic markets down their throats as we did to Germany's and Japan's at the end of World War II.

[muawiyah]

The biggest single problem with Farleftwingtards is they have difficulty seeing more than a couple of steps into the future given a particular prior or ongoing activity.

That's because they are stupid.

All I Can add to the above analysis is that many Americans have a short fuse and times would get really tough for moslems in this country ~ really tough. I don't think the Islamofascists have any idea how tough that could be but tough.

Next, the glass parking lot option ~ although I don't recommend it, something close to that might happen should these guys keep this stuff up. It's long overdue for them to bowdown to the West and become Western in all respects ~ that includes religion.

[Alas Babylon!]

We’ll also need roving squads of robocops that will mow down the Islamic Rage rioters until there are none willing to riot.

[the anti-liberal]

IOW, we need a big stick and the will and means to use it. Sarah Palin said it well.

[the anti-liberal]

There are some Islamic countries with nuclear weapons and there are many chemical weapons floating around. I wish there was a way to educate or change the way muslims think about their "religion" and about the radicals in their midst without unnecessarily raising the overall level of violence.

That being said, I have fantasized flattening Mecca more than once, in various, creative, and violent ways. They need to be put in their place, and they need to fear us.

[The_Reader_David]

And you’d think that with the Left’s professed dislike of the early Catholic church’s behavior (the Inquisition and all of that), that they would equally dislike Islam’s present behavior. Unfortunately, the irony appears to be lost on them.

No, they don't dislike the Inquisition because of its behavior, but because it was Christian. Similar behavior by Soviet atheists was lauded in the same quarters that denounce the Latin church for the Inquisition.

The sole perfectly consistent feature of the left is that they are Antichristian. (And, yes, capitalizing it and omitting the usual hyphen was quite deliberate.) Consider: they want to overthrow traditional Christian morality (advocating abortion, normalizing sodomy, showing contempt for property rights, . . .); they, incoherently, simultaneously support "gay rights" and the Islamization of Europe (and America) demanding respect for Sharia law, which imposed in all its inglory would execute homosexuals; their policies arrogate to the state the charitable functions of the church and the denigrate private charity, esp. Christian charity, as inferior to government progras, despite massive historical evidence to the contrary; in the specific case of the Obama administration, they will carve out an conscience exception for Muslim objections to insurance, but none for Christian objections to abortion or contraception.

Incidentally, I don't think the Inquisition was a feature of the early Latin church -- it was a good 470 years after the Latins broke off from us Orthodox (which I'll date to 1014 when the filioque was included in the coronation rite of the German Emperor Henry II and the Popes of Rome were dropped form the Diptychs of Constantinople) that they started the Inquisition, almost mid-way from then until now. The most bitter irony, though is that the Latins got the idea the heresy should be a capital crime from the Muslims of "tolerant" Andalusia (no, not really, but from the Almohads who destroyed the brief local period of Islamic tolerance that forms the basis for the mythology of "tolerant" Islam by going back to taking Islam seriously).

[the anti-liberal]

Thanks for the clarification, I appreciate it.

I have heard some on Left cite the Inquisition as their justification for their dislike of the religious right and of Christianity (but this was decades ago, before islam entered the West's radar).

I think that media, educational institutions, social pressures, and the like have shaped people's thinking in a way that wouldn't have otherwise happened.

I wish there was a genuinely effective way to counter this ongoing process; a way to make people aware of objective reality and to think objectively for themselves.

[trebb]

Film is political cover. Libs are looking for reasons to blame America first anyway.

Film is necessary part of the Libs' real agenda - blame "abuse" of Free Speech for violence and say it often enough that there is little resistance by the Sheeple when they decide to step on Free Speech for the "common good".