Sunday 6th May 2018 saw two to three thousand people march through London flying national flags and holding signs decrying limits to freedom of speech. Yet commentators see their rhetoric regarding civil and religious rights as a contradiction.
The right to freedom of expression entails duties and responsibilities and is subject to certain limits, provided for in Article 10.2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which are concerned, among other things, with protecting the rights of others. Identifying what constitutes “hate speech” is especially difficult because this type of speech does not…
The Council on American-Islamic Relations announced that Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) has cancelled a scheduled appearance at an “anti-Islam” conference in Washington DC, hosted by a right-wing think tank headed by Daniel Pipes, who is regarded by many as one of the nation’s leading Islamophobes. Specter was to give the opening address at the conference,…
A Cologne-based Muslim writer has been dropped from a list of recipients for a major German culture prize after an article he wrote on the imagery of crucifixion ruffled feathers among Christian leaders. The award was supposed to jointly go to four men from four different world religions – to a Catholic, a Lutheran, a…
According to a decision by the Dutch supreme court, insulting Islam does not automate offense to all Muslims. The court’s decision is of great importance for approaching the criminal case against Geert Wilders. The verdict by the court concerned a man who hung a poster in his window saying “stop the tumor called Islam.” A…
