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Freedom to insult

By Dave Smith - posted Thursday, 9 March 2006

Perhaps the greatest irony in all this is the way in which free speech in the free press has led to further caricaturing of the Islamic community as a whole.

Most people I speak to are appalled at the violent reaction of the Islamic community that these cartoons have engendered. Somehow these people seem to have missed the fact that most of the protests about the cartoons have been peaceful, and where people have been hurt, they have generally been Islamic people.

How did we miss this? Did our free press somehow not report on these matters in a fair and balanced way? Could it be that there are vested interests at work, influencing the way that these things are reported? Could it be that some of our media magnates would like to see a hardening of the division between the Islamic East and the Christian West?

It makes you wonder how we really should define “freedom of the press”.

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This article was first published on Father David Smith's web site.

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About the Author

Father Dave Smith is Parish Priest, professional boxer, human-rights activist and father of four. He was part of the Mussalaha (reconciliation) delegation to Syria in May 2013. Join Dave's mailing list via his main website - www.fatherdave.org - and read his updates on Syria on www.prayersforsyria.com.