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The Forum > Article Comments > Charlie Hebdo: freedom of speech, religion and co-existence > Comments

Charlie Hebdo: freedom of speech, religion and co-existence : Comments

By Tristan Ewins, published 13/1/2015

We need to avoid an escalation of rhetoric which would only polarise our society along religious and ethnic grounds. Here,freedom should ideally be balanced with honest self-criticism.

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Great article, Freedom has to free all religions that seek to operate in the political sphere.
Posted by Cobber the hound, Tuesday, 13 January 2015 8:06:16 AM
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"Western Christianity has largely made its peace with liberalism." It had done so largely because it no longer has the power to do otherwise.
Posted by Asclepius, Tuesday, 13 January 2015 8:53:11 AM
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Excellent article. Mutual respect and an assumption of good faith is the most fundamental basis of a decent social structure.

If those things exist, then it is possible for good and fruitful discussions about the things we disagree on. If they don't, then we are necessarily reduced to shouting (and shooting) at each other across an unbridgeable gulf of fear and misassumptions.

The world has become a small place; humans are now one great tribe and just as in any tribe there will be times we don't much like what other members of the tribe are doing. The oldies will always cluck their concerns about the decline of standards in the young; the youngsters will mock their elders for being stuck in a world that no longer exists; married women will gossip to each other about the scandalous doings of the single ones and their own heroic efforts to keep their men from straying; married men will keep their thoughts to themselves and smile at their sons and daughters enjoying the flirtatious dance of youth and so it goes on.

Amid those universalities the things that divide us are very tiny superficialities and just as in any tribe there are some who seek to use those tiny differences to acquire power for themselves and one of the best ways to do that is to accentuate fears and insecurities.

We can do better. We MUST do better.
Posted by Craig Minns, Tuesday, 13 January 2015 9:33:51 AM
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The trouble with saying that extreme hate speech and Holocaust denial are exceptions to an absolute right to free speech is that once an exception is made for one of the world's religions but not the others, one and one only is set up as sacrosanct and somehow more deserving than the others.
And to say that this exceptionalism in necessary to prevent the rehabilitation of fascism has been shown to be a fail after the recent events in Ukraine.
Extreme hate speech should be considered an exception to free speech because it is extreme hate speech, not because it is directed at this or that entity.
Posted by halduell, Tuesday, 13 January 2015 10:01:18 AM
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Tristan's ignorance of Christ and His teachings shows he has no hope of understaning when it comes to Islam. He is obviously oblivous to the stink of secular culture and how it has led to this situation. You would think these socialist have enough egg on their face but instead they continue to defend their hopelessly flawed rheteric even when their own gets slaughtered.
Posted by runner, Tuesday, 13 January 2015 10:10:14 AM
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Another kumbayah article saying we should all hold hands, close our eyes, sing silly feel-good songs, say nice thing about those who hate us and our values -- and all will be well.

Funny that "honest self-criticism" is recommended for us, but not demanded of Muslims. That would be a waste of time because you will never get honest self-criticism from a Muslim.

Mr Ewins, in case you don't know, the teachings of Islam polarise everything along religious (and ethnic) grounds. Islam teaches hate, discrimination and violence against non-Muslims. If you don't know this, you don't know Islam and you are not even paying attention to the news.
Posted by kactuz, Tuesday, 13 January 2015 10:49:28 AM
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