I noticed it first when a person said to me, “I used to like your work, until you said X.” The “X” could have been a joke or comment about pets or musicians — but for the offended, it was enough for them to disown their previous opinions of me forever.
Eighty percent of UK Universities have failed to offer their students a free speech environment, according to a new rating system launched today. Spiked Magazine, which campaigns for Free Speech, asked senior academics with expertise in education to give every
On January 29, a female protester at a Council on Islamic-American Relations (CAIR) event in Texas grabbed the mic and screamed, “Islam will never dominate the United States.”
In his contribution to the famous 1949 collection of essays by ex-Communists titled The God That Failed, Arthur Koestler carefully illustrates how set language binds thought to ideology at the expense of evidence. Koestler, author of the unparalleled novel of Stalin’s show trials, Darkness at Noon, describes a conversation he had early in his Communist career with “Edgar,” his Party contact, in which they discuss the front page of a Communist newspaper.
On Tuesday’s broadcast “The Arena with Michael Coren” on Canada’s Sun Network, conservative commentator Mark Steyn underscored the importance of free speech. Steyn referenced Salman Rushdie’s difficulties after his 1988 publication of “The Satanic Verses,” which put him in danger
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg talks a good game on free speech. But when Turkey’s government threatened to pull the plug on his Web site, over cartoons of Mohammed, Facebook caved. Defiance gave way to submission.
Benedict ‘Sherlock’ Cumberbatch has said he is “a complete fool”, an “idiot”, “thoughtless” and that he is “devastated” for having inadvertently used the term “coloured” to describe black people on a US talk show. It’s depressing enough that he felt
A Turkish court ordered the nation’s authorities to block Facebook pages that they deem to be insulting of Muhammad, author of the Koran.
In a new piece on political correctness, Jonathan Chait does something that few progressive writers dare to do: admit critics have a point about the far left’s apparent desire to censor speech. Yet he fails to note that the problem is far older and more pervasive than it seems.
Columnist Pat Buchanan argued that the West has been “euchred” into defending the “deeply anti-Islamic” Charlie Hebdo on Friday’s “McLaughlin Group.” “There is a very serious point here about this Charlie Hebdo thing…I think we have been euchred and brought
HBO’s “Real Time” host Bill Maher criticized protesters against his commencement speech, and defended Rush Limbaugh in a monologue denouncing anti-free speech leftists on Friday. “Now that it’s been a month since I gave the commencement address at Berkeley, someone
Saudi Arabian authorities publicly beheaded a woman in the holy city of Mecca after a court convicted her of sexually abusing and murdering her stepdaughter. The kingdom has executed nine people only two weeks into the new year.
There is very little concern in the Muslim-controlled world about giving offense to other faiths. Governments dominated by Islam tend to explicitly demote other religions to second-class status–if they’re lucky. Advocating other religions is a swift route to imprisonment or execution, as Pastor Saeed Abedini can attest
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair argued that while “there is no justification” for the attacks on Charlie Hebdo, it isn’t “very sensible to insult someone” in an interview CNN’s Jake Tapper released on Thursday. In reaction to Pope Francis’
Wednesday at the University of Vermont, “The Satanic Verses” author Salman Rushdie defended the Charlie Hebdo murdered cartoonists’ right to offend with free speech. Rushdie said, “Charlie Hebdo attacked everything. It attacked Muslims, the Pope, Israel and rabbis, black people
Printed with $300,000 in assistance from Google, Charlie Hebdo returned to the stands with a post-attack edition that sold out before dawn on the day it was released, leading to an increased print run of 3 million copies – more than fifty times the previous weekly circulation of the magazine.
Reporters have received advanced information regarding to the content within the next issue of Charlie Hebdo, which is expected to come out on Wednesday.
Last night BBC Newsnight chose to show the front page of the first edition of Charlie Hebdo since the magazine’s offices were attacked by Islamist terrorists last week. Perhaps unsuprisingly, the remaining staff chose to depict Mohammed crying and holding
Jeannette Bougrab, the partner of slain Charlie Hebdo editor Stephane Charbonnier, says he “died standing up.” She believes he should be honored for his sacrifice on behalf of free expression in France.
Leaders in San Diego’s Muslim community have issued strong words of condemnation against Wednesday’s attack on the French newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris that left 12 dead, but have also questioned the unrestrained exercise of free speech concerning religious figures, suggesting it may cross into “hate speech.”
I don’t much feel like re-posting the Muhammad cartoons for which Charlie Hebdo became famous. It’s not a matter of fear, or political correctness. A decade ago, I was living in the heart of the Muslim community in Cape Town, writing articles against fundamentalism and in defense of the U.S. and Israel even while I enjoyed breaking Ramadan fasts with friends and neighbors. I did so at some considerable risk to my personal safety. I was lucky to meet religious Muslims who wanted nothing to do with violence–and it is precisely because of those relationships that I choose not to offend, even while standing with Charlie Hebdo.
A stockbroker has been sacked, and is being investigated by police after tweeting “Think I just hit a cyclist. But Im late for work so had to drive off lol.” He later issued an apology and claimed the tweet was
In an interview with the Daily Beast, left-wing comedian and sometimes actor Patton Oswalt lashed out at his own over the ever-increasing speech policing coming from left-wing political correctness. He singles out the leftist Salon for a special skewering. For
Barely has the year begun and already the battle lines have been drawn with the Enemy plain in view. Either you’re on the side of Katie Hopkins – in which case you’re one of the good guys who, seventy-five years
Russian authorities arrested famous Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny just hours a court gave him a three and a half years suspended sentence on embezzlement charges.
