– fordi tiden kræver et MODSPIL

11. Oct 2006

Citat - tolerance vs. intolerance

 
Fra dagens Guardian:
The conundrum that one of the things liberals have to tolerate is intolerance hasn't needed to be at the forefront of debates on free expression before. It is now, and it should be.
I en i øvrigt udmærket artikel om stormen efter Jack Straws udfald mod kvinder, der bærer det islamiske slør niqab (ikke hijab, som ikke dækker ansigtet) - læs bl.a.:
Yes, it's fine and right for Dutch gays to walk hand in hand in public, and for Dutch women to walk topless along beaches; but it's not OK to insist that prospective immigrants to the Netherlands be quizzed on their response to DVDs containing those images. Yes, it's good for immigrants to learn the language of the country where they live, but it is wrong to ban any language from being spoken in public. Yes, it is bad for wives to have to obey husbands, or for parents to renounce gay children, but such attitudes were common among this continent's indigenous peoples until relatively recently - and people coming to live in Europe should not be asked to disavow them as a condition of entry, any more than they should be forced to express opinions on any other matter.

And yes, the veil can be alienating to people trying to communicate with the person wearing it; it is sometimes (but not always) worn involuntarily, and (for me) is an expression of devotion to a non-existent supernatural being whose worship excuses all kinds of barbarism. But if we want to have a leg to stand on when we stand up for The Satanic Verses or Behzti or Jerry Springer, we must defend to the death the right to wear it.

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