Censorship by Threat - by Alan Dershowitz

Posted by Bible Probe on October 02, 2006 at 16:03:21:

Alan Dershowitz
Censorship by Threat
12:30 PM PDT, September 28, 2006

Now that Germany has canceled performances of the Mozart Opera (Idomeneo) in fear of offending Muslims, will Germany finally cancel the annual passion play of Oberammergau because it is so offensive to Jews? Or the various Berlin caberets that trash Christianity? No way! Why not? Because Germans are not afraid of Jewish or Christian who will react to being deeply offended by blowing up the theater. But they are afraid that some offended Muslims will do just that.

Germans are right to be afraid, because there is a track record of Islamic violence in response to cartoons, a lecture by the Pope or other “provocations.” But they are wrong to give in to their fear by censoring the offensive material.

There cannot be one rule for offensiveness to Muslims and another for offensiveness to other religions, ethnicities or cultures. We should either be sensitive to all claims of offensiveness or to none. The criteria cannot be how much fear has been instilled by threat of violence or by a history of violence.

Giving in to violence only encourages more violence by demonstrating that it works. The “heckler’s veto” – the idea that a speaker can be silenced if hecklers drown him out or threaten him – has now been replaced by the “terrorist’s veto”.

The decision to cancel the Mozart Opera raises interesting questions with regard to free speech. Instead of censoring the opera, would it not be better to punish threats of violence or incitement to violence directed against the opera? This too would violate freedom of speech. But what is more justified: redirecting the offensive material in response to threats or punishing the threats or incitements. This is an issue worth debating in the age of terrorism.

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