Don't give in to mob violence
The Middle East is in an uproar half the world away, and there is good reason why Montanans and other Americans should care: because it has become a clear threat to free speech and other Western values.
The U.S. embassy invasion in Egypt has been attributed to an obscure, crummy film clip that barely got any circulation yet was deemed to be offensive to Islam and has since been used as the fuel to ignite mob violence in no less than 36 countries in recent days.
Or at least that’s been the explanation from the Obama administration, even in the case of an American ambassador and three other Americans being murdered in Libya, where there was strong evidence that it was a coordinated attack on Sept. 11.
We have an alternative explanation — that anti-Americanism and general contempt for Western values are alive and well in the Muslim world, and if it’s not one offense to spark that sentiment there will be another. And once a mob is unleashed in one place, it is apparent that it encourages eruptions in other places. We’re willing to bet that the vast majority of angered Muslims have never seen the film clip, or had a chance to be personally offended by it, but they do seize opportunities to express their contempt for the United States.
Yet we get to hear from the likes of Christiane Amanpour of ABC News: “There is also a 100-year law by the United States Supreme Court which says you can’t cry fire in a crowded theater. So, now one has to really try to figure out the extremists in this country and the extremists out there who are using this and whipping up hatred.”
Do we really need the government figuring out what speech or art is offensive or comparable to yelling “fire” in a theater? A major Hollywood film depicting the takedown of Osama Bin Laden is expected soon, but will it be regarded as offensive or “extremist”? Who knows, but we better be careful, according to the thinking of people like Amanpour.
European and United Kingdom officials have tied themselves in knots trying to enforce laws that protect a supposed right of Muslims to not be offended by a plethora of offenses that have come up.
The United States does not need to go down that road. What it needs is a rigorous defense of the First Amendment and free speech, regardless of its potential to offend. It’s fine for the administration to condemn the film clip as not compatible with American values, but there should also be no retreat on American rights.
Trying to accommodate, appease and avoid offending Muslim sensibilities is a futile cause, as has been repeatedly demonstrated. On Wednesday, France bunkered down, closing 20 embassies around the world because a French satire magazine published a drawing of Mohammed.
The underlying purpose of the expected backlash will be aimed at restricting speech and the ability of the magazine to continue publishing satire, and that is a direct assault on freedoms that have allowed the United States, at least, to flourish as a democratic republic.
Anything that furthers the perception that mob violence is effective and justified by something as insignificant as an amateur film clip or a drawing is a sign of profound weakness that will wither Western freedoms and ultimately only encourages more of the same kinds of attacks.