Otherwise intelligent people are saying loony things about Muslims
Only one piece of colour commentary to add to CapCab's excellent summary of Sunday Nick below.
A passing observer of the Observer might think it odd that in a week when the government passed a law against "glorifying terrorism", a law which they presumably intend to enforce using violence because they are a state, Nick has no mention of the fact in his comment on free speech. One might even say that it rather looks like Nick is less keen on free speech per se than he is on randomly having a go at the Muslims.
It looks this way because it is this way, to put it bluntly. Nick does, in fact, probably believe that free speech which is critical of Islam is more important than free speech which isn't. He probably believes this because it is very definitely part of the message of Paul Berman's "Terror and Liberalism", which we know is a book that makes up a large part of Nick's current worldview. It is specifically a big part of T'n'L that the Islamists are as much of a threat to us as the Nazis (andthecommunistsbutletsnottalktoomuchaboutthem) and that therefore our normal virtues of intellectual tolerance are now vices when that tolerance is expressed toward Islamists.
Just saying, that's all; the last few months of Nick make a lot more sense when you bear in mind that a certain degree of Islamophobia is, in fact, there; it's not just the result of incautious expression.
Full review of T'n'L forthcoming this week; sorry it's been awhile but I've had a hell of a couple of weeks.
A passing observer of the Observer might think it odd that in a week when the government passed a law against "glorifying terrorism", a law which they presumably intend to enforce using violence because they are a state, Nick has no mention of the fact in his comment on free speech. One might even say that it rather looks like Nick is less keen on free speech per se than he is on randomly having a go at the Muslims.
It looks this way because it is this way, to put it bluntly. Nick does, in fact, probably believe that free speech which is critical of Islam is more important than free speech which isn't. He probably believes this because it is very definitely part of the message of Paul Berman's "Terror and Liberalism", which we know is a book that makes up a large part of Nick's current worldview. It is specifically a big part of T'n'L that the Islamists are as much of a threat to us as the Nazis (andthecommunistsbutletsnottalktoomuchaboutthem) and that therefore our normal virtues of intellectual tolerance are now vices when that tolerance is expressed toward Islamists.
Just saying, that's all; the last few months of Nick make a lot more sense when you bear in mind that a certain degree of Islamophobia is, in fact, there; it's not just the result of incautious expression.
Full review of T'n'L forthcoming this week; sorry it's been awhile but I've had a hell of a couple of weeks.
posted by The Rioja Kid at 2/19/2006 01:46:00 PM
3 Comments:
Nick does, in fact, probably believe that free speech which is critical of Islam is more important than free speech which isn't.
This view is pretty widespread among the Decentists, I think. Witness Norman Geras making a point of opposing the religious hatred bill while saying nothing about ID cards, 90 days' detention without trial and the 'glorification' laws. For that matter, his commitment to free speech in promoting the republication of the Danish cartoons was conspicuously not in evidence when he damned the Charlie Brooker Guardian column which referred to the assassination of George Bush, and applauded the Guardian for withdrawing it from their website.
Norman Geras has opposed the glorification measure on his blog.
And twice, as well. Oops. I stand corrected.
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