Publisher of Muhammad Cartoons Clarifies Free Speech

Originally published June 11, 2008.

Riots following the publishing of 12 cartoons of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten resulted in the deaths of more than 100 people around the globe and the torching of the Danish embassies in Beirut, Damascus, and Tehran in early 2006. The man who commissioned the cartoons, Flemming Rose, came to Stanford on May 7 to present his views on free speech as well as his unique perspective on the cartoon crisis.

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[Rose] emphasized the importance of defending free speech at a time when doing so is increasingly difficult and even dangerous, and specifically mentioned the inadequacy of the common affirmation that “I support free speech, but….” The right to free speech, he explained, precludes all other supposed rights to hear only inoffensive, respectful, tolerant language. “The only right you do not have in a democracy,” Rose pointed out, “is the right not to be offended.”

Mentioned in Daniel Pipes’ column

Through the Hoover Institution, I’ve been working as a research assistant for Daniel Pipes over the past several months. I found some statistics for him about Islamist-related arrests in Europe, and not only did he use the numbers in his column (as opposed to just his blog), but he actually mentioned me by name as his source:

Earlier Europol statistics are less clear, but a close review of the evidence conducted for me by Jonathan Gelbart of Stanford University shows 234 arrests made in 2005, 124 in 2004. and 137 in 2003.

Dr. Pipes’ column is syndicated all over the world, appearing most prominently in The Jerusalem Post. It has also been republished at FrontPage Magazine and dozens of blogs.