The ability of the Christianity to control speech in the West has been diminished to
the point of nonexistence. Today the strongest reaction Christian believers have to an heretical statement is verbal righteous indignation. But immigration from the Middle East into Western Europe and North America has caused a dramatic rise in religious based violence, most notable in reaction to the ridicule of Islam. Recently in Paris Muslim terrorists murdered twelve people in response to cartoons of Muhammad published in the French magazine Charlie Hebdo. In 2004 Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh was murdered by a Muslim for making the film Submission, which criticized the treatment of women in the Muslim world. In the West where one religious oppression, Christianity, has been successfully defeated another religious threat to the freedom of speech, Islam, has gained a foothold.
It’s widely believed that because countries like the United States have a constitutional
amendment expressly protecting the freedom of speech that such a freedom is absolute and that political suppression of speech has been abolished. A closer look indicates something a little different. In Australia an individual was charged under a “hate speech” law for denying the Holocaust on his website. Also in Australia a Christian pastor was charged with “hate speech” for criticizing Islam. In Canada a complaint was filed with the Canadian Human Rights Commission against writer Mark Steyn for articles he had written criticizing Islam. These are state actions against both the freedom of speech and the press, which would be unheard of in the USA., right? Wrong, in the United States the freedom of speech is being attacked in the one place you would never expect, on university and college campuses. Academia long thought as the bastion of liberalism and the incubator of free thought has turned into the fountainhead of institutionalized
intolerance in America. This intolerance is manifested in university speech codes, for
example, at Central Michigan University (CMU), a public state funded school, has a
mechanism for reporting “bias incidents.” The CMU policy states:
Anytime anyone in the CMU community
feels belittled, disrespected . . . . because
of who they are, the entire university
community is diminished. That’s why it’s
important to report all bias incidents –
even those intended as jokes. If you have
observed or experienced a bias incident, it
should be reported as soon as possible.
Students are encouraged to contact a
faculty or staff member with whom they
are comfortable for guidance and support.
CMU students who have experienced a “bias incident” are given a list of offices to contact including the police. So at CMU if you feel belittled or disrespected you are encouraged to call the police. At CMU publishing this article could be a “bias incident”, an article supporting the freedom of speech. So apparently at American universities people do have the right not to be offended. Wow. These types of speech codes promote a chilling affect on speech and with the power of the state creates an atmosphere of fear for those who have opposing viewpoints.
There is fear to speak freely even in “free” countries. This fear stems from the threat of
retaliation from both intolerant government and a religious establishments. At what point will bookstores no longer sell books that criticize or question certain religious and political movements and newspapers and periodicals stop publishing critical articles and cartoons out of fear of retaliation, i.e. violence or incarceration? Everyday we must take a stand and speak our minds freely because if we do not today we will not be free tomorrow.