Free speech includes offensive speech

A small evangelical church in Gainesville, FL, has incited controversy in America and outrage in the Muslim world for its plan to burn copies of the Quran, Islam’s equivalent of the Bible, Saturday in a ceremony on the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

General David Petraeus, commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, warns that the action could put Americans at risk, inciting terrorists and help terrorists turn the public’s opinion further against America.

To the Muslims, the Quran is considered the word of God, and any intentional damage is considered extremely disrespectful and offensive.
Yet in America, the First Amendment to our Constitution protects free speech, even ill-advised, distasteful and offensive speech, which puts Americans sometimes in the difficult position of trying to balance their right to free expression against the need for tolerance and respect. Such is the case with the proposed Quran burning.

It’s something of a one-way street. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution story on the situation carried photos of Muslims stomping on an American flag, certainly an act highly offensive to many Americans, demonstrating that some of the people who will be offended if the Quran burning takes place have no qualms about being offensive to Americans. Additionally, in many Islamic countries, there is zero tolerance for Christianity — that is for beliefs that compete with Islam — and a Christian deemed to have tried to convert someone to his faith can be imprisoned.

This is a potentially fatal clash of nationalism, religion and culture that cries out for moderation among all parties. While public pressure may lead the Dove World Outreach Center to call off its Quran burning, Americans are free to feel unrestrained in their speech about all religion, about government or about anything else. That is a foreign concept in much of the world, more so where every perceived offense is taken personally.

In this nation, all views are heard and debated. Not so in the Muslim world, where to criticize Islam is to risk severe punishment, even death. Extremism is on the rise, America is considered evil and if there are moderates, their voices are drowned out by the cries of extremists.

The question we face is at what point do we exercise our rights and voice our opinions, however offensive they may be to others, and when do we tone them down out of respect for others or for the greater good? How do we balance our heritage of free speech against the sensibilities of large groups of people for whom freedom of expression is foreign?

Free speech isn’t totally free. There are costs to bear, words better left unsaid and consequences of expressing opinion. So, while one would hope a Christian church would not promote speech or acts designed to inspire rage, the vast majority of Americans would defend its right to express its views regardless of their offensive nature. Our tradition is that all speech is free, even speech offensive to any religion, including Christianity and Islam.

That said, the Dove World Outreach Center must realize that its utilization of free speech will put others — and possibly the church itself — in grave danger. The First Amendment allows reckless speech, but that does not make such speech wise or responsible.