Islam and Insult

By Andrew E. Harrod

Western intellectuals have already started the process of surrender to Islam. In recent weeks, the accustomed defenders of the cultural values of the West have begun laying the doctrinal groundwork for abrogation of free speech, open inquiry, and freedom of expression in response to Islamist demands for an international regime of censorship of critical remarks directed against Mohammed, Muslim teachings, and accepted Islamic practice. Recently at the blog of the New York Review of Books, the religions scholar Malise Ruthven posted an entry entitled "Can Islam be Criticized?." Discussing the "riots from Benghazi to Kabul" in response to the Innocence of Muslims internet trailer, Ruthven sought to formulate a "crucial difference between being seen to trash the image of Muhammad publicly, as in the case of the Danish cartoons and the YouTube clip, and the deconstruction of that image using the tools of modern scholarship." Ruthven contrasted with Innocence of Muslims historian Tom Holland's documentary Islam: The Untold Story, a critical inquiry into the "historicity of the Arabian prophet" on.... (Read Full Article)