On cue, another Muslim has been “offended” by something someone has said or done or written or drawn: in this case it was a cartoon of Mohammed, used by a teacher in a French school to illustrate the concept of free speech. And, because he was “offended”, he assumed the right to take the life of a hard-working teacher, husband and family man… in the traditional way, as sanctioned by the Koran: decapitated with a butcher's knife.
In the hierarchy of rights and responsibilities, free speech and the rule of law - man’s law, that is, not God’s law - are paramount. While religious people are required to operate under the rule of law, like the rest of us, there is no reciprocal requirement for law-abiding people to respect the unevidenced beliefs promoted by the religious.
As Christopher Hitchens used to say… “If someone tells me that I've hurt their feelings, I say, 'I'm still waiting to hear what your point is.’ I've been told 'That's offensive’, as if those two words constitute an argument or a comment. Not to me they don’t”.
Licensed last week: another shot of Lowther Castle in Cumbria… where the Lowther family squandered the family fortune on this vainglorious architectural folly…
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