Free speech defenses of satire can ramp up rather than defuse religious tensions

Evidence

The real value of free speech, in other words, is not to those who possess power, but to those who want to challenge them. And the real value of censorship is to those who do not wish their authority to be challenged. Once we give up on the right to offend in the name of ‘tolerance’ or ‘respect’, we constrain our ability to challenge those in power, and therefore to challenge injustice. — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia, 656 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Free-speech defenses of the cartoons masked prior anti-immigrant editorializing. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 346; Humor can bridge machine Democrats and patrician Republican legislators — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 529; Spoof satires of Muslims deliberately reinforce existing anti-Muslim attitudes — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 507 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Free speech serves the powerless while censorship protects the powerful #complicates (0.74) — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia, 656