You have no right in Western Society not to be offended.

[Yerda]

Children, and people with child-like minds, do need good examples in order to learn. Unfortunately, child-like adults are much less likely to actually learn than actual children.

You're probably right.

 

[VioletVortex]

One can easily escape offensive material. Even when it comes to direct verbal harassment, I don't see why it should be illegal. Rather, I think the victim of verbal harassment should have the right to react physically in a manner that isn't excessively violent or measurably injurious. For example, one could shove the perpetrator away, or do anything to cause minor pain.

 

[Epic Beard Man]

Often times this is used to promote incendiary speech. If dialogue is not progressive and name calling is the main aspect of the discussion (or even the promotion of hate) there really is nothing to discuss.

 

[Notanumber]

Islamism is an international far-right movement that has murdered innumerable Charlie Hebdos over several decades across the Middle East, North Africa, Asia, including many “Muslims”, who have dared to speak or mock or just live 21 century lives prohibited by the Islamists.

Being a woman, a freethinker, being gay, being unveiled, improperly veiled, an atheist, going to school, driving a car, having sex, falling in love, laughing out loud, dancing... “offends” them.

Calling for civility, censorship, silence or “respect” for the “offended” is merely heeding the Islamist demand for submission at the expense of dissenters.

But as Rosa Luxemburg said: “Freedom is always the freedom of dissenters”.

So yes, I am Charlie but I am also the many Muslims, ex-Muslims and none who dissent day in and day out often at great risk to themselves.

I am freethinker Raif Badawi, sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1000 lashes for a website promoting public discussion of religion and politics which has been deemed “insulting of to Islam” by the Saudi regime.

I am 30 year old blogger Soheil Arabi, sentenced to execution in Iran for “insulting the prophet” on Facebook.

I am poet Fatma Naoot, on trial for “insulting Islam” in Egypt due to her criticism of Islamic animal slaughter.

I am 28 year old Mauritanian journalist and anti-slavery activist Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mkhaitir who has been sentenced to death in December 2014 for “insulting the prophet”.

I am 32 year old Egyptian journalist Bishoy Boulous Armia who has been given a five-year prison sentence for causing “sectarian strife” and “insulting Islam” because he reported on the persecution of Christians in Egypt.

I am the artists and writers in the Gaza Strip who face a campaign calling for their murder for “insulting Islam”.

I am Jakarta Post editor-in-chief, Meidyatama Suryodiningrat , accused of blasphemy for a caricature on ISIS, which according to an Islamist group filing a complaint, has “insulted Islam”.

I am Algerian novelist Kamel Daoud who has had calls for his execution because of “insults [to] Allah”.

I am bloggers Tan Jye Yee, 26, and Vivian Lee, 25, charged in Malaysia under the Sedition Act for insulting Islam and Ramadan in Facebook.

I am women’s rights campaigner Souad al-Shammary who has been imprisoned since 28 October 2014 on accusations she has “insulted Islam” and the prophet in Saudi Arabia for demanding an end to male guardianship rules for women.

I am 47 year old British-Iranian Roya Nobakht was sentenced to 20 years in prison in Iran for “insulting Islam” when she said on Facebook that the Iranian regime was “too Islamic”.

I am 49 year old mother of five Asia Bibi has been in prison for five year awaiting execution for blasphemy in Pakistan.

I am 27 year old Mohsen Amir-Aslani hanged in September 2014 in Iran for insulting prophet Jonah and making ‘innovations in religion’ through interpretations of Qur’an.

And I am Muhammad Shakil Auj, Dean of the faculty of Islamic Studies at the University of Karachi, was shot dead by gunmen in September 2014 two years after being accused of blasphemy.

And the list goes on.

So yes, I am Charlie, Raif and Roya – no ifs and buts.

I am, we are, all of them.

Islam and the "culture of offence": missing the point