Islamic Thoughts

Why Should America Ban Religious Defamation?

43: WHY SHOULD AMERICA BAN RELIGIOUS DEFAMATION?

Inspiring Court Case of 1919: America boasts its constitution which is the longest lasting on this planet, dating back to 1789 AD. It is also like no other in pushing the boundary of human rights particularly through addition of the Bill of Rights (first 10 amendments) in 1791. However, from time to time it evolved for coping with the needs of time that resulted in its 27 amendments as well as interpretations of numerous cases by the Supreme Court. One case in point was the 1919 verdict of Justice Oliver Holmes against reckless freedom of speech. �The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic." The Supreme Court thus established that freedom of speech is not absolute and it should be limited when that fringes others� rights. This reasonable decision now needs to be extended beyond prohibition of �falsely shouting fire in a theatre� for greater benefit of the society. The protection of religion from defamation appears to be a rightful candidate.

Arguments for Banning:

(i) Shouting fire can cause death through stampede of a limited number of people in the theatre. By contrast, defamation of religious establishments like holy Books, prophets etc. is a potential cause of numerous deaths resulting from ripple effects of violence worldwide involving combatant religious groups.

(ii) Holy figures like Prophet Moses, Jesus, Mohammad or the holy Books like Torah, Bible and Quran deserve respect from all quarters due to their origin from the real God.

(iii) Religious tolerance of Islam extends beyond the above triple monotheisms when the Quran rules against �rebuking� those who worship besides the real God (6:108). This is because Islam values social peace and discipline over chaos and violence.

In view of the above, American government should use the above Court case as a precedent and accordingly take legal initiatives to consider anti-religious, irresponsible speech as criminal offense and provide for appropriate punishment for that.