With so much at stake & everything going on in the world...

free speech and free action are different

Mcchino64 (talk)19:28, 30 April 2011

That's true. A peaceful demonstration or protest is considered free speech, and there was no evidence that the pastor would do anything violent, as far as I know. His views were unpopular, others would protest against his views, but that is not a reason to deny him free speech. None of the sources revealed any evidence that he has engaged in physically violent actions. His point of view is unpopular. Mattisse (talk) 19:46, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

Mattisse (talk)19:46, 30 April 2011

An action doesn't need to be physically violent to be illegal. In the UK at least you can be arrested for standing still if you've been asked to move on if you're inciting violence just by your mere presence. I would argue that burning the holy book of any religion is intended to provoke a reaction. I'm not arguing against the fact an offence like this to Islam is not more likely to provoke a violent overreaction than other major religions, but also maintain the perspective that this violent overreaction also took place in one of the poorest messed up countrys in the world.

Conflicts of freedom happen all the time. Sometimes it is difficult to balance the rights of one group over another; I do not think it is difficult in this case - the right of an individual to display the upmost disrespect and ignorance by burning a holy book (not even for any justifyable reason such as keeping warm in some kind of 'day after tommorrow' type situation ;-)) against the right of a major world religion consisting of billions.

Mcchino64 (talk)10:35, 1 May 2011

He was not going to burn anything in this particular case. He requested a permit for a demonstration and was told he had to post a bond for "police protection". The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that it is unconstitutional to require a bond for police protection. That is what this article was about.

Mattisse (talk)12:35, 1 May 2011

I only got involved because the opinions page became a 'mecca' for anti-Islamic sentiment

Mcchino64 (talk)16:22, 1 May 2011

It certainly did become a 'mecca' for such sentiment, and the major point of the article was blurred by the emotion over religious view points. So I understand why you replied!

Mattisse (talk)16:59, 1 May 2011