The rally for free speech...
This year, London has seen more than one mass rally in favour of censorship. The enemies of free speech recur throughout the ages, appalled by Michelangelo, Gallileo, James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence… and today, it is cartoon depictions of Mohammed that stoke their rage. Tomorrow it will be something else, perhaps something you love, that must be consigned to the furnaces.
This Saturday, there will be a rally in Trafalgar Square at 2pm opposing these calls for thought-crimes and forbidden speech, and in solidarity with the people of Denmark, threatened with death for refusing to censor a newspaper. The rally will defend free speech for everyone – for the Islamic fundamentalists who oppose us, for the Holocaust Deniers we despise, and, yes, for the freedom to ridicule religion, even if it causes terrible distress to its followers.
The human impulse to shut other people up is very strong. We all feel it – whenever I hear Richard Littlejohn or George Galloway, my inner Commissar itches to silence them. But we must fight against out own repressive instincts as we fight against the wannabe censors out there, in defence of freedom. Even the most basic rights are never banked, saved and caked in concrete. Every generation needs to renew the fight for them. This Saturday is a good time to start.
