I agree with a point Tariq Ramadan makes in “At the crossroad of Islam, the West”. He brings up the issue about freedom of speech. I agree that it is not necessary to evoke that law in certain circumstances such as the issue about the cartoons. It’s one thing to speak your mind, but it is another thing to publish racial and religious insults, especially if it is against a culture’s beliefs to represent their God or profits so they don’t create any kind of idolatry. Although societies have different views on how people should represent their thoughts and ideas, the societies should also respect the wishes of other cultures that do not have similar opinions. And those societies should certainly not continue to publish or even increase the amount of published cartoons if the cultures that do not agree with the cartoons tell them that they are hurtful. Also, the editors of the paper should have taken a hint when many of the journalists from the paper were not comfortable with the cartoons that were supposed to be published.
Yes, one might think that- hey, no matter what we do, someone’s feelings will always be hurt. Although this might be true, people should just learn to respect other cultures beliefs and traditions, and don’t continue to say the mean things when others are obviously hurt by it. That is just cruel if one chooses to not respect someone’s beliefs. So, in the issue dealing with the Danish cartoon and the Muslims, I agree with Ramadan that freedom of speech should not have to apply when pertaining to racial and religious insults.