Dear Vivek, You make very reasonable points.
One has to exercise individual restraint on all occasions. The trouble is though that a secular public forum has people with diverse tastes, perceptions and backgrounds. People also hold different types of prejudice and misunderstanding. Some might believe in the moral strictures codified in the blasphemy laws of the 16th century, and in the literal interpretation of the scriptures. Others might see nothing wrong with resorting to name-calling, innuendo, abusive personal attacks and use of vile language against individuals who disagree with them. So what is considered sensible might differ from person to person, irrespective of whether one is allied to a particular group or not. Regarding your question of whether I agree that religious extremists have a right to free speech or not, I would answer in the affirmative. Everybody has a right to free speech. The only place I would draw the line is on the subject of incitement or support of violence against people and property. But as for incitement of hatred, again, I think it depends on the varied, and often, idiosyncratic tastes and perceptions of each individual or group member. As I am sure you know very well, hatred has been and is being incited against individual members of this forum by other members. Do you want to ban their hate-filled writings? I dont. Of course, as always, these are only my views. Cheers, Santosh Vivek wrote: > >Dear dr. helekar, >Though I totally support your views regarding free >speech and he dight to express ones views without >censorship, I also believe that sometimes it is >sensible not to exercise our right given the >situation. > >I would also like to know if you agree that Bal >thackeray or a Pravin Togadia has the >right to free >speech whcih they use to incite hatred? > >-vivek > _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list Goanet@lists.goanet.org http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org