Danish free speech debate continues on CNN

In a joint comment on CNN’s Global Public Square, Fabrizio Tassinari and Mona Kanwal Sheikh analyze the dynamics of the free speech debate in Denmark, and warn against framing the principle of free speech as existentially threatened and in the same inflexible manner that religious fundamentalists frame religion. Observing the reactions to the recent murder attempt on one of Denmark’s most staunch critics of Islam, Lars Hedegaard, they argue:

“The problem with all this is that even if the attack on Hedegaard proves to have been ideologically-motivated, the tendency in Denmark to present each and every incident as demonstrating that Western values are existentially threatened only confirms the worldview of fundamentalists who themselves argue that we are engaged in an ideological war. Instead of rejecting this view, as they should, free speech radicals play right into fundamentalists’ hands.”

Comparing the way Danish politicians across the wide party-political spectrum responded to the murder attempt with other ways of tackling similar issues, they write:

“What has made Denmark peculiar in all this is how the mainstream discourse on free speech is firmly occupied by conservative, often missionary sounding, voices urging the country to defend this crucial “Western” value from the attacks of religious fundamentalists. Those espousing more moderate positions, even those embracing free speech but advocating tolerance and delicacy, have long been on the defensive.”

See also Mona Kanwal Sheikh’s comment (in Danish) in Information on the same topic.