(April 8, 2009 at 6:26 am)rjh Wrote: You can't really label all hate speech as wrong as you did there since hate speech is such a subjective form of speech. If you say something (anything) in a public place large enough someone is bound to be offended. Should such occurrences be labelled as hate speech because one person in a million takes offence? and if not, how many people need to take offence?
Any speech that expresses hatred towards an unchangeable attribute of a group is hate speech. This covers gender (unchangeable at least in a non-scientific sense), sexual orientation, race, etc. Beliefs are free to be criticized because they are an active choice (i.e. you choose who you vote for, you choose to follow certain religious doctrines).
Quote:Why is it that Jade's should demand an apology and the muslims should not?
Both should have, but the UK is afraid of Islam. Just look at what they are forcing through the UN! A resolution that makes it a crime to insult religion! The UK needs to wake up and realize that you cannot possibly protect citizens from hate speech as well as condemn people for attacking religion. Religions are all forms of hate speech in some way or another, and Islam is one of the worst.
