About Defending Blasphemy

I linked to Johann Hari's excellent defense of free speech in the face of religious intimidation here. The piece was eventually published in India - and this is what happened:

That night, four thousand Islamic fundamentalists began to riot outside their offices, calling for me, the editor, and the publisher to be arrested – or worse. They brought Central Calcutta to a standstill. A typical supporter of the riots, Abdus Subhan, said he was "prepared to lay down his life, if necessary, to protect the honour of the Prophet" and I should be sent "to   hell if he chooses not to respect any religion or religious symbol? He has no liberty to vilify or blaspheme any religion or its icons on grounds of freedom of speech."

Then, two days ago, the editor and publisher were indeed arrested. They have been charged – in the world's largest democracy, with a constitution supposedly guaranteeing a right to free speech – with "deliberately acting with malicious intent to outrage religious feelings". I am told I too will be arrested if I go to Calcutta.

Read the original piece. It is a classic piece of political polemic, the kind of thing that no free society should ever suppress. And yet in one of the world's largest democracies, fundamentalism is strong enough to arrest a publisher for printing it. Put that with the pathetic collapse of the British government in the face of Islamist thuggery, and it is hard to be encouraged.