A reader writes:
"Let me ask you a question now: don't you feel offended and so angry to a point you want to commit violent acts when you hear the media talking about homosexuals in a bad way? I'm sure you do and that's how homos like you feel when the media talks against them. And of course you don't consider it a freedom of speech when they insult homosexuals. So what do you expect when a great man like the prophet gets mocked? If the filthiest humans on earth (homosexuals) get angry and do everything in their power to stop the world's media from talking bad about them, so I think the Muslims have the right to stand up and defend their prophet."
Sure, defend your prophet. But quit the threats of violence and acts of violence. It's that simple. As for my own position, I have long argued against hate crime laws to protect gays (or anyone); I have defended the right of the Boy Scouts to discriminate against gays; I have defended the right of the St Patrick's Day March to exclude gays; and I will defend the rights of bigots or sincere opponents to say whatever they like about gays, including your right to call them "the filthiest humans on earth." (Weren't you forgetting the Jews, by the way?) Any violent threat against anti-gay speech would provoke the same response from me as the vile threats from Islamists against cartoonists and writers. I believe in freedom, see? And one day, you may understand what that means.