We all have the right to be offensive 我们有权利进攻.docxVIP

We all have the right to be offensiveIslam4UKs desire to demonstrate in Wootton Basset may be despicable but it should not be bannedhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/davidmitchellDavid Mitchell http://observer.guardian.co.ukThe Observer, Sunday 10 January 2010 Apparently, my history teacher was wrong and Voltaire never actually said: I despise what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it. As quotations go, its only GCSE clever – an interesting juxtaposition for young teens, a notch above Assume makes an ass out of u and me. If youre still quoting it at A-level, thats OK but you wont win any prizes. In an undergraduate essay, it should get no more credit than Too many cooks spoil the broth or At the start of the war, few of the combatants knew how it was going to end.While its an important sentiment, it should also, in a mature, free country, be an obvious one. Its not complicated – its a truism, not a paradox. Having accepted it as a premise of our society, we should be talking about more contentious things – whether the pause that electronic equipment now makes between our pressing a button and its obeying is the first step towards Matrix-style insurrection, or how many episodes of Top Gear you can enjoy before your soul is forfeit.So why, when the small bunch of extremists, bigots and opportunists that is http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/04/wootton-bassett-islam4uk-parade-troopsIslam4UK announced that they wanted to stage a demonstration in Wootton Bassett, did the home secretary say he would support attempts to ban it? Theyre a horrible organisation – an offshoot of the al-Muhajiroun movement that is opposed to the British state and arranged, on the first anniversary of 9/11, a conference entitled A Towering Day in History (although a pun is always welcome). I can understand completely why Alan Johnson despises what they say, and I agree, but Im not certain that outlawing their demonstration qualifies as defending to the death their ri