Post 5

    A recent wave of anti-Islam protests and rioting has taken place in European countries such as Sweden and Norway. One example of these demonstrations took place in Malmo, Sweden where a Quran was burned by a group of protesters. This led to increased police presence to try and de-escalate the situation.  However, despite all of the anti-muslim actions, the Prime Minister of Norway defended the protests as it was their right to free speech. This led to a greater discussion about freedom of speech and how and why it allows hurtful/hate speech to continue. This issue falls squarely in place with two of the eight values of free expression: stable change and the promotion of tolerance. Stable change value of the free expression theory claims that if you allow people to “vent” or speak their opinions, without the government trying to suppress it, there will be less violence. Also, some claim that this allows the government to even better track groups such as the anti-muslim movement. Had the government directly stepped in to put down the anti-muslim protests, there would have been violence in which people would have gotten seriously hurt. The anger from the right-wing group would have further exasperated, leading to even more violence. This then works its way into the value of promoting tolerance by the government letting them pursue their speech, no matter how “hurtful” or immoral it may be, so that it will not turn into something bigger or more violent. In this way, the government gets out of the way so that society can then, by its own means, deal with this social issue in a productive way. This value teaches that the protection of unpopular speech serves to help us as a society learn to grow more tolerant of various political and moral views. Through this, we create societal norms and standards for what is socially acceptable and unacceptable behavior or speech. The government needs to get out of the way in order for society to rule itself. This a vital part of the relationship between the federal powers and the public powers that must be kept in order to maintain a relatively stable environment. 

Link:https://www.euronews.com/2020/09/04/anti-islam-protests-in-sweden-and-norway-spark-debate-on-free-speech