We must be allowed to question the past

Paul B

As usual Rod, I find myself nodding in agreement with your points of view. Freedom speech is that, you cannot mark a line in the sand, because you find some view unpalatable, otherwise that is the thin end of the wedge and very quickly you will get all sorts of views outlawed and people being imprisoned for naming their dolls Jesus. Who says it couldn`t happen here. Freedom of speech should be non negotiable , I fear though that is being plea bargained away in modern day (in)tolerant Britain.

Adrian Hook

I can only echo the comments of Paul B to Rods piece. You either have genuine freedom of speech or you don't. It should be the cornerstone of a so called liberal democracy and non-negotiable. Fat chance!

Claire

I completely agree that even the vilest opinions should be able to be heard- if only so we know just who and what we are really dealing with.

Mike Tranter

Freedom of speech is sacred. By denying one individual or group the right to be heard protesters are putting themselves in the same class as their opponents. There is nothing as pathetic and hypocritical as pseudo-intellectual pseudo-liberal left wing fascism

Kevyn Bodman

A commenter over on Peter Hitchens' site made a point a couple of days ago that was new to me and that I think is worth repeating. The speaker's freedom of speech is also the listener's freedom of thought. If you are not allowed to say what you want I am prevented about thinking about what you say. Thought control, thought police.

phil

Rod ,i am inclined to agree with you after much persuasion-my initial reaction was it is disgusting to allow these peole to debate in the illustrious oxford union ,but my overwhelming feeling for the rights of democracy and free speech eventually weighed too heavy upon me .Nevertheless i still feel that with those rights come a massive responsibility. I am not sure the union took on that responsibility by allowing a platform for such vile and dangerous thoughts to be expressed .Even so i do not believe it was done maliciosly but perhaps thoughtlessly .Hitler and Pol Pot might have attracted an audience ,but i dont think it would have been too good an idea -makes you think doesnt it ? Please dont hang the protesters,they may not be sophisticated thinkers but most would have had their hearts in the right place

David L Nilsson

Why is this website behaving so crazily? It keeps flashing on and off, pages slide away arbitrarily, adverts suddenly jump out to obscure what one is reading. it seess to have been designed by an excitable ten year old. It is the most unreadable for any magazine I know. Get it fixed fast or I shall take it off my list of Bookmarks.

Alexander Jones

Irving is a horrible human being,as his website confirms,but.... as one of the few who have actually read most of his books, I find no denial of the holocaust, in fact the opposite,dates, times places. His research is impecable, and much stolen by mainstream writers on the era. Revolting he may be, but without him, history would have very large ,even uglier gaps. Alex.J

Michael S.

Personally I find the views and policies on the BNP website very agreeable, well thought out and logical. Similarly I have visited David Irving's website and found it very informative and fascinating. Just who do these people think they are from trying to prevent me from hearing their views? They would have succeeded if it wasn't for the web. Hard luck boys, back to the drawing board with your rabid and hysterical warped thinking with regards to free speech.

James Happer

I agree with the precept that freedom of speech is paramount and it comes at a cost of being required to listen to some absolute drivel and much hate driven cant.

Margaret, London

There are two big fudges at the heart of Rod Liddle's argument. One that, because the Oxford Union debate was officially about freedom of speech, protests against invitations to some of the speakers was also about freedom of speech. They weren't; they were about using the historical clout of the Oxford Union to provide a public platform for racists. Of course the protests were themselves hoped for and therefore self-defeating but the logical distinction should be recognised.

The other fudge is the bizarre supposed equivalence between the Holocaust denial and speculation about the creation of the universe. In this country, Muslims must respect my right not to believe The Prophet or Allah is of any real significance, just as Jews must respect my right not to believe they are God's Chosen People. Holocaust denial is a quite different thing, being the illogical rejection of a historical fact witnessed by hundreds and thousands of independent testimonies, some by those still living. If Rod Liddle hasn't pointed this out to his Muslim friends then he is missing a trick.

Stephen

Jolly good. Free speach has to be defended. If not what separates us from those that would suppress views we dislike? The blasphemy laws need to be removed from the statute book. Jesus Christ is either the son of god or he is not. A court cannot decide the matter!

Stephen Rothbart

As certain Islamic organizations such as CAIR and CIC are using the law coutrs to stifle criticism of their faith and using Human Rights law to back it up, and so far successfully, the need to endorse free speech, no matter how vile, must also bear in mind that certain organizations use advertising revenues and legal straightjackets to stop others from expressing their own versions of free speech. So while I agree with Mr. Liddle that the OU were right to hold this debate, care must be taken to ensure that the law and financial blackmail can not be used to provide only a one sided debate.

Suresh Dogra

If freedom of speech is taken away from us,how long will it take to regress to the dark ages?There are millions in the world today,who,while enjoying all the privileges conferred on them by the products of free speech,relentlessly militate against their own as well as mankind's greatest benefactor.

John Petrie

The current enemy is Wahabbi Salafist Islam - of that there should be no doubt. So creedism must be less reprehensible than racism - though the discussion of culturally neutralised average intelligence quotient (G) across the globe on the back of evolutionary psychology is still not allowed - it should be. Islam's tentacles are everywhere on the back of oil money - Oxford University being one such place with its Arab (AND ISLAMIC) studies departments - why are those studies always twinned and dissoluble? Can one not learn Arabic without the infection of the Islamic meme? Yes Mr. Liddle that's D for Dawkins. But I agree with your article. And so would many Muslim apostates now living in fear in the UK. So you as cold-war warrior of the moronic Left make sure you get behind our troops in Afghanistan and even Iraq that are trying to combat the thick wedge of Islamic readicalism in the Taliban and its UK/Pakistani centred offshoot Deobandiism. Having just worked in Alexandria and met some Coptic Christians by chance - it is apparent they fear the new Islamic virulence. The looking for visas is common as is "if we don't watch out we will be swinging from the lampposts". Yes, Islamism is the new Nazism and the allegiance of the Egyptian Muslim brotherhood with Nazism (Google Hassan al Banna and Nazi) and their expulsion post-Nasser as a threat to a secular state is well documented. Scroll on 50 years and see what this group has seeded in Saudi - they've gone too far even for the Saudi monarchy. The price for keeping the people in the intellectual dark ages (or the Glory ages of Islam obviously). So yes free speech including the dissing of all religious belief and the passing perhaps to something deeper hinted at by the link between mathematics and the natural world. But it just is and we and our species are just a part of it - nothing special. Until Islam starts to refute its primacy over all other religions, and we see some evidence of a non-Dhimmi future for other religions in Muslim countries, not one more Mosque should be built in the UK and Dr. Rowan Williams should do penance by becoming a gardener at the Coleville-sur-Mer memorial gardens where he will do some good for 12 months.