George,

With regard to the recent uproar about the printing of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, we in the Western world seem to forget that freedom of speech is not an absolute right. Recall the famous dictum of Oliver Wendell Holmes that "The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic." The U.S. Supreme Court has developed the doctrine that speech is not protected if it presents a "clear and present danger".

Surely the Muhammad caricatures would be expected to produce violent reaction among Muslims in all parts of the world, especially in these times of tension between the Western and the Islamic world. The printing of the caricatures presented a "clear and present danger" and therefore they should not be considered protected speech. By defending the caricatures as an expression of free speech, we present a false impression of democracy to the Muslim world.

David RePass (electronic mail, February 7, 2006)