Got kind of a funny letter from a reader I’d like to share with you — funny-tart, funny-bitter. In my “Oslo Journal” today, I report on a speech by Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian lawyer who won the 2003 Nobel peace prize. She has a particular view of civil liberties: She thinks that, in a majority-Muslim country, it ought to be illegal to draw cartoons of Jesus or burn the Bible. The reason is: It would be hurtful to a minority. By the same token, she thinks that, “in a country such as Denmark,” it ought to be illegal to draw cartoons of Muhammad or burn the Koran. At the Oslo Freedom Forum, she said that “we are living in an era where there is Islamophobia in Europe.”
Okay, that reader letter. He says, “Why doesn’t anyone ever talk about ‘Christian-o-phobia’? I don’t think the Copts in Egypt worry too much about whether people burn the Bible. I think they care about the burning of their churches, their homes, and themselves.”
Good point — first things first.