[Sydaycymn]

There is no shortcut here. You have to be able to express your emotion in a reasoned manner. Mere emotion will achieve nothing except some temporary fear factor by issuing veiled threats to a persons life. Yesterday there was another debate on this on ndtv. The unfortunate case was the inability for the Muslim side to construct and express the reasoning behind his stance. The Muslim politician from Hyderabad kept on repeating that "blasphemy" is not allowed but criticism is allowed. That's a poor choice of words as blasphemy is irrelevant to someone who does not even belong to the religion in the first place. If Deoband has issued the fatwa, why not get a Deoband spokesperson to conduct a media session to explain in reasonable terms why that should be the case and why such limits to speech should be kept and adhered to in Indian laws. After all, the law is on Muslim side. Its the liberal who when it comes to their own issues that are mum on the laws and consider themselves above all laws. That mentality should be criticized and it should be made clear that they are in no way whatsoever a exception to the law. The clear hypocritical aspect of these liberals are that they are the first once to make a big hue and cry if some mullah makes a statement or issues a fatwa. So do mullahs also not have unhinged and absolute free speech ? One side is portrayed as fundamentalists while the other side is portrayed as forward walking, barrier breaking, heroes.

On a side note, there is a thin line between whats constitutes valid criticism and what consults insult or so forth. So i think this aspect should be clarified by those who argue for limits to speech. It is because of the inability to make this case properly that we have America instead chosing the path of absolute free speech.