Global Free Speech
It would be great to have him in the US helping Americans understand the situation. Oops, the Bush administration banned him, lumping him in with the people he denounces. Sad. We simply can’t afford to turn away sources of knowledge and new ideas about the Middle East. It hurts us. And it is one of many things that makes people suspect that the Bush Administration has a pretty selective notion of free speech.
PS: My thanks to Ralph for this link to a fine article on Ramadan.
Then again, we aren’t China. Another Spiegel article looks at China’s banning of the film “Memoirs of a Geisha” and puts this in the context of a strong and perhaps even expanding suppression of free speech in both culture and politics. As the author says:
There is no other country in the world with as many journalists sitting behind bars as China -- including bloggers and other Internet users who dared to criticize officials, betrayed the very loosely defined"state secrets" or endangered the country's"social stability."
Never let it be said that China does not aid free speech in some places. This rather fun Slate Explainer article considers where Arabs are getting all of the Danish flags that they are burning. Although Taiwan is the most important source, they do get some of their flags from China, too.
Isn’t globalization wonderful?
PS By way of contrast, consider this Wired paean to the people who have worked in the US to keep the internet ugly and insulting and, well, free.