Toleration and Its Limits

President Obama’s generally pretty good speech at the U.N. contains this paragraph:

The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam. But to be credible, those who condemn that slander must also condemn the hate we see in the images of Jesus Christ that are desecrated, or churches that are destroyed, or the Holocaust that is denied.

Is it slander, for example, to affirm that, since Jesus Christ is Lord, the prophet of Islam is a false prophet? Or are we just talking about gratuitous insults?

Does the toleration so eloquently celebrated by the President swallow (and marginalize) all truth claims, or does it leave room for my affirmation of the exclusive truth of my religion?

Just asking.

Next
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Moral Certitude and the Iran War

Steven A. Long

The current military engagement with Iran calls renewed attention to just war theory in the Catholic tradition.…

The Slow Death of England: New and Notable Books

Mark Bauerlein

The fate of England is much in the news as popular resistance to mass immigration grows, limits…

Ethics of Rhetoric in Times of War

R. R. Reno

What we say matters. And the way we say it matters. This is especially true in times…