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.

Dear Reader,

Can I be direct with you?

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