@bookish1 I can’t speak for @Adirondackwannabe but I interpreted the comment similarly. This situation (extremist perception of denigration of what they are extreme about) is a bit different in that we take our cultural mores and blythly use that lens to look at others and it doesn’t work in this situation. We often do this to our detriment and theirs as well.
In this situation, non-violent Muslims are equally confused because there is a lack of awareness that the US government (because of the first amendment) cannot stop a derisive movie. Most of Europe has free speech laws which stop at actions that could be seen to incite imminent lawless action.
One could parse things all day to try and assess the predicted ability of something to incite lawless action, but the word imminent is the harder nut to crack. Although it is not part of the word, imminent in this case also implies proximity. In the global word with internet connections abounding, proximity is irrelevant and even the word imminent can be delayed by a few weeks before a message reaches a remote target audience.
We have no such laws in the US, and many of the people of the world are not aware of this. There is every expectation that our government will stop the movie or else appear complicit. It may well be time, in the fractious global situation and with strong feelings standing behind hair-triggers that we may wish to re-explore the benefit of having such a law in the US.
One can ask if any “reasonable walking around person” might think (against the current landscape) a known group of extremists is going to react badly to something, should something be made public? I fully appreciate the slippery slope and certainly don’t want anyone’s first amendment rights curtailed. I also don’t want my mother to be killed in a suicide bombing at her local supermarket because some idiot movie-maker thought sharing their junior high school project was a good idea.
I am reminded of the words my grandmother spoke to me when I was very young: If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. It has relevance, but only in a world where I have a clue what another will perceive of as being nice. It would be great to have a week where the hate-speech and deliberate hate-inspiring speech (from all quarters) would go away. I guess I really am sick and tired of the current political season!