Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Is this the most sensible thing The New York Times has published in ages? Yes.
Neither the watery word "tolerance" nor the slippery phrase "mutual respect" will cut it as a guiding value. Why tolerate violent bigotry? Where's the "mutual" in that version of mutual respect? Amin Maalouf, a French-Arab novelist, nailed this point when he wrote that "traditions deserve respect only insofar as they are respectable - that is, exactly insofar as they themselves respect the fundamental rights of men and women."

from "Why Tolerate the Hate", an op-ed by Irshad Manji