Reply #92: Again, if your legal theory had value, it would have been in court by now

[ProgressiveProfessor]

The argument of causing fear has a much higher burden than you seem to understand. Talk with knowledgeable lawyers or law professors. I did the latter over the last few days and asked about the same decisions you are so resolutely quoting (your position if far from unique or novel). Their opinions looks a lot like mine. There is no substantive case to be had in a US court over this.

Your descent into WE/THEM is telling as well. You are attempting to escalate the actions of less than 100 nut cases, and equate it to impact of an international war. That just does not hold up to rational scrutiny. By your logic if some one wore a t-shirt with a slogan and someone claimed it made them fearful, it should be treated as a crime. Its an extreme position that I have seen right wingers use in schools, and am surprised to see a progressive/liberal try to use it. It clearly does not pass legal nor rational scrutiny.

The vast majority of progressives understand that we need to allow the offensive and stupid. That is not buying into Bush propaganda, it is standing behind principle and the law, even if we think what is being said and done is stupid at best.

What you fail to understand is that this event is provocative not in terms of causing fear, but because it is an intentional sacrilege against muslim beliefs. It is being done to provoke a violent reaction, a reaction that will not come in the US, but internationally. It is intentionally trying to do what a book by a British author and later some cartoons did. I, like many, fear they will be successful.