Back to list
The question is why a US church Pastor should be allowed to burn the Quran and offend the Islamic religion and not be punished under the law. Legal minds like Mill and Milton have dissected the issue and believe that it comes down to fundamental human rights, in particular freedom of speech. Mill believes that rights should not be impinged on in order to improve man-kind; he believes that this kind of application of the law would result in the end of government. He attempts to replace God (moral code) with humanity in the liberal sense. He states in 'Religion and humanity' that when humanity is elevated to the ultimate source and end of value, the political rulers become, in effect if not in name, the new gods. This statement can be read to mean that the political ruler's word (law) shall be more important than everything even more important than morals (God). Mills believes that the morals of society should be subject to the law and not the other way around. So if one were to take into account the ideas put forward by Mills they would conclude that ones right to freedom of speech should not be impinged simply to improve man-kind's ability tolerate other religions.