No Jokes Please, We're Muslims
Le Monde.fr : Maroc: Diffusion interdite d'un hebdomadaire pour atteinte à l'islam
The Palace Crackdown
Le Monde reports that the Moroccan government has taken a step away from free speech by confiscating an issue of the magazine Nichane ("Straight") for having the temerity to print jokes about "religion, sex, and politics." Most particularly, the Palace deemed the publication to have launched an "attack against Islam" and to have published writings contrary to "public morale and morals." The royal prosecutor has launched an investigation into the publisher and the journalist Sanaa Al Aji.
The American Contrast
Regardless of what idiots like Newt Gingrich believe, the First Amendment is the essential linchpin of American Democracy. Central to the First Amendment are the ideas that the government will not restrict freedom of expression and that the government will not support one religion over another. Obviously, I have not seen the jokes in question, but even if they were of the most extreme and inflammatory sort, they could be published in America without prior restraint. (Even in this dark age, jokes in print are unlikely to be considered "incitement" outside of First Amendment protection.) In this sense, unlike so many others, alas, America is a beacon to the world, and Morocco will not be a true democracy until it adopts similar principles. After all that Islam has survived, it will survive a few jokes.
The Erosion of the American Example
Of course, in the Age of Bush, nothing is straightforward. Now that prosecutors are subpoenaing journalists in the Plame affair, threatening them with prosecution in the AIPAC scandal, and otherwise making noises about prosecuting journalists if they are in receipt of "state secrets, the bloom may be off the First Amendment rose even in America.
I hadn't heard about Nichane, that's a shame. I also had a question about the First Amendment for you - if a newspaper published jokes that were racist, would they be protected? I don't mean advertisers pulling ads, or other kinds of social punishment, I just mean legally.
I should add a belated disclaimer that I am not a First Amendment expert, but let's see if I actually managed to stay awake during Con. Law. I believe the answer to your question to be yes.
For example, every few years at a college newspaper, some idiot publishes a "parody" criticizing affirmative action that is written in "Black English." Racist, yes. Offensive, yes. Legal, yes.
I do not know of any specific examples, but I am confident that there are any number of white supremacist organizations that legally publish newsletters and web pages with no legal sanction. Arguably, they are less dangerous while they are letting off steam in print than they are if their speech is suppressed. Conduct, of course, is another matter.
Currently, such categories as incitement, threats, libel, and slander are generally considered to be outside the protection of the First Amendment. The normal argument for suppressing things like anti-Muslim jokes — or, as Gingrich would have it, Islamist websites — is that they constitute incitement to violence. I believe that most constitutional scholars would conclude, however, that words in print are not a sufficiently immediate call to action that they could not be countered by arguments to the contrary. Hence, they do not qualify as incitement, which requires an imminent danger.
Many people would argue that "hate speech" should be outside the protection of the First Amendment also, which would mean that anti-Muslim jokes and racist comments could perhaps be suppressed. For reasons cited above, my personal view is that it is better to let the haters expose themselves for what they are, so that their hateful speech can be countered by reasoned persuasion. Reasonable people can, and do, differ, however. After all, that's what free speech is all about.
Thanks - I knew you were the right person to ask! (I was not going to ask my brat younger brother/3rd year law student!)
What? A Non-white group being racist? And Muslim? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO That never happens! Those creatures are so racist, they make the Klan look liberal!!!