How Shahed Amanullah Defended Free Speech, Muslims, Islam and Tempered FrontPage

On the Sherry Jones crisis, as manufactured as it was; note how even FrontPage cannot strike a harsh tone against Muslims thanks to the excellent, balanced and principled stand taken by AltMuslim's editor-in-chief Shahed Amanullah.  Notice how a reasonable reaction produces dividends (this should, sadly, not be a surprise to our community, but some persons still can't see the forest for the trees.)  I plan on addressing this topic, but in the context of American Muslim civic engagement (and our broader attitude to governance, voting and democracy), in a khutbah scheduled for NYU on October 17th.

What a wonderful example Shahed has put forth: Muslims must support freedom of speech, as an American value, as a democratic value, as humanitarian and as a Muslim value.  That does not and must not mean we reserve the right to be struck dumb in the face of criticism, whether spiteful or reasonable, but rather that we do not prevent the airing of critical language -- and that we, simultaneously, make the judgment on when and how to respond, through print or other media, to that language, if need be.