Ever since Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa against Salman Rushdie in 1989, Islamic totalitarians have been threatening and killing “offensive” “blasphemers” for the “crime” of exercising their right to free speech. But instead of standing up for and protecting the individual’s right to free speech, our leaders and intellectuals have been busy appeasing those who demand religion-based censorship and blaming the victims for being too provocative.

We believe it’s necessary to take an uncompromising stand for the individual’s unconditional right to free speech. That’s why we recently published Defending Free Speech, edited by Steve Simpson, in which we do just that. In the book, contributor Onkar Ghate points out that the right to free speech is the right to offend. Otherwise, “whenever a member of some group finds an idea ‘offensive’ or feels that it will produce hatred against his collective, the government has the power to ban the idea. This is the death of free speech.”

Get educated and join the battle for free speech — order your copy of Defending Free Speech today!

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What are others saying about Defending Free Speech?

“This is a timely collection of excellent articles dealing with current threats to free speech. Ever since the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, the Ayn Rand Institute has been a morally and intellectually consistent defender of free speech. There is no ‘free speech, but’ exception in ARI’s approach to this important right. Its position is based on a simple truth: the individual is the most important minority in any society. Thus, for a society to be decent and civilized it has, through the force of reason, to be serious about the protection and cultivation of individual liberty.” — Flemming Rose, former editor of Jyllands-Posten and author of The Tyranny of Silence: How One Cartoon Ignited a Global Debate on the Future of Free Speech

Read more about the book here.

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