Mick Hartley

The contortions of the press over the cartoons affair continue to amaze. Here’s William Rees-Mogg, in the Times:

As usual, the great John Locke got it right. The world ought to be more tolerant but some things remain intolerable…..

Modern liberals may be shocked at John Locke’s final exception to the rule of toleration. “Lastly,” he writes, “those are not to be tolerated who deny the being of a God. Promises, covenants and oaths, which are the bonds of human society, can have no hold upon an atheist. The taking away of God, though but even in thought, dissolves all.” Modern liberals do not much worry about oaths or atheism.

Locke would not have wished to be read as though he were infallible, since he believed in reason, not authority. But his doctrine of general toleration is the more persuasive because he recognises that some things are not tolerable. These are views that are too destructive for society; one only has to read Hitler’s Mein Kampf to recognise the possibility of that.

Oh for goodness’ sake….now the cartoons are to be compared to Mein Kampf? Why don’t we just adopt sharia law and have done with it.