March for Free Expression

 
In a post on Monday I helped publicize a grass-roots British project to counter the growing movement to suppress free speech in order to appease Muslims.

The efforts of all the people involved have borne fruit; we received an email this morning announcing that March for Free Expression has booked Trafalgar Square for Saturday 25th March.

They also sent us the following:

Statement of Principle

The strength and survival of free society and the advance of human knowledge depend on the free exchange of ideas. All ideas give offense to someone, and some of the most powerful ideas in human history, such as those of Galileo and Darwin, have given profound religious offense in their time.

The free exchange of ideas depends on freedom of expression and this includes the right to criticize and mock.

We assert and uphold the right of freedom of expression and call on our elected representatives to do the same.

We abhor the fact that people throughout the world live under mortal threat simply for expressing ideas and we call on our elected representatives to protect them from attack and not to give comfort to the forces of intolerance that besiege them.

The group’s email address is marchforfreespeech@googlemail.com, and the blog is marchforfreeexpression.blogspot.com.

So readers in the UK — and those planning a visit — will want to make a note of the date, March 25th, and the venue, Trafalgar Square. That’s in London: just hang a left at the White Cliffs of Dover and go about 60 miles — you can’t miss it.