Nigeria blast kills woman, wounds 5 children: official

LAGOS (Reuters) - An explosion near a state TV studio in eastern Nigeria's Taraba state killed a woman and wounded five children overnight, the emergency services said on Saturday.

It was the second blast in the remote town of Jalingo, in Nigeria's volatile ethnically and religiously mixed Middle Belt, in two days. A blast at an outdoor bar there killed at least one person and wounded 14 on Thursday.

There was no claim of responsibility for either blast, although suspicion is likely to fall on Islamist sect Boko Haram, which is waging a low level insurgency against President Goodluck Jonathan's government.

The insurgents want to carve an Islamic state out of Nigeria, a country of 160 million people split about evenly between Christians and Muslims. They have been blamed for many hundreds of deaths in bombings or shootings and are seen as the number one security threat to Africa's top energy producer.

"After the last Thursday's explosion in a beer parlor ... which left one dead and 14 injured, another explosion occurred last night Friday near an NTA station," National Emergency Management Agency spokesman Yushua Shuaib said by text message.

"A woman was killed, and five kids injured. The victims were evacuated to (hospital)," he added.

Taraba state had been mostly spared the insurgency sweeping across north and central Nigeria until April, when a bomb attack against the police chief's convoy killed 11 people.

A military crackdown on Boko Haram in the north appears to have weakened the sect, leaving it less capable of carrying out large-scale, coordinated attacks like the one that killed 186 people in Kano in January. Yet it has also pushed it into new areas away from its northeastern heartland.

The sect usually targets the security forces or government offices, although churches and bars are also often hit. The United States has labeled three of its members 'terrorists'.

(Reporting by Tim Cocks and Isaac Abrak; Writing by Tim Cocks)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nigeria-blast-kills-woman-wounds-5-children-official-092352518.html

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Using his own blood, NY artist paints "Resurrection" exhibit

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Many artists claim to put their blood, sweat and tears into their work, but Vincent Castiglia means it: he paints with his own blood.

The New York painter has a new exhibit, "Resurrection," in Manhattan's Soho neighbourhood that opened on Thursday and is due to run through October. It features a number of Castiglia's paintings from the last 10 years, all of which were created with Castiglia's blood.

Castiglia, 30, said in an interview this week that his first experiments with this medium were prompted by a "need to connect with my work on the most intimate level."

Human blood contains iron oxide, he explained, a pigment found in many traditional paints, and which occurs naturally in iron ore and common rust.

The public's reaction in the past has been overwhelmingly positive, he said, but he does not discount that some people could find his choice of medium creepy or gimmicky.

"My response would be to really take a look at the content of the work, which overshadows what it's made from, I think," he said. "In order for something to be a gimmick, it really would have to lack substance."

His process includes making a preliminary pen or graphite sketch and extracting just enough "paint" in the privacy of his studio. He then pulls out his brushes to paint surrealistic, red ochre-hued images typically featuring human bodies in some stage of decay paired with abstract backgrounds.

One of his larger, more detailed paintings can take more than three months to complete. His paintings range in price from $950 to $26,000. Rock and blues musician Gregg Allman, who recently acquired a 2006 painting by Castiglia called "Gravity."

His "Resurrection" exhibit is themed around Castiglia's interest in life's transience and harmony he sees between life and death.

As an example, he cited "Feeding," which depicts a mother with decaying legs in a wheelchair gazing at an infant she is breastfeeding. Castiglia said he sees it as an expression of the fragility of life and the hope and drive that can still accompany it.

His work is shown primarily the United States and Europe, but Castiglia's art may be familiar to slasher film and heavy metal aficionados. In 2010, a piece by Castiglia served as the poster for horror flick "Savage County," and other paintings were used as album art for Swiss heavy metal band Triptykon's debut "Eparistera Daimones" the same year.

(Additional reporting By Alicia Powell; Editing by Christine Kearney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/using-own-blood-ny-artist-paints-resurrection-exhibit-083534620.html

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Romney: 'Victory is in sight' after first debate

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney boards his campaign plane in Denver, Thursday, Oct. 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney boards his campaign plane in Denver, Thursday, Oct. 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign event at Sloan's Lake Park, Thursday, Oct. 4, 2012, in Denver. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks at a Colorado Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) meeting in Denver, Thursday, Oct. 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama points to supporters during a campaign event at Sloan's Lake Park, Thursday, Oct. 4, 2012, in Denver. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks at a Colorado Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) meeting in Denver, Thursday, Oct. 4, 2012. At rear are sons Matt, Craig, Tagg, Josh Romney. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

DENVER (AP) ? Buoyed by a powerful debate showing, Mitt Romney said Thursday he offers "prosperity that comes through freedom" to a country struggling to shed a weak economy. President Barack Obama accused the former Massachusetts governor of running from his own record in pursuit of political power.

Both men unleashed new attack ads in the battleground states in a race with little more than a month to run, Obama suggesting Romney couldn't be trusted with the presidency, and the Republican accusing the president of backing a large tax increase on the middle class.

The debate reached 67.2 million viewers, an increase of 28 percent over the first debate in the 2008 presidential campaign. The measurement and information company Nielsen said Thursday that 11 networks provided live coverage of the debate.

Not even Democrats disputed that Romney was likely to benefit politically from the debate Wednesday night in which he aggressively challenged Obama's stewardship of the economy and said his own plans would help pull the country out of a slow-growth rut. Still, there was no immediate indication that the race would expand beyond the nine battleground states where the rivals and their running mates spend nearly all of their campaign time and advertising dollars.

Debate host Colorado is one of them, and Virginia, where Romney headed for an evening speech, is another. So, too, Wisconsin, Obama's destination for a mid-day rally. Nevada, Ohio, Iowa, New Hampshire, Florida and North Carolina are the others.

Among them, the nine states account for 110 electoral votes out of the 270 needed to win the White House, more than enough to tip the campaign to one man or the other.

"Victory is in sight," Romney exulted in an emailed request for donations to supporters. It was a show of confidence by a man hoping for a quick reversal in pre-debate public opinion polls that showed him trailing in battleground states as well as nationally.

Reprising a line from the debate, he told an audience of conservatives in Denver that Obama offers "trickle-down government." He added, "I don't think that's what America believes in. I see instead a prosperity that comes through freedom."

Another possible pivot point in the campaign neared in the form of Friday's government report on unemployment for September. Joblessness was measured at 8.1. percent the previous month.

Obama campaigned with the energy of a man determined to make up for a subpar debate showing. Speaking to a crowd not far from the debate hall, he said mockingly that a "very spirited fellow" who stood next to him onstage Wednesday night "does not want to be held accountable for the real Mitt Romney's positions" on taxes, education and other issues. "Governor Romney may dance around his positions, but if you want to be president you owe the American people the truth," he said.

Later, before a crowd of tens of thousands in Madison, Wis., he said Romney wants to cut federal funding for Public Television while repealing legislation that regulates the banking industry "I just want to make sure I've got this straight: He'll get rid of regulations on Wall Street, but he's going to crack down on Sesame Street," Obama said.

Taxes were a particular point of contention between the two men, although they were sharply divided as well on steps the cut the deficit, on government regulation, on education and Medicare.

Both in the debate and on the day after, Obama said repeatedly that his rival favors a $5 trillion tax cut that is tilted to the wealthy and would mean tax increases on the middle class or else result in a spike in federal deficits.

Romney said it wasn't so, and counterattacked in a new television commercial. It cited a report by the American Enterprise Institute that said Obama and "his liberal allies" want to raise taxes on middle class earners by $4,000 and that the Republican alternative would not raise the amount they owe to the IRS.

Romney repeated the claim at an evening rally in Fishersville, Va. "He's going to raise taxes on the middle class," Romney charged, citing the $4,000 figure. "I don't want to raise taxes on anybody."

Romney has refused so far to disclose many of the details to support his assertion that his proposal would not lead to a tax cut. His ad was an attempt to parry a report by the Tax Policy Center that Obama has frequently tried used to political advantage, as he did again during the day.

In a new ad by the president's campaign, Romney is quoted as saying that a $5 trillion tax cut "is not my plan." The ad then cites a study by the Tax Policy Center as saying it is, and asks why the Republican challenger "won't level with us about his tax plan which gives the wealthy huge new tax breaks.

"Because if we can't trust him here" ? a photo of the debate stage appears ? "How could we ever trust him here," the narrator says as a photo of the Oval Office fills the screen.

The two men debate twice more this month, Oct. 16 in Hempstead, N.Y. and Oct. 22 in Boca Raton, Fla.

Before they do, Vice President Joe Biden and Romney's running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, will share a stage in Danville, Ky. in one week's time.

Biden plunged into the tax debate during the day, saying the administration does indeed want to increase the taxes paid by the wealthy by $1 trillion.

"We want to let that trillion-dollar tax cut expire so the middle class doesn't have to bear the burden of all that money going to the super wealthy," he said while campaigning in Iowa. "That's not a tax raise, that's called fairness where I come from."

Republicans didn't see it that way, and seized on the comment as evidence the administration's policies would kill jobs.

Whatever the eventual outcome of the race, Romney seemed to have achieved his goal of a campaign reset. Democrats braced for tightening polls over the next several days in the states where the campaign will be won or lost.

The head of one Republican-aligned independent group said all such organizations should consider expanding into states that have effectively been written off. "If we didn't get a home run, we certainly got a triple" from Romney's showing in the debate, said American Future Fund's founder Nick Ryan, who sided with Rick Santorum during the primaries.

Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod acknowledged in a conference call with reporters that an adjustment in strategy would be needed in the debates to come. "Obviously moving forward we're going to take a hard look at this, and we're going to have to make some judgments as to where to draw the line in these debates and how to use our time," Axelrod said.

Romney frequently interrupted both Obama and moderator Jim Lehrer of the Public Broadcasting Service during the 90-minute debate, sometimes talking over one or both of them to argue that the president's policies hadn't restored the economy, or alternatively, that the president was making false accusations about Republican proposals.

While both men prepared extensively for their first head-to-head encounter, Romney had the advantage of having taken part in 19 debates with his Republican rivals over the course of many months. He seemed to employ many of the techniques that he honed then, insisting on speaking time he claimed he was entitled to, for example, generally without seeming belligerent.

The president's last prior debate was four years ago, when he was running against Sen. John McCain.

___

Associated Press writers Philip Elliott and Beth Fouhy in Washington, Julie Pace in Madison, Wis., and Matthew Daly in Council Bluffs, Iowa. contributed to this story. Espo reported from Washington.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-10-04-Presidential%20Campaign/id-e2eb152300924580a8a4e6246dba048a

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Biologists find electricity in biological clock

ScienceDaily (Oct. 4, 2012) ? Biologists from New York University have uncovered new ways our biological clock's neurons use electrical activity to help keep behavioral rhythms in order. The findings, which appear in the journal Current Biology, also point to fresh directions for exploring sleep disorders and related afflictions.

"This process helps explain how our biological clocks keep such amazingly good time," said Justin Blau, an associate professor of biology at NYU and one of the study's authors.

Blau added that the findings may offer new pathways for exploring treatments to sleep disorders because the research highlights the parts of our biological clock that "may be particularly responsive to treatment or changes at different times of the day."

The study's other co-authors were: Dogukan Mizrak and Marc Ruben, doctoral students in NYU's Department of Biology; Gabrielle Myers, an undergraduate in the Biology Department; Kahn Rhrissorrakrai, a post-doctoral researcher; and Kristin Gunsalus, an associate professor at NYU's Center for Genomics and Systems Biology and NYU Abu Dhabi.

In a previous study, Blau and his colleagues found that rhythms in expression of a potassium channel (Ir) helps link the biological clock to the activity of pacemaker neurons. But Ir does not function as a simple output of the clock -- it also feeds back to regulate the core clock. In the Current Biology research, the scientists sought to understand the nature of this feedback.

In exploring this mechanism, the researchers examined the biological, or circadian, clocks of Drosophila fruit flies, which are commonly used for research in this area. Earlier studies of "clock genes" in fruit flies allowed the identification of similarly functioning genes in humans.

By manipulating the neuronal activity of pacemaker neurons, the researchers showed that changes in the electrical activity of clock neurons produce major changes in the expression of circadian genes. With increased electrical activity in the evening, when clock neurons are normally fairly inactive, the researchers found that clock neurons have a circadian gene-expression profile more typically found in morning hours. In contrast, by diminishing electrical activity in the morning, gene expression was shifted to look more like it does in the evening. In other words, the electrical state of a clock neuron can dramatically affect circadian gene expression in clock neurons.

"What was striking about these results was the coordination between the firing of neurons and gene expression," observed Blau. "This is one of the remarkable processes that helps keep clock neurons stay synchronized and run so accurately."

To find the mechanism, Blau's lab brought in the computational expertise of Gunsalus' lab at NYU to identify regulatory DNA motifs in genes that respond to neuronal activity in clock neurons. One of these motifs binds the well-known set of factors that regulate gene expression in neurons involved in learning and memory.

"These data really make us focus on 'the clock' as a neuronal system rather than a set of genes," noted Blau.

The research was supported by grants (HD046236, GM085503, and GM063911) from the National Institutes of Health.

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Journal Reference:

  1. Dogukan Mizrak, Marc Ruben, Gabrielle?N. Myers, Kahn Rhrissorrakrai, Kristin?C. Gunsalus, Justin Blau. Electrical Activity Can Impose Time of Day on the Circadian Transcriptome of Pacemaker Neurons. Current Biology, 2012; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2012.07.070

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/8hUVtvI-liE/121004121134.htm

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Sandia Labs' MegaDroid project simulates 300,000 Android phones to fight wireless catastrophes (video)

Sandia Labs' MegaDroid project simulates 300,000 Android phones to fight wireless catastrophes video

We've seen some large-scale simulations, including some that couldn't get larger. Simulated cellular networks are still a rare breed, however, which makes Sandia National Laboratories' MegaDroid project all the more important. The project's cluster of off-the-shelf PCs emulates a town of 300,000 Android phones down to their cellular and GPS behavior, all with the aim of tracing the wider effects of natural disasters, hacking attempts and even simple software bugs. Researchers imagine the eventually public tool set being useful not just for app developers, but for the military and mesh network developers -- the kind who'd need to know how their on-the-field networks are running even when local authorities try to shut them down. MegaDroid is still very much an in-progress effort, although Sandia Labs isn't limiting its scope to Android and can see its work as relevant to iOS or any other platform where a ripple in the network can lead to a tidal wave of problems.

Continue reading Sandia Labs' MegaDroid project simulates 300,000 Android phones to fight wireless catastrophes (video)

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/03/sandia-labs-megadroid-project-simulates-300-000-android-phones/

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Wealthy Remain Focused on Philanthropy | On Wall Street

Wealthy Remain Focused on Philanthropy

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Only 9% of high-net-worth households reported that they would give less to charity over the next three to five years while almost a quarter, 24%, said that they expected to give more and 52% expected to keep giving at the same levels, according to early findings of the 2012 Bank of America Study of High Net Worth Philanthropy.

The outlook shows that while "there are certain pockets that are not as confident about their giving and their own economic circumstances," there is a high level of commitment to charitable giving as well as some optimism about the economy in the high net worth space, Una Osili, director of research for The Center on Philanthropy, BofA's partner in the survey, said in an interview with On Wall Street.

"This a good indicator that if you combine those two, 76% plan to hold steady or increase [their giving]. If you take that together with a lot of economic and financial indicators, that does seem that donors are expressing a very strong commitment to their philanthropy even in the more uncertain economic climate," Osili said.

Moreover, 71% of respondents said that they had a specific strategy for giving, indicating the importance of philanthropic causes among high net worth households, according to Claire Costello, national philanthropic practice executive at U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management.

"We see that [commitment] in several regards," Costello said. "Not only with what they're giving but that they report themselves to be increasingly more strategic about it, more deliberate about it. They're still deriving a great deal of fulfillment from it on a personal level as well as satisfaction by way of the achievements they're seeing from their own giving," she said. "All of that points to the fact that it's really embedded not only in our culture, but in our practices at least of the high-net-worth households around giving."

Early findings of the survey did not distinguish where donors were giving their money, but did indicate which issues which were most important to them. Education and healthcare ranked among the highest, beating out the economy, federal deficit and the housing crisis. That does not necessarily correlate to where their money goes, however, Costello said, but it does reveal donors' concerns. ??

"Nonetheless given the conversations and political discourse of the day, the fact that the housing crisis came in last and the economy came in third and the federal deficit came in fifth; we found to be particularly interesting given the issues of the day that education was paramount," Costello said.

The largest donations during 2011 went to religious causes (35.9%), followed by one-fourth to education and 8.3% to health-related causes. In the spirit of election season, the survey also asked about campaign contributions and found that more than 50% of high-net-worth households had given to political campaigns last year compared to 10% to 12% of the general population who made political contributions, according to the American National Election Study.

The full survey, which will be released Oct. 30, offers more insight into where donations go as well as other focuses such as volunteerism, a trend which The Center on Philanthropy has found to be on the rise.

"One thing I would emphasize is volunteering," Osili said. "That's something we've been seeing as an important trend in the charitable sector. High net worth households have not just been giving their funds and monies, but also their time."

Released biennially, the study takes into account the answers of 700 randomly selected households with an income of over $200,000 or a net worth of more than $1 million excluding the value of the home and defines philanthropy specifically as contributions to a 501(c) (3) organization.

"This is a very important demographic to study because the top 3% of wealth holders in this country give an enormously disproportionate amount of charitable dollars," Costello said. "So if you extrapolate upward from there, they are disproportionately responsible for influencing what happens in communities and in our world."

Source: http://www.onwallstreet.com/news/Wealthy-Remain-Focused-on-Philanthropy-2681235-1.html

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Canadian lawyer, author to speak at WVU College of Law

What happens when a lawyer becomes an author?

Canadian attorney, novelist and poet Leslie Hall Pinder will address that question when she speaks at the West Virginia University College of Law Tuesday, Oct. 9, at 12 p.m. in the Davis Gallery (Room 131A). Admission is free and the public is invited to attend.

?When a writer like Leslie uses her knowledge and skills as a lawyer to fashion a novel, that is one thing,? said law professor James Elkins. ?But when a writer like Pinder brings to a novel her skills and her sensibilities as a poet, we have writing that is lyrical and haunting.?

Pinder intertwines fiction with her legal knowledge to create stories that deal with the struggle for truth as defined by the law. Her most recent novel, ?Bring Me One of Everything? (Grey Swan Press, 2012), weaves fact and fiction into a tale of suspense and intrigue. It is centered on a troubled writer who is researching a prominent 1950s anthropologist, Austin Hart. In the story, Hart is known for removing a stand of totem poles from the Haida homeland in British Columbia and, subsequently, committing suicide.

The New York Times has called Pinder?s writing ?poetically vivid? and ?brave work.? Her previous highly-acclaimed books are ?Under the House? (Random House, 1986) and ?On Double Tracks? (Bloomsbury, 1990). She was nominated for Canada?s highest literary recognition, the Governor-General?s Award, for ?On Double Tracks.?

Born on the Canadian prairie, Pinder graduated from the Law School at the University of British Columbia in 1976. In 1978, she served as the in-house legal counsel for the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs. In 1983, she became a founding partner in the firm of Mandell Pinder & Ostrove, representing the land rights of Canada?s First Nations. She now writes full-time, living in Vancouver and Mexico.

While she is at the College of Law, Pinder will also be speaking to students in the ?Lawyers, Poets, and Poetry? class taught by Elkins.

-WVU-

10/2/12

Check http://wvutoday.wvu.edu daily for the latest news from the University. Follow @WVUToday on Twitter.

CONTACT: James Jolly, College of Law
304-293-7439

Source: http://wvutoday.wvu.edu/n/2012/10/02/canadian-lawyer-author-to-speak-at-wvu-college-of-law

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Muslims for Free Speech

Ibrahim Hooper and Nihad Awad of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Ibrahim Hooper and Nihad Awad of the Council on American-Islamic Relations

Photograph by Alex Wong/Getty Images.

Over the past week, leaders of several Muslim countries, joined by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, have come before the United Nations to call for restrictions on freedom of expression. They?ve pointed to The Innocence of Muslims, a video that insulted the Prophet Mohammed and sparked riots across the world. They?ve lectured the West on Muslim sensibilities and the limits of tolerance for blasphemy.

The riots and the lectures paint a picture of Islam as a culture allergic to unfettered free speech. That picture is misleading. There are Muslim liberals. They don?t show up on your TV screen, because they don?t riot. Today, they?re a small minority of the Muslim population. But with the help of global communications technology and the Arab spring, they?re beginning to make a case for greater tolerance. Here?s a sample of what they?ve said about the latest affronts to Islam: the video, the ?savage? subway ads in New York, and the Mohammed cartoons in France. Their words and thoughts are worth your time.

?The best way to counter hatred is to defy it through convincing arguments, good actions and free debate. Much can be done to fight hatred without restricting speech, and governments should condemn hatred and set the example. Any legislation that restricts free speech including religious symbols can be used to quell social and political dissent. ? Countless incidents show that when governments or religious movements seek to punish offenses, in the name of combating religious bigotry, violence then ensues and real violations of human rights are perpetrated against targeted individuals. ?

Governments and individuals frequently abuse national blasphemy laws to stifle dissent and debate, harass rivals, legitimize mob violence, and settle petty disputes. The loose and unclear language of these laws empowers majorities against dissenters and the state against individuals. They provide a context in which governments can restrict freedom of expression, thought, and religion, and this can result in devastating consequences for those holding religious views that differ from the majority religion, as well as for adherents to minority faiths. ? Rather than criminalizing speech, U.N. member states should step up their commitments to fighting hate crimes, countering hateful discourse, opposing discrimination and promoting interfaith and intercultural dialogue.?

"Our basic position is that the First Amendment means that everyone is free to be a bigot or even an idiot like [anti-Muslim blogger/advertiser] Pamela Geller. We wish she wasn't provoking and inciting hatred, but in America that's her right. We encourage Muslims to exercise the same right to publicly denounce such adverts.?

?Ibrahim Hooper, communications director, Council on American-Islamic Relations

?The truth is that as amateurish as the movie production is, it still falls in the category of freedom of speech. If you say that to people here, they will read your response as: ?You accept this. You are a blasphemer.? They still don?t understand that they don?t have to accept it. They can oppose it, but in a civil manner that is more constructive.?

?Ebtehal Al-Khateeb, professor, Kuwait University

?People of good will and good faith have to use their constitutional right to free expression to condemn incitement. Trying to craft a bill or statute to ban it is nearly impossible without banning some other type of speech that may be legitimate. I think it's crappy for the guy to have [created the anti-Islam film]. I think it's despicable actually, but it's like when people want to burn a Quran. ? I don't think there's any way to have a rule to ban the kind of incitement contained in that movie. [But] we aren't helpless. ? You see Coptic leaders denouncing this film, you see Jews, Christians, Muslim leaders. It's more powerful than just banning. ? The best thing to do would be?with this movie, Quran burning, Nazis marching?is for people to say, ?You have a right to do it, but you're wrong.?

A lot of foreign leaders don't understand. Nasrallah [leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah] said if [America] was really against the film, you'd ban it. Actually, no, you're wrong about that. But you don't understand this country. Nasrallah doesn't understand that as a law-abiding person he'd be able to practice Islam more freely in American than anywhere else in the world. If you are a Shia Muslim in Saudi Arabia, life is going to be hard. A Sunni in Iran, life is going to be hard. If you want to wear a religious [emblem] in Turkey, tough times. France, they want to ban you from wearing religious symbols. In Switzerland you can't build a mosque with a minaret on it. The thing about it, freedom of speech, it's a good and bad thing. It applies to everybody. Once you start making exceptions, you start the erosion of the principle.?

?Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., first Muslim elected to the U.S. Congress

?[Muslims should] re-read the Quran itself and recall the Prophet of Islam's own teachings that the most a wise Muslim should do to respond to an insult is by either ignoring and marginalizing the offender or, even better, to respond by ?arguing with what is better [speech].? Upholding freedom of speech in the West, as opposed to backing down, ups the ante on moderate, educated Muslims to speak up and more emphatically remind reactionary violent extremists?and the silent majority standing on the sidelines?what the Quran and the Prophet commanded them to do in response to insults. They will also need to explain to them how freedom of speech works, and how it is that actions of free Western citizens are separate from the actions of their governments. And maybe, just maybe, argue that the people of the Middle East should adopt free speech and disassociate between their own governments and the speech, actions, beliefs and thoughts of citizens. Middle Eastern governments should no longer pretend to be their citizens' nannies protecting them from the "harms" of speech ?

?Islam Hussein, Egyptian blogger

?American Muslim leaders should explain that while freedom of speech often leads to hate speech, most times society benefits from free speech. Free speech develops critical thinking among the general population and acts as a protector against governments that attempt to violate the civil rights of its people.?

?[T]he subtlest form of cynicism in this affair has been from those in the Islamic world who have condemned the violence but also suggested that it again shows why the West should ?balance? freedom of speech with restrictions on the right to give offense to religious traditions of others. The Organization of Islamic [Cooperation], and many Muslim leaders and intellectuals, have long called for the creation of a zone of censorship around religious sentiments in which free speech is formally curtailed or restricted. This is, of course, strictly antithetical to genuine notions of free speech, freedom of inquiry, and freedom of religion and conscience. Worse, it implicitly endorses the mindset of the extremists.
?
By citing the violent response of extremists and injured sentiments of non-extremists, such calls seek to sacrifice a fundamental human right to protect religious and cultural sensibilities. This must be categorically rejected not only by Western governments but also by all people committed to universal freedoms and fundamental human rights. The Muslims of the world are simply going to have to get used to the fact that freedom means everybody has an equal opportunity to be offended and that they must endure this without a violent response or the suppression of free speech. Asking for strong condemnations of intolerant, outrageous expression is reasonable. Asking for censorship is not.?

?Hussein Ibish, senior fellow, American Task Force on Palestine

?The answer to speech we find deeply offensive is more speech?speech that tells the true story of Islam?not censorship or violence.?

?Yes the film was bad, yes the film was intolerant, and yes it poorly reflects the values that most Americans uphold, honor, and believe in. ? How about growing some thick skin, brains, and actual faith next time and not necessarily in that order. Make a rebuttal film, challenge to a debate, hold a press conference ? do SOMETHING that shows that Muslims are not a bunch of horned up teenage males with mommy-daddy issues and a lack of viable outlets.?

?Robert Salaam, The American Muslim

?I would ask Muslims to recognize that the best way to oppose hate speech is to ignore it. Reaction is precisely what a hater wants to provoke. We can show the falsity of their messages simply by turning our backs.?

?MPV upholds the principle of free speech, whether political, artistic, social or religious, even when that expression may be offensive and that dissent may be considered blasphemous. MPV holds that none should be legally prosecuted, imprisoned or detained for declaring or promoting unpopular opinions.?

?As Muslims, we uphold the value of freedom of speech. But we also believe that with freedom of speech, there also has [to be] responsibility. ? So this is my personal response to those who are saying, ?Well, we have to protect freedom of speech at all costs,? and that people should be able to just denigrate other?s faiths. Can you do it legally? Yes. Should we morally do it? Absolutely not.?

?Dawud Walid, executive director, Michigan chapter of CAIR

?The faith of Islam is no way weakened or damaged by freedom of expression, even if that speech helps promote an agenda of hate by a minority of misled individuals. ?? While we fully support our constitutional right to free expression, we must also encourage responsible and well informed media about Islam both in the USA and abroad.?

?As Americans we understand the importance of the right to free speech and freedom of expression. American Muslims value this right on behalf of every American citizen and would never shy away from ever defending this right. We also feel that this right to free speech should be seen as a great responsibility. ? The right to freedom of expression should not be an opportunity to spread hate and pass insults on sacred religious icons.?

?We support freedom of speech and opinion, which come with responsibility, as well as the right to peaceful demonstrations.?

?Finnish Islamic Council and 14 other Finnish Muslim organizations

??Most Americans do not support desecrating holy books, portraying others' prophets as pedophiles and sadists, and preaching hate. But unless Americans of diverse backgrounds speak up to accurately represent our country, Muslims abroad are exposed only to our vilest citizens. ? The best way to protect free speech is to proffer an accurate counter-narrative into the marketplace of ideas. Otherwise our silence will be interpreted as condoning hate.?

?Sahar Aziz, associate professor, Texas Wesleyan School of Law

?Such limits [on incendiary speech] are best attained not by governments banning offensive material but rather through self-restraint. Yet such restraint is often missing in Western discourse on Muslims and Islam. ? America does not censor but it does censure hate. Yet such societal opprobrium is missing against anti-Islamism. The absence of such civilian remedy is part of the problem.?

?Haroon Siddiqui, former editorial page editor, The Star

?[T]he U.S. political establishment, civil society, and other faith communities must respond to bigotry, like they respond to any reprehensible behavior that is legally protected. ? Yes, bigots have the right to speak with recklessness. When it is met with indifference or political paralysis, then America?s image is one that sanctions anti-Muslim bigotry but counters other forms of bigotry, a double-standard.?

?Jihad Turk, religious adviser, Islamic Center of Southern California, and Salam Al-Marayati, president, MPAC

Not all of these writers, thinkers, and organizations agree on the limits of free speech. But in their statements, you can see common threads. Free speech doesn?t mean moral acceptance. You can censure hatred without censoring it. In fact, free speech protects your right to criticize and refute hateful speech. Or you can ignore the insults, as Mohammed did.

Free speech invigorates debate, strengthens critical thinking, and thereby arms citizens against tyranny. It will make the Muslim world a better place. Yes, bigots will abuse freedom of expression. But the greater danger is that governments will abuse the power to restrict this freedom?or that in the name of peace, dissent will be silenced anytime a mob threatens to riot.

These are the words of Muslim advocates of liberty. Consider and debate them. It?s your future.

William Saletan's latest short takes on the news, via Twitter:

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