Inciting Intolerance

David Green, 3 November 2004

In a Guardian article entitled ‘Words that inspire killer deeds’, Gareth McLean tries to associate moral persuasion with threats of violence. Rocco Buttiglione, the former candidate for the EU Commission, said that homosexuality was a sin and, thereby according to Mr McLean, helped to create an atmosphere in which homosexuals could be murdered. So too does Sizzla, the Jamaican singer, whose songs include lines such as, ‘Kill dem battyboys’ and ‘I kill sodomites and queers, they bring Aids and disease pon people’.
But this claim fails to distinguish between moral persuasion and violence. Moral persuasion rests on the assumption of moral equality, the founding principle of Western liberalism. It assumes that all are capable of choosing right from wrong. It enjoins people to change. It assumes an inner life, and a thinking mind open to the influence of others. The moral criticism of a Mr Buttiglione is made in the spirit of the Christian cliche, ‘Hate the sin, love the sinner’. Such criticism is a great leveller, implying that all are equal in the sight of God and bear a responsibility to do the right thing.
Sizzla is inciting violence and should be dealt with according to law. There is no comparison with moral criticism grounded in the assumption of moral equality.
Why does the author try to blur the difference between the two when our whole heritage of liberal-democracy rests on settling differences, however strong, through discussion rather than violence? In Gareth McLean’s view, every criticism of a type of behaviour is an incitement to hatred. Yet, if he is right, then his own criticism of Mr Buttiglione, and anyone who agrees with him, is also an incitement to hatred. In truth, refusal to distinguish between moral criticism and violence is an excuse for violence against people who voice non-violent, merely persuasive, criticisms. It is a rationale for aggression – these moralists deserve all they get. Perhaps this attitude explains the intolerance of the majority of the European Parliament.