Excerpt:
What if there was one historical figure that just simply could not be lampooned? I'm not talking about a George Orwell book now. I'm talking about reality. What if people in the free world, who had the right to free speech, would not dare lampoon this figure, because so many people on the planet had become brainwashed into thinking he was a "prophet"? Maybe this seems just too mind-numblingly absurd to even entertain, but what if – what if the fear that these people would be offended, and then hurt you, or kill you, kept everyone silent – kept everyone afraid to poke fun at the imaginary holy man and to shudder in fear at the thought of exercising their right to free speech?
Is there even a word for something so absurd, so incredibly ridiculous? In fact there is. It is called being "Sharia-compliant."
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2012: "Sharia and the Constitution" was the name of the panel I was speaking on the night before, in Orange County, California. I spent the night at a motel and got on to the freeway for a long drive home, after the traffic had let up.