INTERNATIONAL LAW: Article 19 of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides:

1. Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference.

2. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.

3. The exercise of the rights provided for in paragraph 2 of this article carries with it special duties and responsibilities. It may therefore be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary:

(a) For respect of the rights or reputations of others;

(b) For the protection of national security or of public order (ordre public), or of public health or morals.

Yet France (which ratified the Covenant in 1980) just prosecuted someone for calling Islam “dumb,” and similar anti-“hate” initiatives abound in other European countries. Meanwhile, such are never aimed at mullahs whose attack-America rhetoric goes unpunished, making it doubtful that the justification for prosecuting such speech is the protection of public order. (Who’s more likely to inspire violence — a fundamentalist mullah calling for jihad, or a Western journalist calling Islam dumb?)

America, on the other hand, is expected to follow international law slavishly or it is a “bully.”