Cartoon Unveiling at Johns Hopkins

Who: Dr. Yaron Brook and Dr. Onkar Ghate of the Ayn Rand Institute, Mr. Charles Mitchell of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, and additional panelists.

What: (1). A display of the controversial Danish cartoons depicting Mohammed. (2). A panel discussion and Q&A on the meaning of the worldwide reaction to the cartoons.

Where: Johns Hopkins University Campus – 110 Hodson Hall

When: Monday, March 13, 2006, at 7:00 PM

Summary: So long as men are free to criticize, free to dissent, free to present their own ideas without fear of reprisals--the fight for rational culture has a chance. But the crisis over cartoons of Mohammad threatens to wipe out freedom of speech. Our leaders have shamefully sided with the mobs chanting death threats and torching embassies. Free speech, our leaders say, is not an absolute, its exercise must not offend religious beliefs--it is a right, in other words, that we are not free to exercise. If the threats, riots and killings fomented by Islamic states are allowed to proceed--if they are allowed to compel Western thinkers into self-censorship--the first to be silenced will be the critics of Islam. And then the critics of religion. And then everyone else.

The Ayn Rand Institute disseminates the pro-American ideals of reason, egoism, and individualism on your behalf, and our efforts fundamentally depend on the absolute right to free speech. That is why we have launched a campaign to inform the American public about what is at stake in this crisis. In a series of public events on college campuses, ARI speakers will explain: the actual meaning of free speech--and why it must include the freedom to offend; what should have been the reaction of Western governments to the crisis; what reactions to the cartoons in the Islamic world tell us about that culture; and how the Western media ought to defend the right on which its livelihood, and our culture’s survival, depends.

Support ARI’s Free Speech Campaign: Any contribution that you can make to ARI to help offset the cost of this event would be greatly appreciated. To give now to support our campaign to defend free speech, please go to:

http://www.aynrand.org/freespeech