perdre la vie, c’est mettre tout son courage en un seul geste. La vie, elle, peut exiger un courage de tous les jours, de tous les instants ; elle pe… - Tzvetan Todorov

pidió a Alvarado que no le quemasen, sino que le ahorcasen

Today, the demand for total freedom of expression is the usual facade behind which there lurks xenophobia, the common theme of movements such as the Danish People’s Party, the Flemish Interest in Belgium, or the Freedom Party in Austria. When the leader of the Swiss extreme right, Christoph Blocher, defends the propaganda of his party, which presents foreigners as black sheep who should be kicked out of the country, he claims he is merely launching a discussion; whoever criticizes him for this is a censor.

When an angry mob demands the death of a female English schoolteacher alleged to have insulted the Prophet, as happened in Sudan in November 2007, the real objective was not the defence of Islam but of honour, which – it was felt – had been slighted for many long years by the Western powers. This ‘spontaneous’ use of religion was accompanied by its deliberate instrumentalization by those who are pursuing other objectives, but who prefer this disguise. Even the Crusades, as I have said, had several motives other than religious ones, but these motives were merely less easy to admit to; so they preferred to declare that Jerusalem needed to be liberated. Such a cause appears nobler; and, in addition, the appeal to cultural identity allows more powerful inner resources to be mobilized.