How Much Free Speech Is Permissible in Islam?

During mediaeval islam, strict monotheism and insistence on eternal truth of the koran sets important limits on speech and ideas. Mediaeval controversies over where to draw the line between free thought and apostasy or heresy are crucial to understanding why this question still gives rise to violent conflicts in the 20 first century. For all these reasons, mediaeval isam plays an important, indirect role in the history of what would later be defined as free beach. But even if free speech was not positively defined or even acknowledged, the shifting degrees of tolerance negatively defined the limits of speech and thought in practice.

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