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Free to Offend?

Joan Bakewell, Madeleine Bunting, Ziauddin Sardar, Philip Hensher, Reza Aslan and Anthony Julius

Hay Festival 2006, Sunday 28 May 2006

How are both religious sensibility and freedom of expression to be accommodated in pluralistic societies? Is offence the price believers must pay for living in a free society? Or do those who advocate free speech have to accept that in some circumstances other beliefs and principles may have to take priority?