What is meant
What is meant is that people have the right to express their opinions in a peaceful manner, without violence or coercion and this right is made part of the general freedom affirmed by the Book
The atom’s structure in the atlas
- Type of argument: value-based
- Argument movement: affirms the right to peaceful expression as part of general freedom.
- Central terms: freedom, peaceful expression, opinion, the Book.
- Degree of centrality: pivotal.
This atom establishes the value of freedom in the public sphere without violence or coercion, making peaceful expression both a moral and political standard, and linking it to acceptance of plurality rather than the elimination of difference.
Links that help with reading
- Muhammad Shahrur, Religion and Authority
- Freedom, the Human Being, and Responsibility
- Freedom
- Jurisprudence is historical and civil law is separate from it
Basis
- Supporting text: “People are free to peacefully express their opinions.”
Basis location in the book
- Book: Religion and Authority.
- Location: in the final section of the book
- Type of basis: near witness.
- Verification marker: free to express their opinions
- Reading note: This passage is suitable as support because it clearly states that people are free to express their opinions by peaceful means.
Degree of documentation
- Level: directly documented
- Meaning of the level: the atom rests on an explicit witness close to the wording of the claim.
- Limits of reading: the wording above is an analytical summary, and should not be treated as a verbatim quotation unless the witness is reproduced verbatim.
Its function in the book
Its function here is declarative; it establishes a result on which what follows in the argument depends.
Related to
Editorial note
The atom does not grant permission for any statement; rather, it restricts freedom to the peaceful sphere.