Trading Liberty for Security

Those trading liberty for security deserve neither -- paraphrase attributed to Ben Franklin. "In light of the most recent machinations to wage war on non-violent “extremism,” some critics have publicly wondered whether it could ensnare people like Indian non-violent revolutionary Mahatma Gandhi or WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. A wide range of religious groups known for their “extreme” pacifism, too, could theoretically be caught up in the “non-violent extremist” dragnet. Even many of the abolitionists of the 1800s fighting to end slavery peacefully could have been classified as “non-violent extremists” at the time."