How can Islam and despotism coexist when despotism is the ultimate idolatry? What is despotism other than the displacement of God, and the denial of the supernal promise of humanity? While God has emdowed us with the tools to think and speak, the despot confiscates the gifts of divinity. The unwavering mark of the despot is censorship, whether it slays the intellect or supresses its speech. Whether the despot censors in the name of God, or seeks to prevent the triumph of Satan, censoring the word, by its nature, is an act of blasphemy. Censorship preempts the possibilities of creation, perjures the testimony, with which we have been charged, and voids the very logic of human accountability.
    But censorship is the ailment of the despot, festering in a slough of cowardliness and fear. Seeking to escape the challenges of thought, the despot barricades himself in a stockade of arrogance that only shields his fears. But regardless of the fanfares of power and might, the despot is cowardly and weak. Any coward can fire a gun, or any tyrant can pluck out the tongues of those who dare to speak, but it takes a bravery of the sublime to confront ideas with ideas. It is impossible for a Muslim who has truly surrendered to the truth of God to refuse to confront thought with thought, and to indulge in the cowardly act of censoring speech. Light cannot exist if we ban the night, and if people cannot deny they cannot believe. Can there be heaven without its hell, and without hardship can there be ease?
    Among the mythology preserved in our Muslim history is a story that claims: "Moses, peace be upon him, asked God to ban people from speaking lies about him (Moses). God answered that He would not censor people from speaking lies about Himself so how could He ban people from speaking about anyone else!" But no wonder! Wasn't the Devil ejected from the realm of God, and specificially put on this earth to speak? If the Lord allowed the Devil the freedom to speak, and say nothing but lies, how to we imagine that we can deny humans the right to speech?

-Ur "The Search for Beauty in Islam : A Conference of the Books" av Khaled abou el Fadl, s.269