MSNBC Host: ‘Our Agenda Is To Promote Peace & Reconciliation’ with Islam

BALL: “Big debate raging over whether or not news organization should publish that controversial cover today of Charlie Hebdo. NBC News making the decision not to publish that cover. And one of the considerations that news organizations are taking into account in making that decision is the safety of their journalists. Have we seen any credible threats against journalists for deciding to publish this cover?”

KOHLMANN: “Look, it depends what you mean by credible but there certainly have been threats on the forums, chat rooms, where violent jihadists, supporters of al Qaeda and ISIS inhabit, you bet, there have been are new calls for attacks against these journals, or attacks these journalists. Look, we have to be — we have to balance this. We have to understand there is a right to freedom of speech, a right to freedom of expression and we should respect that and there shouldn’t be pressure on people to restrain what they are writing on the basis of whether or not there should be violence. On the other hand, look, we do also have to recognize that if people in the Muslim world started burning crosses and they started trampling across Christian artifacts, there wouldn’t be violent attacks, but there would be uproar here, right, there would be anger. And we have to put ourselves in the eyes of our adversaries sometimes and understand that reacting violently, burning Korans and getting very worked up about this does not necessarily help our agenda. If our agenda is to promote peace and reconciliation and understanding, saying bad things about Islam is not going to solve that problem. So once again, freedom of speech is a great thing and it should be absolutely respected and there should not be prior restraint. But let's also remember we have to respect people if we want that respect back.”