First, I believe in respecting other people's faith and I would not have been a part of the event that sparked all of this in Texas. But this is not about my personal beliefs. Do we have freedom of speech in this country or don't we? I don't believe in hate; I believe in love. I believe in that old adage 'Hate the sin; love the sinner.' Having said that, anyone has the right to say anything they want with a very few narrow exceptions. We have to fight hardest for freedom of speech when we disagree with the speech or it offends us. This is where it really matters.
We have the right to say or draw anything we want. I feel the Piss Christ is ridiculous and disgusting, and although the artist received death threats, and those threats are wrong no one ever tried to kill the man. At least, I am not aware of any such attempt. Submerging a figuring of Christ on a crucifix in his own urine is offensive, but it is protected speech. In that case the real question was whether the artist should have received federal endowment money. That conversation by the way is fine to have. No one would have tried to defend a crazy Christian who tried to kill the artist.
The bottom line: this is America. You are allowed to make the Piss Christ or draw cartoons that depict Muhammad, period. If we don't like what you produce, we just have to live with it. It doesn't matter if the speech is hateful or not. We have no right to tell people they can't draw political cartoons. Mormons tend to find The Book of Mormon: The Musical offensive, and as yet not one of them has stormed on stage with a gun to put an end to the blasphemy. The problem isn't cartoonists or hate speech. The problem is a group of people that are trying to dictate to everyone else what they can or can't say, and what they can or can't do. They are trying to set up a tyranny. Will we let them? Many other countries do have hate speech laws. Will we join them? I hope not.
Free speech isn't always pretty, but it is always necessary. Stand up for free speech, even if someone characterizes it as hate speech. Remember you can say that you support the right of the Westboro Baptist Church to spew their evil, hateful propaganda even if you disagree with everything they stand for.