Hate-filled words lead to disabling of comments

Yesterday, our editorial board made the decision to disable comments online for an article about an upcoming open house at The Islamic Center of Yuma.

As proponents of free speech, it is rare that we would disable comments on any story, but hate messages do not have to be tolerated.

As often happens, the few ruin it for others. Commenting online is a privilege, not a right. As private businesses, newspapers reserve the right to reject submissions; that’s stated on our Opinion page and it extends to our online newspaper.

Hate has resulted in heinous acts throughout history by all religions, including Christianity. In a perfect world, people would open their minds to understand one another, and even with differing viewpoints, they could tolerate one another.

But this is not a perfect world, as was sadly demonstrated by a small group of hate-filled writers who chose to use YumaSun.com as their soapbox.

We will not be used to foster hate.