Earlier this week, France put its 2010 law banning the veil into effect, spurring angry demonstrations in both Paris and London. Two women were arrested, not because they were wearing burqas but because they participated in an illegal demonstration. Parisian police arrested 61 people this past weekend for holding an outlawed protest on this issue.
by Raymond Ibrahim*
The now infamous Koran burning by Florida pastor Terry Jones has created hysteria in the Muslim world. In Afghanistan alone, some twenty people, including U.N. workers, have been killed and beheaded to screams of “Allahu Akbar!” Western leaders around the globe — including Obama and members of Congress — have unequivocally condemned Jones’ actions (without bothering to point out that freedom of expression is a prized American liberty). Many are even blaming the deaths in Afghanistan directly on Jones; Bill O’Reilley says he has “blood on his hands.”
By Fern Sidman
Exceptionally heavy security prevailed at Brooklyn College on Thursday evening, March 10th, as conservative commentator, prolific author and founder of the FrontPage Mag web site, David Horowitz, delivered a lecture in response to the propaganda being promulgated by the organizers of Israeli Apartheid Week on campus.
Over 150 people gathered at the college library auditorium to listen to Mr. Horowitz’s speech entitled the “Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Myths and Facts” and was sponsored and organized by Brooklyn College student Yosef Sobel and Mitchell Langbert, an associate professor in the department of business and economics. “Because the Hillel organization on campus was too afraid to sponsor me, I must thank those who had the courage to do so.” said Mr. Horowitz. Despite numerous warnings prohibiting verbal disruptions, bellicose Muslim student hecklers abounded and Mr. Horowitz’s remarks were often punctuated by the sounds of acrimonious, ad hominem attacks.
Pakistan’s, “blasphemy law holds a death sentence for anyone who insults Islam. … Although no-one convicted under the blasphemy law has ever been executed, more than 30 accused have been killed by lynch mobs.” Today, Shahbaz Bhatti, the Pakistani government’s only Christian cabinet minister was, “shot dead by gunmen who ambushed his car in broad daylight in the capital, Islamabad. … In January, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, who had also opposed the law, was shot dead by one of his bodyguards.”
Such savagery; such ignorance. The word “blasphemy” reeks of societal backwardness and smells of a total misunderstanding of free speech. Murder to silence free expression is anathema to everything the Western World has been built upon. Pakistani Minister Bhatti was not only savagely slaughtered, but he was set up by an increasingly bold Islamist movement in his home country:
A Virginia man who encouraged the murder of Matt Stone and Trey Parker over an episode of “South Park” that portrayed the Muslim prophet Muhammed dressed as a bear was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Thursday. …
I wouldn’t have been so kind to this savage Islamist who wished to silence all dissent — actually ANY discussion and free speech — ABOUT Mohamed. I have to put up with the “Piss Christ” and countless poisonous attacks against Jews. Muslims can put up with FREE SPEECH like the rest of us. I would’ve sentenced this guy to life and thrown the keys in the toilet. But at least our justice system DID take notice and hand down a relatively harsh sentence against this wannabe murderer of innocents. Here’s more about this poor excuse for a human:
By Andrew Whitehead
A joint letter signed by CAIR, radical Islamist supporting groups, and several like-minded individuals has called on the Orange County District Attorney, Tony Rackauckas, to stop pursuing felony criminal charges against members of UCI Muslim Student Union (MSU). Members of the MSU planned and implemented a protest that interrupted a speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren at the University of California, Irvine in February 2010.
On January 24, 2011, the distinguished Lars Hedegaard, the President of the Danish Free Press Society and the International Free Press Society, will stand trial for telling the truth about Islamic gender apartheid.
Europe, once the birthplace of freedom, is fast becoming its graveyard.
True, the Church tortured and burned many geniuses as heretics; Dutch Jews excommunicated Spinoza; wars for religious supremacy raged for hundreds of years. Still, concepts such as free speech and individual human rights over and above the divine rights of Kings gradually ruled the European zeitgeist. Americans and other former colonists romanticized Europe as “the” place for artists, free thinkers, and free spirits.
by Daniel Huff*
On December 29, Scandinavian authorities arrested five terrorists planning an attack in Denmark. Almost as interesting as what they targeted is what they spared and the lessons it holds for future counterterrorism efforts.
The plot was to storm the Copenhagen newsroom of Jyllands Posten and murder its staff. It was the fourth attempt this year by Islamic extremists to punish the newspaper that published the Mohammed cartoons. But the terrorists are guilty of selective prosecution. They have yet to strike Politiken, which also published the cartoons, even though its offices are literally next door.
By Andrew L. Jaffee
It’s good that an NPR executive resigned to “atone” for the attempt to silence Juan Williams’ free speech, but she wasn’t motivated by contrition, rather she was scapegoated by an organization trying to cover its collective rear end(s).
Here… we… go… again… Attempted murder of innocent civilians over a frickin’ cartoon!
Police in Denmark and Sweden said they thwarted a terrorist attack possibly hours before it was to begin Wednesday, arresting five men they say planned to shoot as many people as possible in a Copenhagen building housing the newsroom of a paper that published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Four suspects were arrested in the suburbs of Copenhagen, including a Tunisian, a man from Lebanon and an Iraqi asylum-seeker. A fifth suspect, a Swedish citizen of Tunisian origin, was arrested in Sweden. The Danish Security and Intelligence Service said it seized a submachine gun, a silencer and ammunition.
“An imminent terror attack has been foiled,” said Jakob Scharf, head of the service. He said three of the men were arrested as they left a suburban Copenhagen apartment, “either heading out to carry out the terror attack or to do some kind of reconnaissance.”
Scharf described some of the suspects as “militant Islamists with relations to international terror networks.” He said more arrests were possible. …
I had just published an article yesterday entitled, “Google Bans Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) From YouTube: Net Neutrality?” Many other bloggers and passionate supporters of Israel also took action. This morning, I received an email from PMW stating:
PMW wants to personally thank our subscribers and supporters. In response to your many actions - your emails to You Tube, your blogs, tweets, op-eds, and calls to Google - as of this morning the YouTube “Palwatch” account is once again functional.
Just why did Google close PMW’s account? I’m sure the answer is obvious to most of you, but the Jerusalem Post already highlighted the explanation yesterday:
… [PMW director Itamar] Marcus said that he suspected that the complaints [against PMW's videos] came from Palestinian or Arab activists who didn’t like the fact that the hateful messages were being exposed.
“These types of videos are usually only viewed in Arab society, since they are aired on Arab-language channels. They want to hide the things they only allow themselves to say amongst themselves in Arabic, but we watch it, translate it and send it around the world to decision-makers and the general public,” said Marcus. …
Note that Google claims it doesn’t have time to pre-screen video uploads, so it lets its user community do it for them. Blah, blah, blah… The truth hurts, especially when people (portions of the Arab/Muslim world) want to lie — in a society where lying (”Taqiyya”) is blessed by its predominant religion. But ya’ can’t hide from the truth in the Internet age.
I just received an urgent email from Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) entitled, “YouTube closes down PMW account.” YouTube is owned by media giant Google, which has once again taken the side of censorship, even though the company espouses the term “Net Neutrality.” Remember that Google eagerly helps Chinese dictators censor their citizens’ web access — all for money and not missing out on a very large market. Watch for announcements from netwmd.com on starting a campaign of opposition to Google’s censorship. For now, please contact Google to express your concerns about its banning of PMW. Here’s the PMW email I received:
YouTube closes down PMW account
PMW needs your help. YouTube has closed down PMW’s main video account - PALWATCH - for “violating YouTube terms of use”, by supposedly propagating hate speech. Of course PMW does not promote hate speech, but exposes the hate speech of the PA and the Hamas, in order to bring about its elimination.
YouTube stated that the account was henceforth terminated “due to repeated or severe violations of our Terms of Use” and they specified the following PMW videos from Palestinian sources, promoting the killing of Jews:
- “Hamas TV teaches kids to kill Jews” formerly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwN2M6ZIIRU
Removed for violating our Terms of Use on 10/02/2009.- “Jews are a virus like Aids” formerly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYaGl3KjPUw
Removed for violating our Terms of Use on 01/18/2010.- “Farewell video before suicide attack of Hamas suicide bomber Adham Ahmad Hujyla Abu Jandal” formerly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYdTudQhWM4
Removed for violating our Terms of Use on 06/10/2010.- “Hamas suicide farewell video: Jews monkeys and pigs; Maidens reward for killing Jews” formerly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryc7RqXlVdE
Removed for violating our Terms of Use on 08/14/2010.- “PA cleric: Kill Jews, Allah will make Muslims masters over Jews” formerly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjuDTO8fgqM
Removed for violating our Terms of Use on 12/12/2010.- “Hamas suicide terrorist farewell video: Palestinians drink the blood of Jews” formerly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSftYIGH6-w
Removed for violating our Terms of Use on 12/15/2010.PMW urgently seeks to have this account reopened, since some of these videos have accumulated hundreds of thousands of viewings and the exposure is critical to our ongoing work.
If any of our subscribers could help, it would be much appreciated.
Thank you,
Itamar Marcus
The fact is that PMW’s videos were doing too good of a job exposing Palestinian hatred of Israel. Google is part of the problem, not the solution to Internet censorship. It has chosen the path of political correctness over dissemination of truth — true “Net Neutrality.”
A briefing by Daniel Huff*
Daniel Huff is director of the Middle East Forum’s Legal Project, which defends the free speech rights of authors and activists commenting on radical Islam and related issues. A graduate of Columbia Law School, he previously served as counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee to then Ranking Member Arlen Specter, handling a host of national security, civil and criminal matters. On October 28, he addressed the Middle East Forum via conference call on the twin assault Islamists have launched against free speech rights.
by Johanna Markind*
If you were arrested for speaking on public streets, where would you turn for help? These days, the answer may depend on what you were saying.
Suppose you were arrested for marching through the streets of Dearborn, Michigan, protesting Israeli policies against Palestinians. Unquestionably, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) would support your rights, even filing suit on your behalf.
Suppose, instead, you were arrested for preaching Christianity on the streets of Dearborn. Would you ask the ACLU for help? Would it help you? Well, maybe.
Consider the four people arrested on June 18, 2010, for proselytizing passersby at Dearborn’s Arab International Festival. Certainly the ACLU agreed that the arrests had violated the missionaries’ constitutional rights. The state ACLU chapter’s legal director told the Michigan Messenger that “the man encouraging others to convert to Christianity was engaged in speech protected by the First Amendment.” But that is all. The organization did not issue any press releases to that effect, address the matter on its website, or reference it in listserv emails.
by Daniel Huff*
Court documents filed last week reveal Islamic extremists have obtained personal contact information on members of the defiant Facebook group “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day.” Zachary Chesser, who provided the information, pled guilty to “communicating threats” and renounced jihad, but the damage was done. Prosecutors say he “seriously endangered the lives of innocent people who will remain at risk for many years to come.”
This lasting effect makes it all the more frustrating that authorities did not charge him sooner. He had made very similar threats against the producers of South Park weeks before. The case highlights the urgent need for better legal tools to protect free speech from extremist intimidation.
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