free speech

free speech

Fitna … Update: LiveLeak restores video link despite new threats

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Updated, 12:28 PM EDT, March 31, 2008: LiveLeak restores Fitna link despite new threats (see video in original post below). HotAir.com has the details.

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Updated, 5:09 PM EDT, March 28, 2008: LiveLeak has removed Fitna due to threats. Michelle Malkin has the details (plus a working copy of the film) and you can click on the screen below to read Live Leak’s statement.

Original post, March 28, 2008:

WARNING: Fitna contains strong content.

My conflict with posting Fitna was twofold. I am no expert on Islam yet it has been widely said that the depiction of God and the prophets is offensive to Muslims. That is contrary to my beliefs but I am not a Muslim; I believe that religion is a personal relationship with God. Why offend, just for the sake of doing so? I am no holier than thou are. Secondly, I cannot possibly know what is in Wilders’ heart. Perhaps he is a profiteer, solely out for political gain or seeks only to incite. If so, then posting Fitna supports the indefensible.

A good friend of mine feels that Islam is a third world religion, one where there can be no secular government, anywhere in the world, and no laws of humankind on earth the equal or placed above Islam. That perception seems borne out by what we see today, radicalization versus modernity, with the latter appearing to lose ground these last four decades.

Even at the risk of offending those who live and let live or appearing to agree with something that I do not agree with, that all of Islam is an evil belief, I could not remain silent.

Risking all in defense of unalienable, God given rights, even those of someone with whom you disagree, is really a selfish venture. Someone far wiser than me once said, “I cannot be free unless you are.” The reverse is also true and that is why I posted Fitna here on this web site for to defend the rights of others is a defense of my own.

free speech, Islam vs. Islamists

Islam and Free Speech

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Congressman Peter Hoekstra writes in the Wall Street Journal this morning about Islam and Free Speech [Ed. — the links interjected into the following excerpt are mine]:

Not all of these radicals are using violence to supplant democratic society with an extreme form of Shariah. Some in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark are attempting to create parallel Islamic societies with separate courts for Muslims. According to recent press reports, British officials are investigating the cases of 30 British Muslim school-age girls who “disappeared” for probable forced marriages.

While efforts to create parallel Islamic societies have been mostly peaceful, they may actually be a jihadist “waiting game,” based on the assumption that the Islamic populations of many European states will become the majority over the next 25-50 years due to higher Muslim birth rates and immigration.

What is particularly disturbing about these assaults against modern society is how the West has reacted with appeasement, willful ignorance, and a lack of journalistic criticism. Last year PBS tried to suppress “Islam vs. Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center,” a hard-hitting documentary that contained criticism of radical jihadists. Fortunately, Fox News agreed to air the film.

Even if the new Wilders film [‘Fitna’] proves newsworthy, it is likely that few members of the Western media will air it, perhaps because they have been intimidated by radical jihadist threats. The only major U.S. newspaper to reprint any of the controversial 2005 Danish cartoons was Denver’s Rocky Mountain News. You can be sure that if these cartoons had mocked Christianity or Judaism, major American newspapers would not have hesitated to print them.

[Ed. — Here is the link to the editor’s blog of the Rocky Mountain News that has links to the 12 cartoons. Update: You can also see a sample of the cartoons right here on this web site.]

READ THE REST of Congressman Hoekstra’s commentary.