Category: free speech

CAIR wants AG Holder to go after “Muslim-bashers”

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has written to Attorney General Eric (we are a nation of cowards) Holder to ask that he go after Muslim-bashers and presumably shut them up.    I was interested to see that two cases of so-called bashing listed in their letter to Holder are ones we have written about here recently.

You will remember that CAIR was found to be an unindicted co-conspirator in the government’s HolyLand trial which involved terrorist funding.    Their press statement yesterday begins:

A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today called on Attorney General Eric Holder to protect the right of American Muslims to participate fully in the political process and to practice their faith without fear of government intrusion.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) issued that appeal following a number of recent government-related incidents targeting Islam, American Muslim lobbying efforts, American mosques, and Muslim religious practices.

Two of the cases they cite of “bashing” include the story we reported on two weeks ago when a retired FBI agent visited Shelbyville, TN and briefed local law enforcement about radical Islamic activities in the US.

And, of course the missing Somali youth case in Minnesota, as we reported last week, has brought the crybabies out to complain about FBI profiling.   But, what the heck, since Somalis are missing, who better to ask for help in finding them than their fellow Somalis.

I don’t have enough time today to do this justice, so go read the rest of their letter and learn about all the interesting cases of  supposed ‘Islamophobia’ cited by CAIR.

Vermont man charged with hate crime for something the reporter can’t specify

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Maybe I’m dense, but what the heck does this story from Vermont TV station WCAX mean?

A Burlington [man] is charged with a hate crime for using racial epithets to insult people of color. It’s the first case involving interracial hatred in Chittenden County since Vermont’s hate crime law took effect.

The suspect is charged with disorderly conduct as a hate crime for allegedly targeting his African-born neighbors– especially a 9-year-old girl– with death threats and racial insults.

But the suspect claims there was no crime at all because his speech is protected by the First Amendment.

Is he charged for the racial epithets? That’s free speech. Or is he charged for death threats? That may or may not be free speech.

Police records show the Somalis had complained for several years that he targeted them with hateful name-calling but no criminal charges were filed until last fall.

That’s when police say Cannon targeted 9-year-old Nahima Sheck Mohammed and her family with an intensified series of death threats and racial slurs. The prosecutor says it’s a hate crime.

WHAT is a hate crime? The death threats or the racial slurs? Does Vermont’s hate crime law include speech? If so, and if this disgusting low-life guy is being prosecuted for his speech, then he’s right to challenge the law and I hope it goes all the way to the Supreme Court. Even convicted felons (this guy is one) are not deprived of their speech rights.

As for the death threats, the law varies from state to state. Some consider death threats protected speech, others a crime under various statutes.

But the whole idea of hate crime laws is wrong. These laws always specify privileged groups, and those who commit a crime against them can be prosecuted on two counts — the crime itself, and the motive of hate. A very bad thing. I’d rather see an upstanding citizen be the one to challenge such a law, but then upstanding citizens rarely issue death threats.

 

 

The speech Geert Wilders would have given

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is not directly about refugees, but I thought it was important enough to post anyway. Free speech is an issue all over the world, and those of us who have blogs or who write or speak for public consumption in other ways have an intense interest in keeping our speech free here in the United States. Britain no longer has free speech, and the banning of Dutch member of Parliament Geert Wilders is one result. Wilders was thought to be too inflammatory for tender British ears in that he criticizes Islam. For the last four years he has been under 24-hour-a-day guard in the Netherlands as the result of death threats.

Thanks to Diana West for posting Wilders’s speech on her blog. It is very moving, and it is a shameful thing that Wilders was prevented from entering Britain to give it. Here’s a short excerpt:

In 1982 President Reagan came to the House of Commons, where he did a speech very few people liked. Reagan called upon the West to reject communism and defend freedom. He introduced a phrase: ‘evil empire’. Reagan’s speech stands out as a clarion call to preserve our liberties. I quote: If history teaches anything, it teaches self-delusion in the face of unpleasant facts is folly.

What Reagan meant is that you cannot run away from history, you cannot escape the dangers of ideologies that are out to destroy you. Denial is no option.

Communism was indeed left on the ash heap of history, just as Reagan predicted in his speech in the House of Commons. He lived to see the Berlin Wall coming down, just as Churchill witnessed the implosion of national-socialism.

Today, I come before you to warn of another great threat. It is called Islam. It poses as a religion, but its goals are very worldly: world domination, holy war, sharia law, the end of the separation of church and state, the end of democracy. It is not a religion, it is a political ideology. It demands you respect, but has no respect for you.

Read more about the current Wilders incident at FrontPage Magazine, here. And see our previous posts mentioning Wilders here.

Fighting Tolerance Fascists

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That’s what we do here every day!

Here are a few choice bits from a good column today at Town Hall by blogger and columnist John Hawkins. 

No rational discussion allowed:

Tolerance taken to an extreme has actually impeded our ability to rationally discuss vitally important issues that will determine whether our country continues to be successful and prosperous over the long haul.

You hate immigrants don’t you:

Then there’s immigration. The whole point of allowing people to immigrate to this country is to benefit the people who are already here. Yet, if you try to have any sort of substantive conversation about how many people we are allowing into the country each year, where they should be coming from, or how we should choose them, the screaming starts again. “Why do you hate immigrants?”

Hang tough and stand up to political correctness:

Unfortunately, since the people benefiting from continually playing the tolerance card are unlikely to give it up any time soon, those of us who put our country first are going to have to be bolder about confronting them, drawing attention to the real issues, and sticking up for people who have the courage not to be cowed by political correctness. Whether our country remains a shining city on a hill or becomes just another unremarkable slum basking in its faded glory will depend on how successful we are at that task.

Yup, fighting tolerance fascists here everyday.

We support the mission of the International Free Press Society

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is what Baron Bodissey over at Gates of Vienna said last Friday about the launch of the International Free Press Society.

The mission of the IFPS, like its Danish predecessor, is to champion the right of free expression, especially for those who hold controversial or unpopular opinions. Free speech is under assault all across the Western world, but due to the unprecedented attack on Geert Wilders, our initial focus will be on his case in the Netherlands.

Go here to GOV and check out the impressive list of supporters of IFPS’s mission to preserve free speech and here to see IFPS’s Policy Statement which begins:

In recent years – and in particular since 9/11 – freedom of speech has been shrinking throughout the world. This is true not only in countries where this most basic freedom has been tenuous at best, but increasingly where it was first conceived and long enshrined: Europe, the United States and other countries where Western ideas of liberty have taken root.

It is time to confront and reverse the forces, both internal and external, that are now arrayed against free speech, time to organize not just locally and nationally, but also globally in recognition of the common danger imperiling all free societies. The sole purpose of The International Free Press Society (IFPS) is to defend freedom of expression wherever and by whomever it is threatened.

More on the Wilders Witchhunt here.