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From The Legal Project:
It's Time to Take a Stand for Free Speech
by Adam Turner • Apr 29, 2011 at 2:56 pm
http://www.legal-project.org/blog/2011/04/time-to-take-a-stand-for-free-speech
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In 2011, fringe Florida Pastor Terry Jones finally burned a Koran in Florida. He had first threatened to burn a Koran the year before but had been persuaded to desist by the pleas of numerous prominent Americans, especially members of our governing elite. However, perhaps bothered by his loss of public attention since then, Jones followed through with his original threat on March 20, 2011. Less than two weeks later, Afghanis learned of the incident after President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan – either wilfully or recklessly – publicly condemned the Koran-burning. Soon after that, his state employed radical Islamist Imams began to preach to the religious Afghani community, whipping them into a frenzy of anti-Americanism. Predictably, these Afghanis began to look for Americans to punish, and finding that the only Americans in the country were armed soldiers, they chose to broaden their anger to include less menacing Western targets. After more than a week of rioting, this government and Islamist instigated catastrophe has resulted in the deaths of at least 24 people, including the massacre of seven UN civilians, two of whom were beheaded, and there was widespread destruction in Afghanistan's major cities. Ironically, it has also resulted in the burning of multiple Korans.
The response from prominent American officials to Pastor Terry Jones' threats and actions regarding the Koran and Islam has been extremely disheartening from a pro-free speech rights, pro-First Amendment perspective. After Jones' initial threat against the Koran, both President Obama and General David Petraeus asked him not to do so, while the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, actually called him up and begged him not to burn the book. To my knowledge, a Secretary of Defense has never before pleaded with a specific individual American not to exercise his obviously First Amendment-protected speech. Further, after Jones finally burned the Koran, even more powerful American officials, including (again) President Obama, (again) General David Petraeus, Mark Sedwill, the top NATO civilian representative in Afghanistan, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and Senator Lindsey Graham, all strongly condemned the act. And then the U.S. government officials did more than just criticize. When Pastor Jones tried to follow up his March Koran-burning with an April, two-person protest in front of a mosque in Dearborn, MI, city officials successfully brought him to court, threw him in jail for not paying a "peace bond", and banished him from the mosque area in the city for three years, all before Jones was even able to exercise his right to protest.
Of course, the big problem with these government reactions to the disreputable "speech" coming from Pastor Jones is that they are only prompted by the violence instigated by Islamists in Afghanistan and elsewhere. When Bibles or American flags are burned, the President, the Secretary of Defense, etc. do not feel the need to vocally oppose or use the courts to shut down these equally insulting yet equally constitutionally protected acts. That is because Christians, Jews, and American patriots do not riot and kill over these kinds of gratuitous insults. So we are, in effect, giving the Islamists exactly what they want – a privileged status for Islam in the U.S.
This is not the first time America's elites have caved in to Islamists regarding the speech rights of Americans. In 2005, American newspapers refused to print the Danish cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Mohammed because of the fear of widespread rioting and killings throughout the Muslim world. In 2006, Comedy Central censored the cartoon South Park's innocent depiction of Mohammed. In 2009, Yale University Press censored the offending Danish cartoons of Mohammed out of a scholarly book it had released on the protests, after concluding that they would incite further violence from Muslim extremists if they were included. In 2010, Comedy Central censored the cartoon South Park's second attempt to depict Mohammed, this time after a direct threat from Revolution Muslim, an Islamist group headquartered in the U.S.
This consistent positive reinforcement of Islamist threats and rioting against American speech rights is only getting us more threats and rioting. At some point in the future, the U.S. is going to have to make a hard choice. We can stand up to Islamist driven bullying, or we can fold our tents and give them the power to dictate what we can say or do (at first only about Islam, but later about everything). This won't be an easy choice, since it is quite possible that people will die based on our decision. But if there is anything that can be learned from history, it is this – appeasement of the bully only encourages him, and in the long run, more people will suffer when the bully is consistently encouraged by his victim's continued timidity. It is time to draw the line, here, now.
It's Time to Take a Stand for Free Speech
by Adam Turner • Apr 29, 2011 at 2:56 pm
http://www.legal-project.org/blog/2011/04/time-to-take-a-stand-for-free-speech
Send RSS Share:
Be the first of your friends to like this.
In 2011, fringe Florida Pastor Terry Jones finally burned a Koran in Florida. He had first threatened to burn a Koran the year before but had been persuaded to desist by the pleas of numerous prominent Americans, especially members of our governing elite. However, perhaps bothered by his loss of public attention since then, Jones followed through with his original threat on March 20, 2011. Less than two weeks later, Afghanis learned of the incident after President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan – either wilfully or recklessly – publicly condemned the Koran-burning. Soon after that, his state employed radical Islamist Imams began to preach to the religious Afghani community, whipping them into a frenzy of anti-Americanism. Predictably, these Afghanis began to look for Americans to punish, and finding that the only Americans in the country were armed soldiers, they chose to broaden their anger to include less menacing Western targets. After more than a week of rioting, this government and Islamist instigated catastrophe has resulted in the deaths of at least 24 people, including the massacre of seven UN civilians, two of whom were beheaded, and there was widespread destruction in Afghanistan's major cities. Ironically, it has also resulted in the burning of multiple Korans.
The response from prominent American officials to Pastor Terry Jones' threats and actions regarding the Koran and Islam has been extremely disheartening from a pro-free speech rights, pro-First Amendment perspective. After Jones' initial threat against the Koran, both President Obama and General David Petraeus asked him not to do so, while the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, actually called him up and begged him not to burn the book. To my knowledge, a Secretary of Defense has never before pleaded with a specific individual American not to exercise his obviously First Amendment-protected speech. Further, after Jones finally burned the Koran, even more powerful American officials, including (again) President Obama, (again) General David Petraeus, Mark Sedwill, the top NATO civilian representative in Afghanistan, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and Senator Lindsey Graham, all strongly condemned the act. And then the U.S. government officials did more than just criticize. When Pastor Jones tried to follow up his March Koran-burning with an April, two-person protest in front of a mosque in Dearborn, MI, city officials successfully brought him to court, threw him in jail for not paying a "peace bond", and banished him from the mosque area in the city for three years, all before Jones was even able to exercise his right to protest.
Of course, the big problem with these government reactions to the disreputable "speech" coming from Pastor Jones is that they are only prompted by the violence instigated by Islamists in Afghanistan and elsewhere. When Bibles or American flags are burned, the President, the Secretary of Defense, etc. do not feel the need to vocally oppose or use the courts to shut down these equally insulting yet equally constitutionally protected acts. That is because Christians, Jews, and American patriots do not riot and kill over these kinds of gratuitous insults. So we are, in effect, giving the Islamists exactly what they want – a privileged status for Islam in the U.S.
This is not the first time America's elites have caved in to Islamists regarding the speech rights of Americans. In 2005, American newspapers refused to print the Danish cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Mohammed because of the fear of widespread rioting and killings throughout the Muslim world. In 2006, Comedy Central censored the cartoon South Park's innocent depiction of Mohammed. In 2009, Yale University Press censored the offending Danish cartoons of Mohammed out of a scholarly book it had released on the protests, after concluding that they would incite further violence from Muslim extremists if they were included. In 2010, Comedy Central censored the cartoon South Park's second attempt to depict Mohammed, this time after a direct threat from Revolution Muslim, an Islamist group headquartered in the U.S.
This consistent positive reinforcement of Islamist threats and rioting against American speech rights is only getting us more threats and rioting. At some point in the future, the U.S. is going to have to make a hard choice. We can stand up to Islamist driven bullying, or we can fold our tents and give them the power to dictate what we can say or do (at first only about Islam, but later about everything). This won't be an easy choice, since it is quite possible that people will die based on our decision. But if there is anything that can be learned from history, it is this – appeasement of the bully only encourages him, and in the long run, more people will suffer when the bully is consistently encouraged by his victim's continued timidity. It is time to draw the line, here, now.
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