Ezra Levant is a lawyer, blogger, and journalist who was recently compelled to appear before a “human rights” commission in Alberta, Canada, to account for his decision to publish the Danish cartoons of Mohammed in Western Standard Magazine. Full details on his battle for freedom of speech and the press in Canada are on Ezra Levant’s blog.
Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission
Northern Regional Office
800 Standard Life Centre
10405 Jasper Avenue
Edmonton, Alberta T5J 4R7 Confidential Inquiry Line (780) 427-7661 Fax (780) 427-6013
Southern Regional Office
Suite 310, 525 – 11 Avenue SW
Calgary, Alberta T2R 0C9 Confidential Inquiry Line (403) 297-6571
Fax (403) 297-6567
Free speech for the counterjihad: Why we are all in this together
Ezra Levant is far from alone in confronting the forces of government censorship and “political correctness” that seek to muzzle and strangle every voice in the counterjihad. Here are just a few recent instances of draconian pro-jihadist censorship that seeks only to keep the truth from coming out:
Calgary Muslim leader Syed Soharwardy says he is withdrawing his Alberta Human Rights Commission complaint against former Western Standard publisher Ezra Levant.
Australia’s new Labour PM, Kevin Rudd, faces his first international challenge
There has been (yet another) suicide-terrorist attack: this time in Kabul.
It took place at the five star Serena Hotel and left seven people dead. I think “murdered” is a more appropriate word and it is unfortunate that the appropriate vocabulary isn’t used.
One wonders how de-sensitised we have become, and how frequently we miss the “spin” that certain words convey. As it turns out the Australian Embassy is located at this hotel. None of the embassy staff were hurt, thankfully.
PM Rudd strongly condemned this act of terrorism as one would expect of any leader.
He is currently re-appraising the security concerns for the embassy staff and other personnel. The Australian Ambassador lives there also. Mr Rudd was recently in Afghanistan - about three weeks ago.
“We have well-established procedures to account for our people in operational areas, allowing us to confirm quite quickly after the explosion that all Australian personnel were safe,” Defence spokesman Brigadier Andrew Nikolic said in a statement.
“This is just an example of the Taliban’s ruthless and indiscriminate actions, which threaten innocent people.”
“Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson, who stayed in the hotel when he was defence minister, told Fairfax Radio Network there was still a lot of work to be done in Afghanistan.
“It just underlines the fact that we still have a long way to go in Afghanistan,” he said.
“Yes, we’ve made significant progress in the reconstruction of the country and fighting the Taliban, but these terrorists will stop at nothing to see that their evil dogma prevails.
“We have a responsibility for the next generation to make sure that we win and they don’t.”
This hotel seems to be the centre for most high-level events. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that it makes an “excellent target” for terrorists.
Australia does not have many troops in Afghanistan. There are currently 970 and most of them are not in Kabul. There are about 500 in Iraq. We do not have a large military and this is why we need the alliance of the USA - a fact many people, mostly the left-wingers, unfortunately forget. (It should be remembered, however, that our national population is less than that of California).
Whilst PM Rudd has stated he is committed to the reconstruction of Afghanistan he has no intention to increase troops numbers. He has also said [no link available] that the whole situation will be reviewed further.
Should the situation in Afghanistan deteriorate - and hopefully it won’t - it will be interesting to see how Rudd, the former diplomat, reacts.
Right now he also has another international headache: Japanese whalers.
“Kambakhsh was accused of mocking Islam and the holy book, the Koran, and for distributing an article which said Prophet Mohammad had ignored the rights of women.”
Whatever Kambakhsh’s intent was, cases like this demonstrate the sort of resistance any potential Islamic reformers face. The simple act of acknowledging that Islamic texts, teachings, and the example of Muhammad himself are problematic with respect to women’s rights and human rights brings threats — and repercussions under shari’a law — such as those which Kambakhsh faces. And of course, U.S. and other coalition forces are putting their lives on the line in that same country. For this?
Sharia Alert. “Afghan journalists seek release of colleague,” from Reuters…
Every Afghan has the right to express his thought through speech, writing, or illustration or other means, by observing the provisions stated in this Constitution.
Every Afghan has the right to print or publish topics without prior submission to the state authorities in accordance with the law.
***
And what will Victory in Afghanistan look like? When there is a free, stable and independent Afghanistan? How long will Afghanistan remain “free” while Article 34 is spat upon because Article 3 will always trump it?***
Article Three Ch. 1, Art. 3
In Afghanistan, no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam.
It is time to re-think what we are trying to accomplish, both in Afghanistan and in other battlegrounds of the counterjihad.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:12.
Norwegian journalist, diplomatic staffer also victimized:
The Norwegian embassy was holding a meeting at the hotel. Jonas Gahr Stoere, Norway’s foreign minister, was there but wasn’t injured. However, a Norwegian journalist and diplomatic staffer were hurt in the explosion, said Stian Solum, a photographer with the Norwegian agency Scanpix.
Police kept journalists and onlookers far from the scene…
The 177-room, newly-built hotel is the finest in Afghanistan, Oliver said.
“It’s a beautiful building, a beautiful facility, so obviously it attracts a lot of diplomats and high-end business people who are coming to make deals involved in Afghanistan’s reconstruction.”
The hotel was built by the Aga Khan, leader of the Ismaili Muslims, and follows Muslim practices. For example, it doesn’t serve alcohol, Oliver said.
Since Westerners use the downtown hotel, which bills itself as “oasis of luxury in a war-ravaged city,” their presence would make it a target, Oliver said.
Also, to the younger audience who may have seen the movie Laurel Canon, the character played by Frances McDormand was loosely, or maybe not so loosely, based on Joni Mitchell.
One of her best known songs is “Big Yellow Taxi” (lyrics here). These words appeal:
Don’t it always seem to go That you don’t know what you’ve got Till it’s gone.
Right now, they have probably taken on a different meaning; certainly to me.
Right now, I am concerned about our freedoms, and in particular, our freedom of speech.
I am sure people have written books about this topic alone. I won’t attempt that here now. People get Nobel Peace prizes for peace. and good charitable and humanitarian works which often lead to more freedom, but not always.
However, this song, “Independence Day,” with these lyrics, “…Let Freedom Ring….” sung by Martina McBride, struck a chord, no pun intended, and I am not even a US citizen!
Now I know that, after the Holocaust, this may seem like a really good idea. However, like all “good things,” there is always a catch. In this case it was “Catch the Fire” ministries. The laws were used to punish and silence two pastors simply for telling the truth.
“Australian Council of Civil Liberties president Terry O’Gorman criticized the ruling, saying it would interfere with a person’s fundamental right of freedom of speech. ‘No matter how stupid and misguided Toben’s views are, freedom of speech means the right to be stupid,’ Mr O’Gorman said.”
Free speech is something we have to hold on to defiantly. As Joni Mitchell says :
Don’t it always seem to go That you don’t know what you’ve got Till it’s gone.
One would immediately like a law like this without knowing the consequences fully. I admit I didn’t know them till something came up.
I am referring to what is now called the case of “the Two Dannys”
I wasn’t there. I can’t say for sure what happened. It was reported that the “Two Dannys,” Danny Nalliah and Danny Scot, gave a seminar on Islam for the benefit of their parishioners so that they could be better educated on Islam.
As far as I know they were merely explaining Islam.
As far as I know they were not inciting hatred and violence, as we often see coming from Muslim countries after Friday prayers - the latest example being the infamous “teddy bear” incident. Hugh Fitzgerald, as always, has a great piece on that.
Then came a British writer of children’s literature who changed the name of one of the characters in his book just after the bear incident: Writer renames Mohammed the Mole.
Remember that the woman in the first story was a British citizen in Sudan.
But the second story is about a British citizen living in Britain!!! Alarm bells???
Here’s where I fear we are heading. I fear we are losing free speech in the entire west. A teacher threatened with lashes because of a bear, a writer of children’s literature changes the name of a character out of fear of a fatwah, and before all this, two pastors get sued for teaching comparative religion. (And let’s not forget the Mohammed cartoons: an attempt to tell us what we can publish in our own papers.)
So what did the “despicable Dannys” do, actually?
They were entrapped by a Muslim lobby group who sought to turn the vilification law to their own advantage.
And why? Because they quoted the Koran to their congregation. Because in that congregation were Muslim activists, sent by a discrimination commissar hired from a Muslim lobby group.
How preposterous, how sinister, has been this saga.
In fact, right from the passing of the Government’s vilification laws, we’ve seen politicians and bureaucrats acting like hysterics on a hunt for witches the rest of us cannot see.
If the law were applied equitably, I suppose it would be okay - but what safeguards could possibly guarantee that?
So far I can’t recall any other similar case; certainly not a high profile case.
I am suggesting one should make oneself very aware of this kind of legislation, no matter where one lives. I believe it will get a lot worse in the entire west. Just a few days ago we heard of the woes of Michael Savage counter-suing CAIR.
Hate speech isn’t nice. Racial vilification isn’t nice either. But why is there an imbalance as to who is allowed to vilify whom - when, where and why? It’s hard not to get this impression.
Back to the two Dannys.
Entrapped, then convicted of trivial infractions
According to Bolt:
The Pastors Burned
The pastors were at long last tried at VCAT before Justice Michael Higgins.
Most of the case over the weeks that followed dealt with the lecture given by Scot, and some curious things soon became clear.
First, even one of the converts had to admit that Scot, who’d been born in Pakistan and got degrees there in theology and applied mathematics, actually understood the Koran far better than did the people complaining he’d misquoted it.
Second, as I wrote at the time, many of the complaints accused Scot of no more than quoting the Koran accurately. Yes, the Koran did tell men they could beat their wives. Yes, it did have verses calling on Muslims to fight infidels until they submitted.
The verdict was also odd.
The pastors were found guilty of vilifying Muslims even though the judge identified only one thing Scot had said that was factually wrong: he’d given the wrong birthrate for Muslims here. And, the judge, added, he’d failed to quote a verse that showed Allah was merciful.
The pastors won the appeal, although they are now saddled with debts. Read more here.
Please take note that the comment ‘Muslims are demons, etc’ in The Australian are not factual. This erroneous statement and others reported by media have been proven by the Supreme Court of Victoria to have never been made by Catch the Fire Ministries and were therefore rejected!
The Australian - Breaking News
This story is from our news.com.au network Source: AAP
Church and Islamic council bury hatchet
• By Jeff Turnbull • June 25, 2007
MEDIATION and handshakes have ended a five year racial vilification battle between an evangelical Christian group and a Victorian Muslim body.
The Catch The Fire Ministries sparked a row with the Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV) in 2002 when it claimed in a newsletter that Muslims were demons training to make Australia an Islamic state, that the Koran promoted violence and killing and that Muslims derived money from drugs.
Catch the Fire pastor Daniel Nalliah said he was relieved the long-running case, which was settled in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) after a hearing in the Victorian Court of Appeal, was now over.
“No-one expected it to be so prolonged,” Pastor Nalliah said.
Are you seeing where this is going, even though it happened a while ago?
I suspect our new Federal government will strengthen this law, but I stress “suspect”. I suspect similar laws in the west will become harsher as more Muslims get into power and/or become more important as a voting block. (Is that still possible in “Londonistan?” See Melanie Phillips.)
Joni Mitchell says,
Late last night
I heard the screen door slam
And a big yellow taxi
Took away my old man
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot.
We don’t have any big yellow taxis to take us away from this “parking lot.”
I confess. I never voted for John Howard and his party until Paul Keating gave us “the recession we had to have”. After all, we were a working family, which is what Labor was supposed to be representative of.
Times became tough paying 17% interest on a mortgage, and bringing up (raising) two young children. I had first hand experience of what the Labor party was capable of, and some details are in the link above. Most of the time they put Australia heavily in debt.
In my previous piece I predicted the Kevin Rudd would win. Secretly I hoped I was wrong as all the polls consistently predicted a Rudd landslide and they were correct.
Howard couldn’t put a foot right and Rudd couldn’t put one wrong.
Now all the commentators here and around the world are looking at the entrails. People in overseas countries are divided over why this happened as much as people here are.
I am going to make it easier for you and save you the trouble.
Of course, these are MY opinions and I am merely a citizen, not a political scientist.
John Howard spent almost twelve years as prime Minister. This is quite an achievement. (We do not have 2 fixed terms like in the USA. As long as people want you, you can stay in power).
Kevin Rudd was politically active both in his home state of Queensland as well as federally, but his political experience didn’t come close to Howard’s.
Australia was doing well, “why jump ship”? How did this happen?
Welcome to the newest version of “image politics” Downunder
Kevin Rudd and his party ran a slick and managed campaign and the Howard government never saw it coming. Rudd , his party and the unions had almost twelve years to get their act together and that is exactly what they did.
It became “new and fresh” versus “old and stale”.
Buzzwords like “education revolution”, “Kyoto”, “working families”, “WorkChoices” and more seemed to be subliminally planted in the minds of the electorate.
Most people didn’t fully comprehend what this really meant, and many still don’t.
WorkChoices was a very confusing issue with many people better off as a result of them, and some not.
What the work place laws achieved were very, very low unemployment. They were also designed to limit the power of the trade unions, who in fact, were down to 15% membership at the time of the election. I wonder why??
Climate Change, Global Warming and Kyoto were also not fully understood.
As for “working families”,yes it sounds good, but unless you are retired you are part of a working family, even if you are a multi-millionaire like Kevin Rudd’s wife, Therese Rein! Somehow this wasn’t noticed by many.
“Education Revolution” essentially meant faster broadband, and a laptop for every child in their last four years of high school. (Almost all children here have computer access both at home and at school. Broadband could be cheaper and a bit faster but that isn’t going to make a child smarter!)
The leaders or agencies behind the Rudd win packaged Labor into the perfect box, and by doing so made the Howard government look very bad.
This was a campaign of slogans and no substance.
Since many voters are lazy, and some want a change for change’s sake, it was too easy.
Add to that the fact that in the past eleven years there was a new generation of younger voters who had no idea what not being able to get a job was like, no idea of high interest rates, and no idea that a government could ruin a country financially, as EX-PM Whitlam had done.
Then there was the media.
Every television station was behind Rudd. Almost every journalist was behind him also. He was given such an easy ride that many Liberal supporters emailed their concerns to all the above. The bias of the media was palpable and frustrating.
Hardly anyone queried a thing he said, yet Liberals were grilled by the media as if they were on trial. They were treated as “almost criminals” by some slick celebrity lawyer. It was rather appalling. I felt the media were out to prove just how powerful they really were, and that is exactly what they did. The price was of no concern: the future of the country really didn’t matter. They wanted Rudd to win at any cost.
I hold many of them responsible and just hope they will grill Rudd should he start to put a foot wrong, and I believe he already has. We shall see…..
I also want to mention the fact that we now have Labor in power in every state, and federally also. This is a first. This cannot be good for democracy. The normal checks and balances have been eroded significantly.
It now appears that John Howard will lose his seat of Bennelong in NSW to Maxine McKew - a former ABC TV anchorwoman whose husband is a powerbroker in the Labor party. . She used to be a typist for the BBC and I know that readers of this ‘blog will immediately know the implications of this. The ABC has never been kind to the Liberal party either. They are unashamedly left-wing.
Many parliamentarians will be out of a job but most will be just fine. Australia is very generous to its politicians.
Although Labor has a large number of seats in parliament, and as I write some are still in doubt, it is sobering to look at the actual number of who voted and how. The Australian Electoral Commission’s Virtual Tally Room, reveals the following:
4,710,134 - Liberal/National Coalition (Howard) 5,373,089 - Australian Labor Party (Rudd)
These figures clearly show that a great many Australians have not turned their backs on Howard or the Coalition. This equates to approximately 47% of the voting population supporting the Coalition.
(I won’t bother with minor parties such as the Greens, although they did help Labor because of our Preferential Voting System.)
Doesn’t seem to make sense, does it? Yet Rudd believes he has a huge mandate. He claims he will govern for all. I can’t see how. He has to repay the unions for their support and $30million contribution to his election. They will want their pound of flesh. He also owes the Greens.
Love him or hate him, Howard’s legacy to Australia is enormous.
He has left the country in good shape and the envy of many others (most recent figures below): Unemployment rate: 4.3 per cent Interest rate: 6.75 per cent Economic growth: 4.3 per cent Stock market: 6390 points Australian dollar: US87.5 cents Surplus 2007 Budget: $10.6 billion Growth in real net national disposable income per head over the past five years: 16 per cent Days lost in industrial strikes/action: Lowest since 1913 National greenhouse gas emissions: 559 million tonnes (2005)
Will Rudd be able to better that? Not in the opinion of this citizen.
“Since I wrote that piece, information has been brought to my attention. I am putting it here because it could affect all of us.I think this guy was the brains behind Labor’s win.
Have a look at the Newt Gingrich clip. I think you may find it quite interesting and relevant. I felt the whole campaign was something we had not seen the like of here before.”
(Disclaimer: there are Muslims to whom this does not apply. They are known as “moderate Muslims”. Many are working hard to reform Islam at great personal risk. Many need security and body guards).
On November 24th, Australians will be going to the polls, and next year the USA will be doing the same. This, to me, seems to be a most important poll. It seems perhaps even more important than appears on the surface.
The issues being raised, especially in Australia, cover enormously important areas. We are told they are the economy, workplace relations, education, health care, and, of course, global warming and climate change.
There should be another very important issue that few politicians are willing to discuss honestly and fearlessly.
I see that issue as being immigration. This is a broad umbrella topic that has subsets of Islam and terrorism.
Ever since the terrorism that occurred on 9/11, I have endeavoured to educate myself regarding Islam. I had a little knowledge of it since I was at university, teacher’s college and a novice teacher during the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War. All us left-wing students were rooting for the Israelis - how times have changed! (Reference: Honest Reporting)
Since then we have had countless incidents of terrorism all over the globe which have affected many people not only in western countries but also in the orient - places like India and Thailand, for example. (Reference: The Religion of Peace)
I think the incident that actually disturbed me most intensely was the Mohammed cartoon fiasco. This sounds very strange, I know, but it hit me then that not only were we all subject to possible terrorist attacks, but that our freedom of speech was really under threat in such a way as I had never seen in my lifetime.
What’s At Stake?
In the years since 9/11 and up till now it has become clear to me that western liberal democracy is on a precipice. And it MUST be saved.
This is a system of civilization that has allowed the unimaginable progress that has occurred in the past two to four thousand years; perhaps even further back. Our civilization, while it varies in Australia, the USA, the UK and Europe, owes its greatness to Greek and Roman civilizations and of course the Judeo-Christian heritage these countries share.
It is not the purpose of this piece of prose to focus on the negatives these civilizations are responsible for. I am talking in a very general sense. However I cannot see how one can avoid recognising this background that has made us what we are today. We have evolved, progressed, refined and developed a tremendous foundation for excellence. We would not be where we are now without it.
Now we find that we are being confronted by a belief system that cannot lay claim to any of the above points. We are also being told by the left-wing elements in our society that all the west has achieved is highly flawed and invalid, and that our institutions and our various religions have a lot to answer for.
Maybe they do. But while we still have them we can improve upon them and their achievements. When we no longer have them, we can only go backwards, self-destruct or be destroyed by external forces.
These “external forces”, are, in my opinion, Islamists and left-wingers, who seem to have brought us to this untenable situation.
Worth Reading Regularly:
We can see this now from reading various websites like those I mentioned above and many, many more; e.g.,
I mention these sites as there are opinions from both sides of Islam, from all religions and from all parts of the globe.
How This Has Affected Australia
Whilst Australia has thankfully not had an attack on its soil, we were victims oftwo attacks in Bali, we have our own “John Walker Lindh”: David Hicks - darling of the left-wing papers, we have had the almost-humour of the “Cat-Meat Mufti”, the despicable Muslim gang rapes, the Cronulla riots, several arrests for suspected terrorism planning, and more recently, the case of Dr Mohammed Haneef (a cousin of the Glasgow bombers, now found to be innocent) to name but a few incidents that have brought Islam and some of its followers into our consciousness.
What Can We Do About It?
The most important thing is educating people.
The most important thing we must tell them is that, although Islam is rooted in the Abrahamic faiths, it really has very little in common with the other two.
We should also educate people that the primary goal of Islam is world domination and the establishment of a global caliphate. This means western countries are all targets.
We should also maintain freedom of speech so we can get the truth out there without fear, no matter what our religion or lack thereof. (Reference: Apostates of Islam) We know now that some countries like the UK are curtailing this freedom.
We must be vigilant and objectively check the MSM daily.
We are fortunate to have a powerful tool at our disposal. The personal computer is a great weapon for us and unfortunately also for those who seek to destroy us. We must use this weapon whenever we see an opportunity to write letters to politicians, clergy, and any other influential leaders.
Many newspapers now have daily ‘blogs that are easily accessed and the issue of Islam is a frequent discussion point “Downunder”. Those of us who are concerned have identified the main journalists who see this threat:
These three journalists run readily accessible ‘blogs.
Even some leftists are beginning to wake up:
Just last week a writer of usual left bias, Sally Neighbour, wrote an article suggesting it is not the media that makes Muslims look bad, but rather Muslims themselves.
Today another left-wing paper published an article that really surprised me: James Button wrote: * Liberals getting left out of the debate on Islam *”liberals” as in left-wing - not to be confused with the Liberal Party.
Maybe things are changing? We must live in hope.
But back to where I started: the forthcoming election.
The Australian Liberal Party, a conservative party, has run this country well for eleven years. Sure they have done some things I didn’t agree with, and yes, they made some mistakes, but I feel they have an idea of what is going on.
Peter Costello, the Federal Treasurer and next in line for the Liberal Party Leadership, is the only western leader to my knowledge who had the intestinal fortitude to say:
…Well the point I would make is this, Australians are free to express themselves about political views, let’s make that clear. But there are some things Australia stands for, has always stood for, always will stand for which will never change. We will never be an Islamic State. We will never observe Sharia Law. We have a Constitution. The Constitution means that Australia has a civil state that the laws are made by elected representatives. We will always be a democracy and to people who say, well we have come to this country and we would like to turn it into something that it isn’t, I say, you must understand, that will never occur. There are certain core Constitutional things that Australia stands for, always will and expects all of its citizens to accept. And that is a civil government with parliamentary democracy, with democratic law making, with equality between men and women and if you’re someone that doesn’t like those principles then Australia may not be the best place for you.
This is the party that I fear will lose the election; not because they have done a bad job, but because they have been in power a long time, because the youth of this country have no idea how good they have it right now, and more importantly, the left-wing party and their sycophantic press want it. And I also wonder: what other power is “pulling the strings”?
