The Islamofascists in Canada are still trying to censor and intimidate Mark Steyn.
I previously posted about it here:
Link: http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2007/12/06/islamo-nuts-try-to-muzzle-mark-steyn-over-macleans-article/
The latest:
On December 4, the Canadian Islamic Congress announced that it had filed a complaint with three of Canada’s “human rights commissions” over an October 2006 article that Steyn had published in Maclean’s, Canada’s leading news weekly. “This article completely misrepresents Canadian Muslims’ values, their community, and their religion,” said Faisal Joseph, an attorney representing the complainants, in a press release. “We feel that it is imperative to challenge Maclean’s biased portrayal of Muslims in order to protect Canadian multiculturalism and tolerance.”
The article in question was adapted from Steyn’s recent book America Alone, which argues that Western society may be irrevocably altered — and not for the better — by unassimilated Muslim immigration. It’s no surprise that this thesis is controversial, probably in part because Steyn makes his points so well. But the real threat to tolerance here is the CIC, which would have the state impose penalties on those whose writings it disagrees with.
In doing so it only provides evidence for Steyn’s thesis. Another group of Canadian Muslims — the Muslim Canadian Congress — has said as much, denouncing the CIC’s complaint for affirming “the stereotype that Muslims have little empathy for vigorous debate and democracy.” But at the moment, the CIC’s push for censorship advances. Of the three human-rights commissions to which it submitted its complaint, two have agreed to hear the case. (The third has yet to decide.)
Since their founding, Canada’s human-rights commissions have done less to protect the rights of minorities than to undermine the liberties of everyone.
Link: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=M2E3ZTVhNjhlMDY0MzM2NjNlYTE3YzQ3MzU0ODZjYjY=
To their credit, some Canadian journalists are outraged:
What can I say about hate speech investigations into Maclean’s magazine?
I mean that literally. This used to be a free country where we had the hard-won right to speak our minds without fear. But now the Canadian Islamic Congress has complained about a Mark Steyn piece in Maclean’s to the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal and to the Canadian and Ontario Human Rights Commissions and, according to Maclean’s national editor Andrew Coyne, the first two have agreed to “launch inquiries” into the complaints while the third is dithering. The CHRC, incidentally, won’t confirm or deny this claim. Something about open government, I believe.
Now what? If I write about censorship will the censors censor that? If I were to defend someone’s right in principle to be rude about radical Islam, it might constitute my being rude in practice about radical Islam which might be misunderstood by hypersensitive types as rudeness toward Islam generally which might be misunderstood as hate speech rather than just bad manners. Who knows?
Link: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/columnists/story.html?id=d7b2b0d2-dd29-411a-bebb-f9971a62721f
Mark’s statements and updates are here:
Link: http://www.steynonline.com/content/view/782/36/
This is not the first time the looney Cannuck government has cowered in the face of radical opponents of free speech.
The chilling irony of this is that American Soldiers are fighting Islamic scum in the Middle East, to bring the very freedoms to Iraq and Afghanistan that the “human rights” nutbags want to squelch in the West.
A poster on Little Green Footballs says it best:
Terp Mole 12/08/2007 3:23:23 pm PST
I’m sorry, but not since Professor Peter Singer explained that we should give as good as we get from dogs who hump our legs, have I been so exasperated with the way so many Leftists think they can use their head for a colonoscopy and then crab-walk across the blogosphere expecting all the world to think their new hats make them look smart.
And, as with Singer’s efforts to get pet stores to carry Viagra, I have a very hard time taking Leftists seriously anymore; because I’m not sure taking them seriously helps anybody. So, let me splash some cold water on my face and shake off the giggles.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/lgf-showcomment.php?n=46&c=4579678
Well stated, Terp Mole.