It’s funny, in an Orwellian way, that in Europe there are now militant groups with such cutesy names as Sharia4Belgium and Sharia4Holland. Less funny, but perhaps more Orwellian, is this: Last month, the European Foundation for Democracy (EFD) held an event in Amsterdam featuring two speakers who favor liberalizing Islam. More than 20 members of these pro-sharia groups pushed their way in shouting “Allahu akbar!” They demanded the event be stopped, called the speakers apostates, spat on them, threw eggs at them, and threatened to kill them. Proud of these actions and apparently not overly concerned with legal consequences, they even made a YouTube video of their “protest.”
Now here’s the least funny and most Orwellian part: Very few Europeans — very few journalists, politicians, members of the self-proclaimed Human Rights community, or Muslim organizations claiming to be moderate — have expressed outrage over this boot-stomping suppression of free speech in a city, country, and continent that claim to value freedom and tolerance. Imagine if the situation had been slightly different — if, say, a Muslim Brotherhood event had been violently disrupted by spitting, egg-throwing, death-threatening Christians or Jews.
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Roberta Bonazzi, EFD’s Italian-born executive director — a friend and colleague of mine — bravely vowed not to be silenced. “We are united and will continue to support inspirational Muslim reformers across Europe,” she said. The speakers she had attempted to feature also kept a stiff upper lip. Irshad Manji, Canadian author of The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in Her Faith, said that she and Dutch parliamentarian Tofik Dibi had “refused to leave, even when police asked. We wouldn’t play on jihadi terms.” Dibi, of the Green-Left party (and of Moroccan descent), said “the disruption shows that even in the Netherlands it is necessary to continue the debate on reforming Islam.”
Necessary, yes; safe, no. In Europe, increasingly, free speech ends where Islam, Islamism, and even Islamic terrorism begin. Two months ago, the Paris offices of the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo were firebombed and its staff targeted with death threats after publication of an issue “edited” by the prophet Mohammad.
In 2004, Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered on an Amsterdam street: He had directed a film about the treatment of women in Islamic societies. The film’s author, Somali-born Dutch parliamentarian and writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali, also was subjected to death threats. She subsequently fled to America.
In 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published a dozen cartoons satirizing terrorism in the name of Islam. That led to protests, riots, death threats, an assassination plot, and the bombing of the Danish embassy in Pakistan.
All of this continues a trend begun more than a generation ago: In 1989, Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered any Muslim willing and able to murder British author Salman Rushdie, whose novel The Satanic Verses Khomeini deemed blasphemous. Rushdie has required body guards ever since.
Had he been resident in any of the more than 50 states that hold membership in the Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation (formerly called the Organization of the Islamic Conference but the new name is so much friendlier), that probably would not have saved him. Last year, Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province, defended a Christian woman sentenced to death under Pakistan’s blasphemy law for having said something some Muslims found offensive. One of Taseer’s own bodyguards shot him 27 times with an MP5 sub-machine gun. Many Pakistani clerics and religious scholars praised the killer and prohibited praying at Taseer’s funeral.
Maybe there won't be a long list of comments for this article, but it still is one of our more pressing issues to deal with. Mainly the way our elected/appointed representatives are bowing to the god of p.c. while our adversaries laugh at our foolishness and exploit us with it.
"One of Taseer’s own bodyguards shot him 27 times with an MP5 sub-machine gun. Many Pakistani clerics and religious scholars praised the killer and prohibited praying at Taseer’s funeral."
you forgot to mention that pakistan lawyers praised him and showered him with rose petals and the judge that convicted him has had to go into hiding
thank you so much for this article, people need to hear of the dangers the progressives pose to our freedom and liberties. i am just heartsick at what has become of the democratic party that i use to believe in and am terrified what will happen to this country if they are left in power
After a good rant against Muslims, and of course scaring Americans to death that an "Iranian-style dictatorship" will be imposed on this country any day now by 0.8% of the population, the question that always remained unanswered by writers like Mr May is...
It seems obvious that Mr May wants you to be informed. It seems that at least one main point of this piece was to point out that the main stream media fails to report on anything "ugly" that certain groups do while they would hound others to the grave for the same intolerance and hate.
As illustrated by the outrage expressed by the so-called "hard liners", Islam will be "defended" by more militant Islamists 100% of the time. This is their version of piety. To attempt to alter Islam or the Koran to make it more palpable to today's world is a call to war. I cannot more highly recommend Robert Spencer"s The Complete Infidel's guide to the Koran". Just finished reading it and it explains why Islam is practiced as it is today. Also, Andrew McCarthy's "The Grand Jihad" which explains clearly why the left is on board (naively so) with Islam. Islam is far more than a religion as perceived in the west. The most infuriating aspect of the "open-minded" is their embrace of what the MSM tells them without bothering to READ.
For starters, round up and deport all non-citizen, Sharia Fascist Mooslims in this country who preach violence against non-Mooslims, and/or give monetary or other support to Hezbollah or any other terrorist group.
Muslims only 0.08% of America's population? What percent of Russia's population overthrew csarist Russia in 1917?
Except for deep prayer - seriously - don't know what I can do about it, given Obama's demonic anti-Christian and anti-Western (still worth defending - ! ? ) agenda. But reading Mr. May's articles and subscribing to Jihid Watch is a continuing illumination.
Mr. History Buff, what would YOU suggest we do about it, if you're interested in defending YOUR right to freedoms that we still enjoy?
Appeasement is incremental surrender. So long as Islamists make small staged demands, appeasement will likely be the Western counter. Once armed with nuclear weapons and modern delivery systems, why should Islamists retain such a time-consuming tactic?
The Left often finds itself on the same side of many issues as Islamists, which seems so ironic on its face. But, imo, the explanation is that both groups share the same core drive - they demand not just your tolerance or your indifference, but your submission ... "live and let live" is unacceptable to them.
The Left has embraced the culture of death and, perhaps without realizing it, their own destruction as well. They have little purpose to go on living except for pleasure. In their rebellion against the truth, they run to believe anything else to appease their consciences and fill the moral vacuum inside them. Thus they become useful idiots for any lie that is large enough to arouse them from their moral stupor.
They submit to tyranny because they have become fools, and they have become fools because they have turned away from the truth and embraced moral squalor. They can no longer govern themselves, and so someone else soon will.
What if TIm Tebow were, say, Timshir al Jacksonville Islam? What would happen to the CBS NFL Studio crew who mocked his prayer ("Tebowing") last Sunday after the Broncos beat the Steelers? Would they be marked for death?
Would liberal sportswriters/pundits be calling criticism of his play (much less his religion) Islamophobic?
Timshir al Jacksonville Islam would receive no criticism. Why? Because Muslims hit back. Christians and Jews don't.
Once again, as it is it's tradition, the EU has decided to deal with radical Islam using it's favorite tools, weakness and appeasement. You would think that by now, they would have learned that weakness and appeasement beget nothing but aggression. Radical Islam has already decided that Europe will become it's base. The European people deserve everything that is coming their way.
