The other day, the Heritage Foundation arranged a screening of a documentary called Silent Conquest: The End Of Freedom Of Expression In The West, followed by a panel discussion. The film features a veritable who’s who of notorious “Islamophobes”, including me, Daniel Pipes, Allen West and many others known around these parts talking about Islam’s challenge to the core western liberty of free speech. I haven’t seen the picture and I have no very clear recollection of what I said on camera, but I would imagine it’s some variant of what I’ve been saying for years – that the Mohammed cartoons controversy and similar crises are part of a sustained campaign to win, through small, incremental concessions by the west, acceptance of a very basic rule, that the tenets of Islam now apply to all.
So I found this account of the Heritage screening somewhat startling:
One discordant note, though, marred this highly informative and principled event. During Silent Conquest’s discussion of the controversial 2005 Danish Muhammad cartoons, the actual cartoons were not visible behind the filmmakers’ technical image blurring.
Not the old pixilated Prophet routine? I’ve been mocking craven news organizations that go that route ever since the Motoons hit the fan:
CNN did show the cartoons in their news reports on the murder and mayhem, but with the Prophet’s face pixilated, as if Mohammed had entered the witness protection program. In reality, of course, it was CNN that had entered the witness protection program – or hoped it had.
What’s the point of Silent Conquest rounding up every A-list “Islamophobe” to take a stand for free speech if the film’s central visual image undermines every word uttered? If supposed champions of free speech can do no more than prostrate themselves before Islamic supremacism as completely as CNN and the other squishes, then it’s over.